Even in the midst of economic chaos, 81% of retailers believe their online sales will grow this holiday season
By Bill Siwicki

With the economy teetering on the brink and consumers frazzled by the sinking stock market and manic efforts of elected officials, the big question in retail today is: Will holiday sales this season be HO-HO-HO or HO-OH-NO? It depends on the sales channel, retailers, research firms and analysts say. Sales have been down this year, in some cases significantly, in bricks-and-mortar stores. However, online sales continue to grow—though not at the rapid pace of years past.

Even amid economic turmoil, 81.1% of retailers believe their holiday web sales will grow to some degree this season, according to the latest Internet Retailer survey. This is good news—for the most part, some analysts say.

“It is encouraging to see four out of five expect to grow web sales in the face of such a poor economy,” says Jim Okamura, senior partner at retail consulting firm J.C. Williams Group Ltd. “However, that one-in-five figure is higher than I’ve seen in a long time, especially in the face of continuing online sales growth where the focus being paid to the online channel has never been higher.”

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