More of Us Go Shopping.Com

Cybershopping has caught on with a surprising number of consumers this holiday season. Early reports indicate gift purchases via the Internet have exceeded expectations. The Web offers alternatives to traditional retailing that promise a changing market.

That is not to say that the malling of America is over. The volume of holiday Internet purchases was only a tiny fraction of total sales, but the upward trend shows that buyers are increasingly comfortable and sophisticated about shopping via the Web. They sense enough security to tap their credit card numbers onto computer forms, perhaps with more confidence than handing their plastic to a store clerk who may carelessly toss the store’s receipt with its customer numbers onto an unsecured pile.

The main driver of electronic commerce, at this point, remains the business-to-business transaction, which accounts for the lion’s share of the volume. But the number of shoppers willing to bypass stores and catalogs and instead buy books, videos, small electronic items and apparel on the Internet this season has exceeded forecasts, with some Internet retailers running out of stock.

The Boston Consulting Group reported that online holiday shopping grew by 230% this year, with the amount of the average order rising 6%, to $55, compared with the 1997 figures. Apparel sales rose to $300 million from less than $100 million. A survey of 1,000 consumers by a unit of Interpublic Group of Companies, an advertising firm, put online sales between Thanksgiving and Christmas at about $5 billion, four times greater than last year.

Should consumer enthusiasm for cybershopping continue to grow--and, notably, Internet retailers report brisk post-Christmas sales--the change in shopping patterns presents a potential for both growth and worry for traditional retailers. Internet shopping is no retail Godzilla--yet. But the distant roar ought not to be ignored.