This has been a staggering year for i-commerce with sales toping 61 billion! The lion’s share of sales were in the wholesale arena, but retail sales are gaining fast…

• Basic Internet Statistics for 1998
• Detail's of The Ten Lessons of 1998
• Top Ten Internet Sites
• Average amount of time spend on line per week
• Demographics for 1998
• Online Advertising for 1998
• Online Retail for 1998
• The Average size of an Internet Purchase in 1998
• Holiday Statistics for 1998
• Top Web Site Reach Statistics for 1998

The Ten Lessons of 1998:

Basic Internet statistics:

• Over 1 million U.S. small businesses are online.
• For 1998, estimates indicate 8 billion in online retail sales, $50 billion in online wholesale, and 3 billion in advertising.
• One half of the adult population of the United States are regularly online and cruising the web.
• 70 million Americans are online with 150 million people worldwide.
• 16.8 million Americans have purchased at least one product or service online this year.
• The average online family did 26% percent of their holiday buying online!
• The average user spends 4 hours a week a online.
• 40 Million additional Americans plan to go online in the next 6 months
• The American online population levels are expected to reach saturation by 2002 with growth shifting to Europe and Asia.
• 62% of the people online said that information they found online directly influences their retail purchases.
• 40% of online users get their news from online services
• 12% of online users go to the web for breaking news.
• Forrester Research predicts that U.S. online retail will exceed $100 billion and wholesale will exceed $1.3 trillion by 2003

Detail's of The Ten Lessons of 1998:

Demographics:

• 43% of online US households earn over $60,000, while just 23% of total US households earn more than that amount.
• Rural poor are the least connected population group
• The wage earning numbers are moving toward parity with the general population. Of the 40 million planning on going online in the next 6 months, half make less than $50,000.
• 45% of online are female and 55% are male

Online Advertising:

• The average user sees 93 banner adds a week.
• The average user clicks on 0.63% of the banner ads they see.
• 5.1 Billion is projected to spent on advertising 1999
• 68% of large companies advertise on the Internet, up from 38% in 1997
• Large companies spent on average $714,000 on Internet ads.
• Large companies spent 300% more in 1998 on Internet ads.
• The largest accounts, Microsoft and IBM each spent $8 million on web advertising in 1998.
• 93% of lawyers polled said they expect the level of Internet advertising in the legal field to increase over the next three years.

Online Retail:

• Online buying by the public doubled from 1997 to 1998.
• Only 5% of online ventures will turn a profit in 1999.
• Estimates indicate 8 Billion in online sales for 1998 with 3.5 Billion is sales for 4th quarter alone.
• Because of rapid growth, almost half of the total sales for 1998 happened in the 4th quarter.
• Online shopping is cannibalizing other mediums, 19% percent of the shoppers surveyed are doing less retail shopping, 20% are doing less catalog shopping.
• Forrester Research predicts that U.S. online retailing will surpass $100 billion by 2003 (that’s 6% of total U.S. Sales).
• Forrester Research predicts $1.3 trillion in wholesale sales by 2003
• Average monthly sales revenue (among retail sites that generated revenue) is $40,273, up from $13,260 at the same point in 1997.
• The old benchmark Dell Computer is selling $6 million a day on the web; that’s up a 100% from last year… and Dell predicts that within two years half of their business will be over the web!
• The average shopper bought 9 products and spent $475.
• 16.8 million Americans have purchased at least one product or service online this year.
• Predictions indicate that 32 million, 16% of the American population will buy online by the end of 1999.
• The average shopper spent 15 minutes to shop and make a purchase at a specific site.
• 62% of the people online said that information they found online directly influences their retail purchases.
• 50% of the people online used the Net for information first when they planned a major purchase or investment.
• 49% go online for shopping or research without a brand in mind.
• 92% of visitors to web sites go to be informed. Only 19% percent of visitors go to be entertained.
• 83% of potential customers who leave a Web sites do so because of frustration with navigation. Out of those who leave, 73% leave a site if it takes more than two or three clicks to get to the information they want.
• 88% of the people shop online to save time
• 90% of the people shop online because of 24-hour access
• 77% of online browsers and 64% of non-shoppers state that greater discounts will spark online buying behavior.
• Studies show that browsers cite price, not payment security, as a primary concern.
• When abandoning an online shopping experience, 30% decided not to purchase the item at all, and only 25% turned to brick-and-mortar stores.

The Average size of an Internet Purchase:

• 2% of the sites successfully sell products costing $10 or less
• 30% of the sites successfully sell product for less than $100
• 30% of the sites successfully sell product for $100 to $999
• 16% of the sites successfully sell product for over $1000

Holiday Statistics:

• The holiday spending of the average person rose from $216 last year to $629 in 1998.
• The average online family did 26% percent of their holiday buying online! The 35-44 age group performed about 30% of their holiday shopping online.
• 4% of the families online did more then 90% of their holiday buying online.
• The specialty retailer category (cards, chocolate, perfume, etc.) went up 80% in the days before Christmas.
• 15.8% of all items sold on the Internet this holiday season was specialty products (cards, chocolate, perfume, etc.) that is an 80% increase from 1997.
• Spending for over age 55 grew from $281 last year to $1819 this year!
• Almost 60% percent of the people shopping online made their 1st online purchases this year.
• Online buying by women rose about 300% this year.
• Online buying by men rose about 150% this year.
• AOL’s (America Online’s) 15 million members spent about $1.2 billion online through AOL from November 26 to December 27, 1998.
• Spending for age 50 and up grew over 550% from last year.
• Age 50 to 54 grew from $97 in 1997 to $626 in 1998
• Specialty retailer FragranceCounter.com announced that more than 2.3 million visitors shopped at its site in the fourth quarter of 1998, compared to 651,000 visitors during fourth quarter 1997.
• Amazon.com announced that its 4Q sales were $250 million, up more than 350% over 1997's fourth quarter sales of $66 million.
• 40% of the computer products purchased this season, were purchased online.

Top Web Site Reach Statistics: