eMarketer: eMarketer Predicts 27.6% Increase in Q4 Online Retail Sales

eMarketer stuck its neck out and predicted 28 percent growth in this quarter's online retail sales, excluding travel and auction sites. The research firm, analyzing estimates from the government and private firms, pegged online sales for Q4 at $22.3 billion, up from last year's $17.5 billion. That growth estimate is much higher than the online retail growth comScore has been reporting in the last few months, except for the last two reported weeks indicating that eMarketer is counting on the recent uptick to be a steady trend.