Holiday e-sales volume growing

by Staff -- Home Textiles Today, 11/6/2006 12:14:00 PM

New York – Consumers will flock to e-tailers this holiday season, with online commerce research firm eMarketer projecting a 22.1% boost over the 2005 season.

While most brick-and-mortar merchandisers would be ecstatic over such an upswing, this is a somewhat modest increase in volume compared to recent years, said eMarketer.

Projecting November and December online sales, the researcher said e-commerce will generate a ring of $24.3 billion. For the fourth quarter, the company said the volume of $33.2 billion will account for 31% of all 2006 online retail revenues.

The home textiles industry can take heart from a finding that, while jewelry and other luxury items are expected to boom in online sales, some large-sized home furnishings products show signs of e-commerce growth. Jeffrey Grau, eMarketer senior analyst and author of the report, said, "Strong growth in sporting goods and furniture purchases suggests that consumers are more comfortable than they were before buying expensive and bulky merchandise online such as treadmills and sofas."