Its a fucking New York Times article guys, Drudge just links to stories:
Online Sales Lose Steam as Buyers Grow Web-Weary - New York Times
"Since the inception of the Web, online commerce has enjoyed hypergrowth, with annual sales increasing more than 25 percent over all, and far more rapidly in many categories. But in the last year, growth has slowed sharply in major sectors like books, tickets and office supplies."
"Forrester Research, a market research company, projects that online book sales will rise 11 percent this year, compared with nearly 40 percent last year. Apparel sales, which increased 61 percent last year, are expected to slow to 21 percent. And sales of pet supplies are on pace to rise 30 percent this year after climbing 81 percent last year."
"Jupiter Research, another market research firm, says the growth rate has peaked. It projects that overall online sales growth will slow to 9 percent a year by the end of the decade from as much as 25 percent in 2004."
"
Early financial results from e-commerce companies bear out the trend. EBay reported that revenue from Web site sales increased by just 1 percent in the first three months of this year compared with the same period last year. Bookings from Expedia’s North American Web sites rose by only 1 percent in the first quarter of this year. And Dell said that revenue in the Americas — United States, Canada and Latin America — for the three months ended May 4 was $8.9 billion, or nearly unchanged from the same period last year."
So, if you do a billion dollars in sales a year you might have trouble growing.
The one part of the article I found funny was people complaining about online shopping feeling like work. I'll gladly take Amazon.com any day over going to WalMart and navigating the store next to fat hairy white trash or go to Best Buy only to find all of the routers they have in stock are pieces of shit.