$20 Billion in Sales? It Could Have Been Better
Reuters reports on the big day online retailers are expecting on Monday:
U.S. online holiday sales are expected to hit nearly $20 billion this year and should take off on Monday, when consumers return to work and their fast Internet connections after the long Thanksgiving weekend.
Left unsaid is how much bigger the number would be if government and businesses were doing more to reassure consumers that identity theft and other related types of fraud are less of a danger. Instead, when I asked voters nationwide this past May to choose which of the following two statements they agreed with more, more chose the latter (48 percent to 47 percent):
I am confident that my financial information is safe when I make purchases on the Internet.
or
I avoid making purchases on the Internet because I am concerned that my financial information may get stolen.
If roughly half of consumers are avoiding making purchases, imagine how much revenue online retailers are missing out on. Maybe this could have been a $40 billion holiday season.
