Tuesday, November 21, 2000
Online Sales of Electronics Soared in October
The National Retail Federation (NRF) and Forrester Research,
Inc., in conjunction with Greenfield Online, Inc.,
today announced the results of the latest NRF/Forrester
Online Retail Index. According to the 10th survey in
this monthly series, total spending of online sales
increased from $4.2 billion in September to $4.4 billion
in October. More than 16 million households shopped
online in October, spending an average of $268 per
person.
Categories that experienced a significant increase include
consumer electronics and computer hardware. Online sales
of consumer electronics jumped from $164 million in September
to $246 million in October. Similarly, computer hardware
increased from $315 million in September to $425 million
in October
"The 50% jump in consumer electronics from September
may be partly due to clearances retailers held in October
to make room for newer models that will be featured during
the holiday season," said Scott Silverman, vice
president, Internet retailing at NRF. "We'll be
watching this category closely in the next two months
to see how consumers use the online channel to purchase
these products during the holiday season."
Sales of videos and toys/videogames also grew significantly
in October. Videos increased from $85 million in September
to $121 million in October -- a 42% increase. Toys/videogames
grew to $203 million in October, from $157 million in
September -- a 29% increase.
"This considerable increase in toys/videogames
was heavily influenced by the release of Sony's PlayStation
2 and related accessories," said David M. Cooperstein,
research director at Forrester. "Some folks waited
in line at their local mall, while others turned to the
Net to get this hot product -- further reinforcing the
adoption of the Net as a viable shopping channel."
Countries Revolt Against ICANN
According to USA Today:
"The international agency that oversees Internet
addresses is having trouble collecting on its bills.
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers,
which the U.S. Commerce Department put in charge of overseeing
online addresses two years ago, is trying to charge a
fee for maintaining online suffixes for regional operators
within its root servers. Those root servers function
as the master directories of the Internet.
But unease among operators of region-specific suffixes,
such as .uk for the United Kingdom and .to for Tonga,
has cast ICANN's future into doubt..."
Click here for the full story. [Link no longer active]
