Despite the meltdown of dot.coms and the economic down turn, sales at U.S.
online retailers are growing impressively. Online retail sales for the year 2001 was
estimated to be $53 billion (Comscore Report 2002). Excluding online travel, e-tail sales
in 2001 totaled $33.7 billion, reflecting a growth rate of approximately 20% over the year
2000.