US Internet spending tops $100 billion

Last year Americans spent more than $100 billion on the Internet, a number that is likely to grow even larger in the coming years. Yahoo News reports that in a report by comScore Networks, a research firm, online retail spending accounted for $102.1 billion, a 24% increase over spending in 2005, excluding travel. An estimated $24.6 billion came from the holiday months of November and December alone.

According to Jeffrey Grau, a senior analyst at eMarketer, a research firm, "E-commerce is becoming more mainstream. A larger segment of the population is buying online, and people are buying more things than they have in the past."

Investment firm Cowen and Co. calculated the 2006 sales figure at 108 billion dollars and sees this growing to 225 billion by 2011.

"We estimate that US e-commerce sales will grow 20 percent in 2007, driven by increasing adoption of broadband, lower prices in online channels, and the increased convenience of online shopping," the Cowen report said.

This would mean e-commerce would account for 4.7 percent of total US retail sales in five years, up from 2.7 percent at the end of 2006.