Online trade between US businesses will mushroom to US$1.3 trillion by 2003 from $48 billion in 1998, according to a new report from Forrester Research.

The market researcher said online business trade will work its way into all US business supply chains over the next five years, and will represent 9 percent of total US business sales by 2003. The eye-popping estimate is a revision of a mid-1997 Forrester report that forecast a $327 billion “icommerce” market in 2002. “The growth of Internet- based business trade has outstripped that projection,” read a statement from Forrester.

Forrester defines “icommerce” as any inter-business trade of goods or services in which the final order is placed over the Internet.

(c) Wired News