• Total electronic commerce sales revenue will grow to over $580 billion by 2002, industry analysts predict. .... In fact, small businesses will account for almost as much electronic commerce activity as the much-larger middle market by 2002 unless significant numbers of mid-size companies embrace the technology.  ASI Associates.  Fact surpassed.
• Cisco CEO John Chambers, expects more than $1 to $2 trillion worth of commerce on the Net by 2002.  Fact surpassed.
• First Mover Advantage
  Creating an effective online presence before your competitors is still the best way to ensure e-commerce dominance in your market segment.  ASI Associates.
• 1997 On-line transactions totaled over $9 BILLION.  How much of it did you get?
• Piper Jaffray estimates that by the year 2001 Internet based business to business transactions will total $201.6 BILLION.  Fact surpassed.
• On-line ad revenue for the third quarter of 1998 climbed to $491 million, a 116 percent increase over the third quarter of 1997 (IAB)
• According to J.D. Powers & Assoc., about 1.5 million cars have been sold over the Internet as of 2002.
• On-line grocery sales to reach $10.8 BILLION by 2003 (Forrester).  Fact surpassed.
• Amazon.com sold US $27.9 million in books during the second quarter of this year, up 74 percent from the first quarter.
• 32% of all small business were on the Internet as of February, 1998 - 10% had web sites.
• The Computer Industry Almanac projects that there will be 320 million Internet users worldwide at the end of the year 2000, and more than 720 million users worldwide at the end of 2005.  The US Internet population will grow to more than 207 million Internet users in 2005; that will be 29 percent of the world's total.  Fact surpassed.

Is your market in the US?.

• The United States had more than 76 million Internet users at the end of 1998, 52% of the worldwide total of 147 million.

The net is probably only for the "techies'?.

• Once a haven for the upper-middle class and well educated, the Internet will be home to mainstream America when the newest Net users get wired.  Most of them make less than $50,000 annually and almost half didn't go to college (Intelliquest).

What good are those 'banner' ads?.

• When it comes to increasing consumer awareness of brands, on-line banner adds are just as effective as a 30-second TV commercial (Ipsos-ASI).

Many of the comments shown here were collected from research websites such as ASI Associates, Forrester, Intelliquest, Zona Research., and others.  Due to the constant changing web, most of the original pages referenced no longer exist.  I would suggest that you check these websites out for more information on Internet statistics and why you need a website.  Basically, it comes down to this; the Internet has proven itself; no one expects it to go away.