Internet Sales Jump This Holiday Season, Retailers Report
Silver Spring, Maryland, Dec. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Internet
retail sales soared this holiday season, as more consumers
preferred to shop from home, according to shop.org, an Internet
retailers trade group.
Several retailers on the World Wide Web saw sales explode
before the holidays, shop.org said. Online sales of men's and
women's clothes propelled Fashionmall.com's orders up 83 percent
the weekend before Christmas. Garden Escape, which sells garden
tools and accessories, said sales for the three days after
Thanksgiving rose 3,500 percent from the same period last year.
''Consumer perception has finally caught up with the reality
that shopping over the Internet, when using quality sites, is
secure,'' said Garden Escape President Cliff Sharples.
Total 1997 online sales are projected to more than triple to
$2.6 billion from $706 million last year, said market researcher
Jupiter Communications.
''1997 has shown tremendous growth for consumer acceptance
and adoption of online transactions,'' said Robert Smith Jr.,
president of shop.org.
Onsale, which auctions refurbished and overstocked items
such as computers, said third-quarter merchandise sales rose to
$32.3 million from $9.2 million in the year-earlier period.
Shop.org said it expects to track members' online sales
quarterly by late 1998. Founding members of shop.org are 1-800-
Flowers, CDnow Inc., CyberShop International Inc., Eddie Bauer
Inc., Fashionmall.com, Garden Escape, GolfWeb, Greet Street,
iVillage, Onsale Inc. and Sony Online Ventures.
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