Strong growth puts online sales in spotlight
Industry group publishes forecast for online sales growth
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/strong-growt...2012-10-03
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The growing importance of online sales is leading major industry trade group National Retail Federation to publish its own online holiday sales forecast.
“Online is important as a channel with exponential growth,” said Vicki Cantrell, executive director at NRF’s online arm Shop.org, in an interview. “It’s seen double-digit growth for years. It’s a bright spot when retail struggles. It has to be looked at separately.”
Shop.org forecast online holiday sales to grow 12% to $92 billion to $96 billion. While still stronger than overall sales growth, that’s down from a U.S. Department of Commerce estimate that last year’s fourth-quarter online sales gained 15%.