April turned out to be anything but a cruel month for online retailing.
    The internet world may appear from within to be in economic disarray, but consumers continue to use the web not only for their information needs but for their shopping needs as well.
    Web users spent some $4.3 billion online in April, according to new data from Forrester Research. 
    This represents a 23 percent increase from the $3.5 billion spent in March.
    The dollar increase is largely the result of more people shopping online rather than more dollars being spent per individual. Online shoppers spent an average of $273 online per person in April, according to Forrester—just 4 percent more than the $263 spent per person in March.
    Forrester places the number of households shopping online in April at 15.6 million, up from 13.3 million in March.
    The surge in spending came mostly from product categories outside those typically associated with e-tailing. 
    In fact, spending on software, hardware, books, music, videos and toys—all e-commerce staples from years gone by—was flat or down in April from March.
    Among small-ticket items, notable gains were made instead in spending on small appliances, garden supplies, apparel and linens and home décor (see chart).
    Among big-ticket items, spending on furniture rose sharply in April, along with car rentals and hotel reservations.
    Spending on airline tickets also rose notably—some 35 percent—in April, corroborating the ongoing success of travel-related commerce on the web.
    The data comes from Forrester’s ongoing monthly survey of the online retail environment, conducted in conjunction with Greenfield Online.
    The Forrester numbers depict a significantly more upbeat e-commerce scene than that suggested by Department of Commerce figures released last week, which focused on a serious drop in e-commerce spending in the first quarter of 2001.
    The Department of Commerce puts the total number of dollars spent online in the first three months of the year at just under $7 billion—a falloff of 19.3 percent from the last quarter of 2000.
    Over the same time period, the government found that offline retail spending fell 10.6 percent.
    The Commerce Department numbers are based on a survey of 12,000 retailers, and as such reflect spending on retail goods only. The estimates do not include money spent on a number of items commonly purchased on the web, including airline tickets, concert tickets and stocks.

May 22, 2001 © 2001 Media Life

-Jeremy Schlosberg is the senior editor for new media.

Printer-Friendly Version |  Send to a Friend
Cover Page | Contact Us