Consulting firm Forrester Research Inc., which tracks global electronic commerce activity and the personal computer market, released a report before the terrorist attacks last week that predicted a huge jump in e-commerce activity over the next three years.
Forrester is predicting that higher-than-expected e-commerce activity in Asia and Europe will push the total e-commerce volume worldwide past $6.8 trillion in 2004 – over six times its previous $1.3 trillion estimate for global e-commerce revenues by 2003.
Forrester added that North American e-commerce activity will still be the highest at $3.46 trillion, followed by the Asia Pacific region ($1.65 trillion) and Western Europe ($1.53 trillion). Latin America’s e-commerce economy is expected to jump from the $3.6 billion recorded last year to $81.8 billion by 2004, Forrester added.