Holiday E-commerce 23% higher than last year

So far, e-commerce spending for the holidays totaled $12.75 billion, up 23 percent from the $10.38 billion for the same period in 2004 and is expected to surpass $19 billion for November and December, or 24 percent growth from last year. That estimate compares with Forrester Research’s forecast of $18 billion for the 2005 holidays.

Are you taking advantage of this growth? If your web site isn’t e-commerce capable then you are potentially missing out on a large share of business year round, especially if you target a younger consumer. Having an e-commerce web site developed may be a smaller investment than you think. Often it can be just a few thousand dollars. If that’s still beyond your budget and you have some programming experience you may want to consider an open source shopping cart such as OS Commerce ? but be prepared to roll up your sleeves and put in some serious work. Setting up and modifying a shopping cart is far more complex than a standard web page, or even a forum or blog.