CONSUMER NEWS Shopping fears of two kinds affect decisions

Internet or store? Each has advantages and drawbacks. Is there an alternative?
By WENDY TANAKA
KNIGHT RIDDER NEWSPAPERS
PHILADELPHIA -- Two shoppers, two distinctly different approaches to the holidays.
There's Matt Tomeo, 23 -- too frightened to shop online.
Theft Auto video game last week at a local EB Games. "A lot of my frnds had truble."
Then there's Syreeta Walker, 25 -- too frightened to shop off-line.
"It's kind of scary shopping in the city with lots of bags," said Walker as she browsed recently in a mall. "You don't want to be a target." She said she would do most of her holiday shopping this year via the Internet's earlier days.
JupiterResearch and Forrester Research Inc, two of the most highly regarded online research firms, are projecting about a 20 percent increase in online sales this year, following a 30 percent jump during last year's ho moe difficult to maintain dramatic percentage increases now that Internet retailing has become such big business. "It takes more dollars to have a higher percentage increase," said JupiterResearch analyst Patti Freeman Evans.
She estimated consumers would spend $21.6 billion at Internet retail sites from November trough December, comared with $18 billion for the ernet, up from $247 last year, she said.
But Forrester Research analyst Carrie Johnson said online shopping might become less attractive if retailers, seeking to make up for sluggish second- and third-quarter sales, scale back on holiday promotions.
"Consumers will buy less online when faced with fewer free-shipping offers and percentage-off deals," Johnson said in pices and offrs outweigh the benefits of shopping in stores."
Projections
The National Retail Federation estimated that total holiday-shopping sales would reach $219.9 billion this year, up 4.5 percent from last year. The projected increase is lower than the 5.1 percent sales growth in the 2003 holiday season, which rang up $210.4 billion.
Despite a 12 percent increase in t only "cautiousl optimistic for the holiday season," spokesman Anthony Hebron said.
But West Chester-based Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. said it was expecting double-digit online revenue growth for the fourth quarter, based on the demand it has seen for hot new video games Grand Theft Auto San Andreas and Halo 2, as well as the new Nintendo dual-screen handheld game syrosorp., which said 15 million copies had been ordered before the official sales date. The company predicted first-day sales of more than $100 million.
"You'll find that successful players online this year are those retail customers that try to accommodate the multichannel shopper," Seth Levy, president of the company's Internet division, said.
"Our goal is they can place a pre-order online, and pick it up in the store."
Electronics Boutique had revenue of $1.6 billion last year. It operates more than 1,800 stores in the United States and abroad, primarily under the names Electronics Boutique and EB Games.