Forrester Research expects European consumers will spend 2.6 billion Euros online during the 2000 holiday season

Forrester Research expects European consumers will spend 2.6 billion Euros online during the 2000 holiday season -- 30 percent of all 2000 online retail in Europe, but a far cry from the $10 billion in holiday sales expected in the US. The 2.6 billion Euros nearly equals all online retail sales in Europe for the entire year of 1999. In all European countries, holiday shopping will account for a significant percentage of this year's total online sales -- ranging from 23 percent in Denmark to 39 percent in Greece, Forrester found. German retailers will reap the highest revenues, taking 715 million Euros from online shoppers, which equates to 31 percent of all 2000 online sales. Second will be the UK, where the holiday season will drive 664 million Euros in sales and account for 29 percent of all online sales in 2000. In France, the online shopping season will be worth 292 million Euros, delivering 36 percent of all online sales for the year. "As the number of online shoppers grows over time -- in the first six months of this year alone, the number nearly doubled -- retailers have found more justification to migrate their offering to the Net," said Forrester analyst Abigail Leland. "In addition to enjoying better selection from trusted retailers, Europe's online consumers simply gain trust as they spend more time online. In Europe's biggest Net economies, such as the UK, consumers have been online long enough for the effect to hit. In countries like Spain and Italy, the waves of free ISP Internet initiates, who first came online last Christmas, will hit their first-year mark and make their first online purchases this holiday."