I’m fairly immune to the every day miscues of the mainstream press regarding anything to do with the Internet. But when a story that runs on the front page of the Sunday New York Times, attributes a slowing in ecommerce “to consumers experiencing Internet fatigue,” I had to take notice.

It is true ecommerce is not running at its historic annual 25% growth rate. In fact, in certain categories such as music and computer peripherals its annual growth has slowed to the single digits. But has it occurred to anyone that this may have less to do with the Internet, or consumer’s weariness with clicking on SUBMIT, and more to do with economic trends in the real world?

Let’s just put it this way: if Wal-Mart is posting 1.1% sales growth (reported in New York Times “Retailers, Consumer Companies Search For Growth” June 16, 2007) in stores open for a year, then 9% percent looks pretty sweet.

So, do these ecommerce gurus have any statistical support for their profile of the web weary consumer? After all what ecommerce interface couldn’t benefit from a little improvement, or a complete do-over? No, these guys just go for purely anecdotal comments from academics and friends. My goodness, what it takes to get on the cover The New York Times. The press must be getting research weary.

Kathy Sharpe, CEO

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