Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), in conjunction with Greenfield Online, today announced the results of the latest Forrester Online Retail Index. According to the 21st survey in this monthly series, total US spending online decreased only slightly from $4.0 billion in August to $3.97 billion in September. The number of households shopping online increased to 15.2 million in September from 14.8 million in August. Consumers spent an average of $262 in September, compared with $273 in August.

“The fact that online retail remained stable during a month of such social and economic instability speaks volumes about how well eCommerce is positioned to stand up to a poor economy,” said Christopher M. Kelley, analyst at Forrester.

About The Index
The Forrester Online Retail Index measures, on a monthly basis, the growth and seasonality of online shopping based on data collected from online shoppers. The Index is based on 5,000 responses during the first nine business days of the following month from an online panel developed by Greenfield Online. The survey results for September were fielded from October 2 through October 9, 2001.

The monthly panel is weighted to Forrester Research’s Consumer Technographics® Benchmark Panel, a survey of 90,000 US members of a consumer mail panel developed by NFO Worldwide, a market research firm. Data was weighted to demographically represent the US population. The Benchmark Panel was fielded from December 2000 to January 2001.

Note: Owing to changes in the methodology of the Index, beginning in April 2000, we discourage making year-to-year comparisons for any particular category until April 2001, although general top-line trends appear stable over that period.