CNBC – Consumers, still smarting from high gasoline prices, may leave the car in the garage a little more this holiday season, and shop online.
All retailers are expecting sales to slow from last year but a new survey shows that online retailers are likely to feel less of a pinch than their brick-and-mortar counterparts.
More than half of online retailers surveyed expect their holiday sales to rise at least 15 percent from last year, according to a survey conducted by Shopzilla for Shop.org, the digital division of the National Retail Federation. Compare that to the trade group’s forecast for retailers overall: a projected 2.2 percent gain from last year.
Last year, 78 percent of all retailers forecast at least 15 percent sales growth. Online sales rose 19 percent between 2006 and 2007, according to Web marketing firm comScore.