A study by The Conference Board and TNS Retail Forward found that 5% of online households plan to spend more than $500 at e-commerce Web sites this year ... that's a four percent increase over 2008!

Forrester Research also revealed that 72% of companies surveyed said economic conditions have not impacted their e-business technology plans. In fact, over half of the companies said they planned to increase their e-business technology budgets. Forrester analyst Brian Walker said businesses will continue to make the investment in e-commerce because they understand the power of the online channel.

A sweeping number of consumers are taking their holiday shopping online. ATG and The E-Tailing Group predicted that 49% of U.S. holiday gift shoppers would turn to the Web in 2008, marking the first year ever that Web shopping would surpass in-store shopping.

Research released by ComScore and MasterCard in early 2009 show that ATG's prediction about a jump in holiday online spending was accurate! ComScore's Gian Fulgoni reported that, "... e-commerce trends outperformed overall consumer spending in several product categories, which is to say that e-commerce continued to capture an increasing share of consumers' wallet."

Shop.org and Forrester Research report that in the first quarter of 2009, U.S. online retail sales rose an average of 11%! While most brick-and-mortar establishments without a Web site were reporting losses, 58% of the surveyed retailers with an online presence reported that their Web sales increased during the first quarter!