E-commerce sales tally seen between $10 bln-$13 bln
NEW YORK, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Ernst & Young scaled back its sales expectations for Internet retailing for mid-October through the end of December to between $10 billion and $13 billion, down from previous forecasts of $12 billion to $15 billion, the accounting and consulting firm said on Monday.
For 1999, Ernst & Young is maintaining its full year online retail sales estimates of $25 billion to $30 billion after its survey of 1,283 Internet users.
Ernst & Young found that 26 percent of Internet users made a purchase on line during the holidays, the company said.
In a separate survey, the number of visitors to electronic commerce sites jumped 27 percent in the Christmas week compared with the same week last year, according to Media Metrix <MMXI.O>, which monitors Web traffic and usage. Amazon.com Inc. <AMZN.O> was the most-visited shopping site for the holiday season, both surveys found.
"Whenever we ask online shoppers where they make their purchases, Amazon.com comes up again and again as number-one," said Stephanie Shern, Ernst & Young's Global Director of Retail & Consumer Products.
Ernst & Young's survey also found that, while the sites most-visited by Internet shoppers remain consistent with earlier findings, a slightly different set of winners is revealed when reviewing the average dollar amount spent at these sites.
For example, Ernst & Young said Amazon.com <AMZN.O> was the No. #1 shopping destination for 42 percent of online shoppers this holiday season, followed by eToys <ETYS.O> with 20 percent, Toys R Us Inc. (19 percent) <TOY.N>, Barnesandnoble.com Inc. <BNBN.O> (17 percent) and Buy.com (16 percent).
The top five sites by average dollar amount spent are Best Buy Co. <BBY.N> ($233), Egghead.com <EGGS.O> ($217), 1800Flowers.com ($173), Walt Disney Co.<DIS.N> ($172) and Walmart Stores Inc. <WMT.N> ($167).
Where's ETYS?
In the Media Metrix survey, Amazon.com averaged 5,693 daily unique visitors from Nov. 22 to Dec. 26, followed by auction site eBay Inc. <EBAY.O> with 4,073 average daily visitors and eToys Inc. <ETYS.O> with 1,662 average daily visitors.
Separately, Web media network Lycos Inc. <LCOS.O> said its shopping site, which offers links to online retailers, showed a 450 percent increase from a year ago in the number of unique shoppers in the holiday season beginning Nov. 26, the day after Thanksgiving.
America Online Inc. <AOL.N>, the world's largest Internet services provider, said 1999 holiday sales by its members more than doubled to $2.5 billion from $1.2 billion a year ago.
Last week, Yahoo! Inc. <YHOO.O> said its shopping site's orders jumped 400 percent from last year from Nov. 25 to Dec. 25.
The Ernst & Young survey found that, on average, online shoppers spent $1,225 on Internet purchases during the past 12 months, with 60 percent spending at least $500.
Ernst & Young's survey of Internet users found the average amount spent on total holiday purchases, including offline, was $1,080. Of these purchases, 67 percent were bought in stores, 7 percent through catalogs and 26 percent online.
Amazon.com was listed as a first mention favorite site by 32 percent of respondents, followed by eBay Inc.<EBAY.O>, Buy.com, eToys and Barnesandnoble.com, Ernst & Young said.
Toys R Us was picked by 13 percent of respondents as the most disappointing site, Ernst & Young said. The main reason for this according to 29 percent of those respondents was merchandise out of stock, followed by the inability to deliver merchandise and the speed of the Website.
Other sites mentioned as disappointments by three percent of respondents included Best Buy, Buy.com, eToys and Wal-Mart. The top flaw was related to the inability to find desired products or the Websites being out of certain items, Ernst & Young said.
Amazon shares rose 13-1/4 Monday on Nasdaq to 89-3/8, and eBay climbed 16-1/16 to 141-1/4. eToys dipped 1-1/8 to 25-1/8. |
