E-Commerce Takes Business from Local Retailers.

A recent study predicts significant losses to traditional retailers as Internet sales increase. The study revealed that the majority of sales conducted over the Internet are sales that would have traditionally been made at a store; this implies that rather than creating new customers, the Internet is simply moving customers away from traditional retailers. By 2002, the report indicates that only 6.5 percent of purchases made on the Internet will represent sales above and beyond what would have occurred anyway through normal sales channels. During that same time, online sales are expected to balloon from their 1999 level of $12 billion to $41 billion. Only $2.7 billion of that $41 billion will be...