While the numbers are still coming in, initial signs aren’t great. In late November 2008, eMarketer lowered its online holiday sales forecast from 10% to 4% growth. But was that low enough?

Post-holiday-season sales estimates from a number of research firms suggest sales might have grown even more slowly. comScore estimated that online sales from November 1 through December 23 were actually down 3% from the year before.

The final numbers are still coming in. But on the bright side, to cope with economic uncertainty, holiday consumers used the Internet in new ways. Regardless of whether shoppers bought online or in-store, more turned to the Internet to locate products, compare prices and find retailers.

In the process they used comparison shopping sites, learned about coupon and discount sites and discovered many smaller, specialized sites.

"While retail sales took a hit this year, the Internet shone as a channel for conducting product research," said Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer.

eMarketer estimates that retail e-commerce sales will not return to double-digit growth at any time during the next four years, and that online merchants will see only 4.1% growth in 2009.



That is still better than many business sectors, all of which are faced with a newly coined phrase of the recession: "Flat is the new up."