U.S. retail ecommerce sales, not including travel, will be down by 0.4 percent to $133 billion in 2009, but will rebound in 2010 growing 9.8 percent to $146 billion, according to a new forecast by eMarketer.

The research firm benchmarks against the U.S. Department of Commerce (DOC) when forecasting ecommerce sales. The DOC estimated online sales increased 4.6 percent in 2008, reaching $133.6 billion.

In 2011, online sales are predicted to reach double-digit growth rates, similar to those seen before 2008. This growth will come from online shoppers who move a greater portion of their discretionary spending from traditional stores to the Web. Consumer demand, especially among affluent online shoppers, will provide an additional sales boost.

eMarketer says that by 2012, ecommerce sales growth will start to slow because of maturation of the channel, as growth in new online buyers nears saturation. Overall from 2008 to 2013 retail ecommerce sales will increase at a 9 percent compound annual growth rate.

“As retail ecommerce sales growth slows, the appreciation of the internet as a research tool for in-store purchases will magnify,” said Jeff Grau, eMarketer senior analyst.

“We caught a glimpse of this during the 2008 holiday shopping season, when consumers were more resourceful than ever in researching products prior to purchase in-store and online.”

Tags: Ecommerce Sales

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 at 11:05 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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