Commerce Department to Publish Internet Sales Figures

The Commerce Department said Friday it will begin publishing figures for sales made over the Internet, reflecting the Internet’s significant impact on the retail industry.

“Our Census Bureau will begin to track e-commerce separately in our annual retail survey,” a major indicator of the nation’s economic health, Commerce Secretary William Daley said at a news conference. Online sales had been lumped together with catalog sales.

But even as the government touted figures showing that consumers spent $9 billion last year on the Internet, it warned that growth of electronic commerce will wane unless shoppers trust that personal information will be kept private.

“I wouldn’t want people selling information about which books I buy or what records I buy,” said Robert Pitofsky, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission. “The Internet is probably going to grow anyway. It’s just not going to grow as fast until these concerns are addressed.”

“Consumers have to feel as comfortable doing business in cyberspace as they do on Main Street,” Daley said.

The online sales figures will be compiled on an annual basis and the numbers for 1998 and 1999 will be out around the summer of 2000.

Internet shopping averaged $3 billion in sales in 1997, tripled to $9 billion in sales last year and is expected to reach about $30 billion by next year, Daley said, citing statistics by Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Forrester Research and other firms.

With the number of retailers going online growing each year, and consumers enjoying the benefits of shopping any time and anywhere, Daley said a number of issues have been raised about privacy and consumer protection.

At a joint news conference, Daley and Pitofsky said online protection has improved. But they said the Clinton administration wants efforts to continue, and added that new federal privacy legislation could be passed to mandate such privacy protections.