Trends in E-commerce

It's no surprise that the Internet continues to grow at an astonishing rate around the world, for consumers and businesses alike.

Despite a sluggish economy and a declining job market, e-commerce—the sale of goods and services online—continues to grow year after year.

The Department of Commerce estimates that U.S. retail e-commerce sales for the first quarter of 2004 was over $15.5 billion, with total e-commerce sales, prior to the holiday season, already a 28.1 percent increase over the first quarter of 2003.

During the 2003 holiday season, Internet shoppers were extremely busy, spending nearly $17.5 billion according to the Department of Commerce. Online spending jumped 25% year-over-year, up from $14 billion spent in 2002.

"Given the general increase in Internet usage and the number of households now with high bandwidth connections, it isn't a surprise that small businesses with a Web presence are starting to sell more online,” said chief operating officer, Jim Collins, of Affinity Internet—a firm that specializes in serving small to medium-sized businesses.

Experts estimate there are nearly 800 million Internet users worldwide which is projected to be 1.46 billion by the year 2007.

The reasons for these astounding numbers are simple. The Internet offers benefits and opportunities that most traditional methods of communication and distribution cannot match.

A business model that leverages the Internet can only get better when supported by BWW, a global business support system.