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London, Jan. 7 (Bloomberg) -- U.K. retailers are being ''trounced'' by their U.S. rivals in the U.K. Internet shopping market, an industry that is forecast to be worth 3.1 billion pounds ($5.13 billion) a year excluding financial services by 2003, according to a Fletcher Research report, the Financial Times reported, citing the report and business analyst Benjamin Ensor. U.K. Internet shopping currently represents less than 0.2 percent of the total market in the relevant retail sectors, but sales are expected to grow rapidly; half of the U.K.'s top fifty retailers have no online shopping facility, and many that have gone online are not spending enough money to attract customers, the newspaper said. The report predicts that online shopping will have the greatest impact in the sectors of personal computers, financial services, books and music, and says that U.K. retailers risk missing out on the boom to experienced U.S. groups, the newspaper reported.
Amazon.com Inc., the No. 1 online book and music store, said fourth-quarter sales almost quadrupled to $250 million as more holiday shoppers ordered from its World Wide Web sites in the U.S. and overseas.
(FT 1/7 8 www.ft.com)
03:32:16 01/07/1999 |
