Online shopping growing up
With analysts projecting billion-dollar holiday sales, it looks as though online shopping is maturing--but it still has a ways to go.
In roughly a year, online shopping has moved from the tenuous to the assured. Although it is still not a mature market, retailers are no longer sitting on the sidelines and wondering whether they should invest in the online market.
Now they are trying to figure out how to make the shopping experience online more like the nonvirtual world. And some are scrambling to get sites up in time to cash in the Christmas rush.
Forrester Research released a report recently with similar findings, predicting that the industry would pull in $750 million and possibly up to $1 billion this quarter. And so far, online stores are reporting that they are right on track, said online analyst Kate Delhagen.
But even with the rosy forecasts, online shopping still has a ways to go.
Until that happens, the mass market won't come.
But Vanderbilt and others say it's only a matter of time.
"I think it's on the cusp of breaking into attempting to capture the mass market," she said.
Some companies have been trying to lend their hand to businesses in showing them the online shopping ropes. IBM, for instance, has been running an online forum on how to buy and sell holiday gifts over the Internet, advising both shoppers and merchants.