Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), in conjunction with Greenfield Online, today announced the results of the latest Forrester Online Retail Index. According to the 17th survey in this monthly series, total US spending on online sales decreased from $4.3 billion in April to $3.9 billion in May, due largely to a seasonal drop in online travel bookings. The number of households shopping online dropped to 14.8 million in May from 15.7 million in April. Consumers spent an average of $265 per person in May, compared with $273 in April.

About The Index
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 month from an online panel developed by Greenfield Online. The survey results for May were fielded from June 1 through June 7, 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: Due 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.