Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), in conjunction with Greenfield Online, today announced the results of the latest Forrester Online Retail Index. According to the 20th survey in this monthly series, total US spending on online sales increased from $3.98 billion in July to slightly over $4 billion in August. The number of households shopping online increased to 14.8 million in August, from 14.7 million in July. Consumers spent an average of $273 per person in August, compared with $270 in July.

“It’s impressive that online shopping made such a quick comeback after the big drop in June,” said Christopher M. Kelley, analyst at Forrester. “It appears that many consumers may have taken their tax refund checks and gone online to get ready for school or to buy a hard-earned gift for themselves.”

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 August were fielded from September 4 through September 10, 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.