Shopping Centers Today -> February 2003
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THE MALLING OF THE INTERNET
The development of the mall industry is being paralleled in the
world of Internet commerce, with such sites as Amazon.com, eBay
and Yahoo looking more and more like online malls, observes Lisa
Strand, chief e-commerce analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings, a Milpitas,
Calif., company that studies the Internet. Sites with multiple retailers
suit shoppers and merchants alike, she told
SCT. “Web
surfers are going more and more for one-stop shopping,” she
said. “Its basically like a virtual mall.”
INTERNET SHOPPING TAXES — GOOD FOR STATES ...
Struggling with giant budgetary deficits, states are looking wistfully
at the potential revenues they could reap from collecting taxes
on Internet retail purchases. California, which faces a $34 billion
budget deficit, could have made $1.75 billion in 2001 if it had
collected online sales tax revenues, according to the Utah-based
Institute of State Studies, while New York and Texas could each
have reaped $1 billion. Nationwide, states could lose $45 billion
by 2006 and $54.8 billion by 2011, according to the institute.
... BUT BAD FOR TRAFFIC?
So consumers should pay taxes on Internet purchases, right? Not
according to a correspondent to Britain’s
The Sun newspaper,
who argues that they should get tax breaks to encourage them to
shop at home rather than contribute to traffic congestion, which
in London is reaching crisis proportions.
NOT SO FAST
A handful of bargain-hunting Web sites that post information on
special deals at bricks-and-mortar stores, provoked the wrath of
some major retailers during the recent holidays. When the sites,
including FatWallet.com, posted details of post-Thanksgiving Day
sales at Wal-Mart, Target and other chains before the sales were
announced in the stores, the retailers threatened to sue. Bargain
information sites, which include DealCatcher, Deal of the Day and
CleverMoms, get commissions from retailers for each customer they
refer. But stores don’t like Web shoppers getting a jump on
their walk-in customers. “We don’t think it’s fair
for some consumers to have information like this ahead of others,”
a Wal-Mart spokesman told the
Associated Press.
ONLINE PRESCRIPTIONS
The Internet is becoming an increasingly popular place to get drug
prescriptions filled. Technology consulting firm Forrester Research
estimates that online consumers bought $2.8 billion worth of prescription
medicine and $900 million worth of over-the-counter drugs and vitamins
last year. Those sales will more than double this year to $6.7 billion
and $3.3 billion, respectively, the firm says, and that will double
again in 2004.
CONSUMER COMPLAINTS
Internet fraud is the No. 2 complaint by consumers to California authorities,
led only by identify theft, according to a state senate select committee
as reported in
The Record, a Stockton, Calif., newspaper. Twenty
percent of the complaints about online fraud stem from items not delivered
or misrepresented. When it comes to complaints overall, Web auctions
account for 43 percent.
GRAPES OF WRATH
There are lots of online wine merchants, but that’s of little
use to consumers in several states where it’s illegal, and
in some cases a felony, to have wine shipped. Florida, Georgia,
Kentucky, Maryland and Tennessee ban direct shipment by wineries,
according to Free the Grapes, a coalition of wineries fighting
the restrictions. Connecticut and Nevada demand permits, while
Iowa and Oregon limit purchases to two cases a month, and Illinois
allows only two cases a year. Minnesota allows the purchase of
wine by phone, but not over the Web.
