U.S. online retail sales increased 23.8 percent last year to $141.4 billion, reports DM News, citing Forrester's State of Retailing Online 8.0 study released today. Excluding travel, e-commerce grew 23.8 percent to $89 billion, or 4.6 percent of retail sales in all channels. Online sales were up 21 percent for the week ending May 1, compared with the corresponding week a year ago, reaching $1.3 billion from $1.07 billion, Internet Retailer reports, citing comScore figures.
The Forrester study, prepared for the National Retail Federation's Shop.org e-commerce division, projects that 2005 online sales, including travel, will rise 22 percent to $172.4 billion - and $109.6 billion, excluding travel.
Online travel sales for the week were up 37 percent, to $1.12 billion from $818 million, reported comScore. Total retail sales for the week ending April 30 were up 4.7 percent from the same week a year ago, according to ShopperTrak's National Retail Sales Estimate.
