Online sales have never been healthier. Last year consumers
pushed online
revenues up nearly 15 percent and a new study by eMarketer projects
solid year-over-year increases for the foreseeable future.
While the same research shows growth slowing as online matures as a channel, it also points to more and more consumers researching and making purchases while digitally connected via a variety of devices. According to eMarketer, 148.1 million people 14 and older will go online and buy something this year. By 2015, that number is expected to jump to 170.3 million.
"Most of the growth in ecommerce is coming from incumbent online buyers shifting more of their spending from stores to the internet rather than from the spending power of new online buyers," said Jeffrey Grau, principal analyst at eMarketer.
Looking even further into the future, a new report released this week by education non-profit organizations Joan Ganz Cooney Center and Sesame Workshop would seem to suggest that even greater numbers will be shopping online in the years ahead. Kids today are literally going online, it's assumed with the help of others, almost from birth. Today 80 percent of children between zero and five go online at least once a week.