Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR), in conjunction with Greenfield Online, today announced the results of the latest Forrester Online Retail Index. According to the 16th survey in this monthly series, total spending on online sales increased from $3.5 billion in March to $4.3 billion in April. The number of households shopping online was 15.6 million in April. Consumers spent an average of $273 per person in April, compared with $263 in March.

About The Index
Forrester Online Retail Index measures, on a monthly basis, the growth and seasonality of online shopping based on data collected from online shoppers. The Index is based on 5,000 responses during the first nine business days of the month from an online panel developed by Greenfield Online. The survey results for April were fielded from May 1 through May 8, 2001.

The monthly panel is weighted to Forrester Research’s Consumer Technographics® Benchmark Panel, a survey of 100,000 US and Canadian members of a consumer mail panel developed by NFO Worldwide, a market research firm. Data was weighted to demographically represent the North American population. The Benchmark Panel was fielded from December 2000 to January 2001.

Note: Due to changes in the methodology of the Index, beginning in April 2000, we discourage making year-to-year comparisons for any particular category until April 2001, although general top-line trends appear stable over that period.