• by Masha Geller , April 25, 2002

Good news on the horizon! In The North America eCommerce: B2C and B2B Report, just released, eMarketer projects that internet-based e-commerce in the US will increase by more than 57% this year to reach $482 billion by year-end 2002.

Despite last year's slowdown in IT spending, many companies' e-business budgets will grow by as much as 10% this year, easily outpacing the rate of overall IT spending growth.

“It's no secret that North American companies held back on making new technology purchases last year,” said Steve Butler, Senior Analyst at eMarketer. “The good news is that many of them took that time to digest previous technology investments, laying the foundation for growth in internet-based trade in 2002.”

Data from a Net Impact Study conducted in late 2001 shows that among the 2,065 US businesses surveyed 71% adopted internet-based solutions to facilitate online customer service and support, while a further 68% used internet-based solutions for online marketing.

“Businesses are getting smarter about how to use the Internet. They know it can't do everything--but it does some things very, very well,” said Butler. “For instance, while most businesses are placing a priority upon customer-facing Internet solutions, and if they don't have products or services that can be readily sold online, they are developing more effective pre- and post-sale online customer services instead.”

Whether eMarketer’s predictions will come true or not remains to be seen, but at least there’s optimism in the air.