Ecommerce figures set to grow by 1,000 per cent by 2004

NEWS Online consumer spending is set to grow by more than 1,000 per cent over the next five years, according to a report by Verdict Research. The research also predicts that £7.4bn will be spent via the Internet and interactive TV. The report called 'Verdict on Electronic Shopping 2000', shows the figure for online spending during 1999 at £581m still only accounted for around three per cent of all retail sales in 2004. Meanwhile, poor customer service will cost online retailers in the US $3.2bn over the Christmas period, according to analyst house, Datamonitor. The research outfit said US business lost $1.6bn during 1998 due to the lack of Web-enabled customer service operations. With only eight per cent of the 69,500 call centers in the US currently Web-enabled, Datamonitor predicted double the losses this year, bringing the figure closer to $3.2bn.