APRIL 2004

E-Commerce Update

About two-thirds of U.S. internet users, or 83 million people, shop online. This statistics was just released by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. The director of the project, Lee Rainie, told the New York Times, "It’s a milestone in the norming of e-commerce." Not only is the number of internet users growing, but more users are shopping online. Rainie reported that the demographics of online shoppers mirror the demographics of shoppers in retail stores. An online marketing executive at Home Depot told CBS Marketwatch.com said this was a very important trend because, "Now that the online population is more mainstream, it better reflects our traditional customer base and it gives us more opportunity to bring a lot of our traditional strategies online."