$12.2B in online Christmas sales expected
Consumers are expected to spend $12.2 billion online between Thanksgiving and Christmas, an increase of 42% over last year (Forrester Research) according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required)which also details the fact that pure online plays are losing to offline companies with an Internet presence.
And traditional retailers are reaping enormous benefits from the surge in online spending. This year, about 75% of online sales are expected to go to "multichannel" retailers, meaning real-world stores and catalogs that also sell via Web sites, according to Forrester. Retailers doing the vast majority of their business on the Web account for the remaining 25%. Just three years ago, when the dot-com collapse had begun, sales were more evenly divided, with Web-only retailers ringing up about 46% of total online sales.