单项选择题
| The recession is taking a serious toll
on American retail, but e-commerce could emerge as a winner. According to a new report by Forrester Research, e-commerce sales are (67) . to grow 11% , to ＄ 156 billion, in 2009. That (68) a slowdown from 13% growth last year and 18% in 2007. The major factor (69) to the pace shift is, of course, (70) consumer confidence. But e-commerce’s slowed pace is, still (71) better than the National Retail Federation’s (72) 0.5% drop in overall retail sales this year. That means e-commerce is stealing market share from (73) retail -- and fast. By Forrester’s estimates, in 2008 e-commerce (74) for 5% of all retail sales. In 2012, Forrester thinks ecommerce could have an 8% (75) . One recent factor is that online shopping promises bargains to price-sensitive consumers. ’The recession is definitely (76) more consumers to do their homework (77) they go and complete a purchase, ’ says Forrester analyst Sucharita Mulpuru. E-commerce is also (78) protected because online shoppers tend to be wealthier: about half of all online shopping is done by households that earn more than ＄ 75,000 per year, (79) though they’re just about a (80) of all households with Internet access. (81) not all Internet companies are set to benefit equally. Last month, e-commerce (82) eBay posted its first-ever quarterly revenue decline, (83) Amazon reported a sales surge of 18%. Smaller players are particularly (84) risk. ’There are some pretty vicious wars as companies go online and duke it out to get market share,’ says Mulpuru. ’The (85) I have is that we could go back down the spiral of death from 1999 and 2000, when companies would under-price themselves without thinking about (86) . ’ |