Online Retail Sales Fall 193% in the 1st Quarter
Reuters
Online retail sales in the United States plunged 193% in the first quarter to $6.99 billion after a whopping 35.6% gain in the fourth quarter of 2000, which included the holiday shopping season, the Commerce Department said. It was the first decline in e-commerce sales since the government began tracking such activity in the fourth quarter of 1999.
Online sales were still up 33% from $5.24 billion in the first quarter of 2000, when they accounted for 0.70% of all retail sales.
Total retail sales also dropped in the first quarter, by 10.6% to $765 billion. As a percentage of total retail sales, online purchases from U.S. businesses fell to 0.91% from 1.01%.
