Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Randy Ellingson who wrote (105604)	6/28/2000 1:02:00 PM
From: H James Morris	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 164684

Randy, this is why I own WebVan. It's because no one can come close to Webvans robotics. >LONDON, June 27 (Reuters) - Online grocery sales in Europe will outstrip the United States within five years, a report published on Tuesday by Internet analysis company Forrester Research Inc. <FORR.O> said. It said they would hit 55 billion euros ($51.74 billion), or five percent of purchases in 2005. "Online sales will become the food retail industry's key battleground," Forrester senior analyst Matthew Nordan said in his report "Online Grocers Diversify." He said aggressive moves into the e-grocery market by Britain's biggest supermarket chain Tesco Plc <TSCO.L> and food retailer Iceland Group Plc <ICE.L> drove a 99 million euros ($93.13 million) online market last year, bigger than the rest of Western Europe combined. Britain would sell the largest proportion of groceries over the net with seven percent of total sales by 2005, the report said. Nordic countries would follow with six percent, France and Germany would reach three percent, while cultural factors and low technology penetration would constrain southern Europe. Forrester said it had polled 40 food retailers across Europe to compile the report. Five were online pure plays, and the reset traditional retailers with an average of 868 stores each. Of these, it said 54 percent already sold online today or were running pilots, and 77 percent would be selling online by year-end. Nordan said online orders today accounted for just 0.1 percent of European sales. The firms it polled believed that would grow 20-fold in the next two years, he said. LEADING PLAYERS TO EMERGE "Forrester believes the balance of industry power will shift to a few leading players that will radically diversify online," the firm said. The successful companies would be those that could decrease their reliance on "cutthroat" grocery products and diversify into non-food products and services via a quick online presence backed by a strong flexible brand, it said. The report said late Internet bloomers would retailiate by hiring logistical expertise, competing on price, and partnering stronger brands. "Those (firms) that dominate will diversify to overcome industry turmoil, while those that don't will struggle," Nordan said. The research suggested food retailers were one sector in the old economy that would benefit from increased online activity at a time when investors were marking down technology-related shares over fears of their earnings potential. Forrester said a recent survey of 35,000 European households also backed up its belief that the balance would shift in favour of firms that got the online business right. Online grocery shoppers were young, well-educated urban dwellers who earned 50 percent more than those offline. "They gladly trade picking their own fruit for free time," Nordan said. 07:41 06-27-00