INTERNET Weather, shipping help propel online sales

Avoiding traffic and battles at stores also gives consumers incentive to buy online.
PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER
Online retailers could be in store for a very merry holiday season, as analysts forecast industry sales to increase anywhere between 20 percent and 45 percent over last year, despite rising fears of Internet fraud.
For instance, Forrester Research Inc. in Cambridge, Mass., estimated that online sales will increase 42 percent to $12.2 billion for the period between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Consumers have been lured by the convenience of online browsing and shopping, free shipping offers, inclement weather and better Web site design, analysts said.
"More and more people are comfortable shopping online," said Abha Bhagat, an analyst at Nielsen/Net Ratings, a market research company.
According to Forrester, about 34 million households have Internet access, and 20 percent of those have high-speed connections that make buying online easier.
More than half of consumers polled by the American Express Retail Index said they planned to go online to compare prices, browse and buy this season. This compares with 46 percent of consumers polled in 2002.
Bad weather
Snowstorms earlier this month across the country forced many consumers to stay at home, helping to bolster online sales.
Landsend.com, the online division of catalog giant Lands' End Inc., said the Dec. 6 Northeaster produced record sales for the site, making up 40 percent of the company's total business that weekend. This year, about a third of the company's sales have come from its online unit.
"Even in good weather, our customers don't want to have to battle traffic and the malls," said Sam Taylor, vice president of e-commerce for Lands' End.
He expects Landsend.com to record double-digit percentage sales growth this holiday season compared with last year. For all of 2002, Landsend.com generated sales of $435 million.
Shipping deal
For the second year, some online retailers have offered free shipping to entice customers, said Gene Alvarez, a vice president at Meta Group Inc., a technology research company in Stamford, Conn.
Typically, it takes three to five days for a free shipment to arrive, Alvarez said. After this weekend, however, consumers likely will have to pay shipping charges if they want their gifts to arrive by Christmas.
This could be good news for traditional retailers. "The 20th and 21st, I call the 'brick-and-mortar weekend,'" Alvarez said. "Online buying should slow down this weekend."
Despite the growing popularity of online shopping, Web sales will account for only a fraction of all holiday purchases this year. Total holiday sales are expected to top $217 billion, the National Retail Federation said.