Most Observers See Online Holiday Shopping Growing as Much as 15 Percent This Year
Holiday e-commerce sales are expected to soar 15 percent this year to $78.7bn, according to numbers released by Forrester Research. The Forrester projection is somewhat in line with other researchers' estimates: EMarketer also projects that U.S. holiday e-retail sales will increase 15.1 percent this year, while Deloitte LLP predicts a 12.5-percent to 13-percent increase in U.S. non-store sales, which primarily consists of online sales.
"Strong economic growth and low unemployment rates project a healthy playing field for online holiday sales and outweigh any lingering dampening effect of the government shutdown," the Forrester report stated. "This strength is even more evident online than it is offline, as consumers continue to shift their spending to multiple digital devices from stores."
More consumers are shopping online this year because, essentially, they believe the process is cheaper and easier. Sixty-one percent of U.S. consumers surveyed by Forrester said they shop online because it is easier than going to stores.