Information Technology and American Business - E-commerce

Electronic-commerce (E-Commerce), which is simply the sale of goods and services over the Internet, has grown steadily every year since the debut of the World Wide Web in 1991. Though most attention has been given to online retail, most electronic commerce actually occurs in business-to-business transactions as can be seen in Table 3.4. Figure 3.2 is a breakdown of e-commerce as a percentage of the value of sales in each industry that did business online in 2002. By far, most e-commerce occurred in manufacturing, where shipments ordered online accounted for 19.6% ($752 billion) of the total value of all manufacturing shipments. Merchant wholesalers came in second, with electronic commerce representing 11.7% ($320 billion) of business, and retail trade finished third with 1.4% ($44 billion) of all sales originating from e-commerce. Selected service revenue were sales made by a number of sectors in the service industry and included such businesses as travel brokers and online publications.

Manufacturers are companies that take raw materials and manufacture products used by other businesses. For instance, a soft-drink company typically buys its cans from a manufacturer that manufactures the cans from raw aluminum. Dell buys computer components from dozens of manufacturers around the world in order to put together its computers. The reason so many manufacturers use the Internet to conduct business transactions is that the Internet cuts costs and streamlines the processes involved in buying and selling manufactured goods. E-commerce allows the buyer to easily compare competitors' prices,

FIGURE 3.2

reduces the costs of writing up and sending paper purchase orders and invoices, maintains an electronic copy of each sale, and cuts down the time it takes for the goods to reach the buyer. As can be seen in Table 3.5, goods shipped through e-commerce rose from 2001 to 2002, whereas the total value of manufacturing shipments declined. By far, transportation equipment topped the list with over $297 billion being shipped as a result of electronic transactions. This was followed by computer and electronic products, chemicals, food, and tobacco and beverages.

Merchant wholesale trade sales made up the second largest block of e-commerce transactions in 2002. Wholesalers act as a mediator between manufacturers and retailers. Wholesalers typically buy large quantities of goods from a number of manufacturers and then resell these goods to retail outlets. Table 3.6 is a historical chart of U.S. merchant wholesale trades from 1998 to 2002 broken down into total sales and e-commerce sales. In just five years, the number of sales conducted by e-commerce nearly doubled from $174 billion to $320 billion. In terms of total sales, this represented an increase in electronic commerce from 7.3% to 11%. E-commerce was used more in the sales of medications, drug proprietaries, and druggists' sundries than any other product.

E-commerce and Retail

Retail sales consist of any product that is sold to an individual customer or company for use. Since the late 1990s, nearly every major retailer from AutoZone to Neiman-Marcus to Wal-Mart has a created a Web site. Many offer a greater variety of merchandise online than is available in the store. The growth of such Web sites has allowed Americans to order just about anything and have it delivered to their front door within days. According to Lee Rainie in a Pew/Internet project memo released April 13, 2004, 65% of Internet users had bought something online. Figure 3.2 shows that e-commerce transactions accounted for 1.4% ($44 billion) of all retail sales in 2002. A U.S. Department of Commerce press release dated August 20, 2004, revealed that this number increased to 1.6% ($56 billion) in 2003 and again went up to 1.8% in the first six months of 2004.

Though these percentages may seem small, the amount of money made from electronic commerce in retail increased rapidly from the late 1990s. In 1998 e-commerce accounted for only $5 billion in retail sales. This number then tripled to $15 billion in 1999 and nearly doubled to $28 billion in 2000. As can be seen in Table 3.7, one big reason that e-commerce sales formed only a small percentage of total sales was that many of those items included in total sales, such as gasoline or building supplies, could not easily be purchased online. Of those retailing sectors that did sell merchandise online in 2002, non-store retailers and electronic shopping and mail-order houses topped the list in merchandise sold online. Motor vehicles and parts dealers came in third and electronics and appliances stores were fourth.

Table 3.8 focuses solely on the electronic shopping and mail-order house segment of retail. Many of the businesses in this category, such as Dell, sell their products almost exclusively online and through catalogs. Others are divisions of larger department stores, such as Nordstrom, created to sell the stores' products online. Online sales accounted for 28% of overall sales for electronic shopping and mail order businesses in 2002. That number had increased dramatically since 1999 when electronic commerce made up only 12% of sales of this sector of the retail community. As far as individual products sold, nearly half (46%) of the revenues from the sale of books and magazines came from online sales in 2002. This represented the highest percentage of online sales for any type of product in this retail segment. In terms of sheer sales volume, more computing hardware ($6 billion) was sold than any other type of product.

ONLINE AUCTIONS—A NEW SEGMENT OF THE ECONOMY. When e-commerce began back in the mid-1990s, many small business owners created modest commercial Web sites, hoping to sell their wares. However, Internet fraud and the propagation of distasteful Web sites made people reluctant to give personal information to unknown vendors on the Web. Smaller vendors and buyers needed a common marketplace with rules and regulations to trade goods.

In 1998 Pierre Omidyar, Jeff Skoll, and Meg Whitman, went public with eBay. The company, which was at

TABLE 3.5

Total and e-commerce value of manufacturing shipments*, 2001–02
[Estimates are based on data from the 2002 Annual Survey of Manufactures and 2002 Economic Census. Value of shipments estimates are shown in millions of dollars, consequently industry group estimates may not be additive.]
		Value of shipments						E-commerce as percent of total shipments		Percent distribution of e-commerce shipments
		2002		2001		Y/Y percent change
NAICS code	Description	Total	E-commerce	Total	Revised e-commerce	Total shipments	E-commerce shipments	2002	2001	2002	2001
Note: Estimates are not adjusted for price changes. NAICS is North American Industry Classification System.
*Estimates include data only for businesses with paid employees and are subject to revision.
SOURCE: "Table 1. U.S. Manufacturing Shipments—Total and E-commerce Value: 2002 and 2001," in United States Department of Commerce E-Stats, U.S. Census Bureau, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, April 2004, http://www.census.gov/eos/www/papers/2002/2002finaltables.pdf (accessed November 11, 2004)
	Total manufacturing	3,840,319	751,985	3,970,500	724,228	−3.3	3.8	19.6	18.2	100.0	100.0
311	Food products	469,031	51,094	451,386	53,556	3.9	−4.6	10.9	11.9	6.8	7.4
312	Beverage and tobacco	103,869	45,419	118,786	45,665	−12.6	−0.5	43.7	38.4	6.0	6.3
313	Textile mills	46,847	3,977	45,681	4,435	2.6	−10.3	8.5	9.7	0.5	0.6
314	Textile product mills	31,642	7,491	31,971	7,409	−1.0	1.1	23.7	23.2	1.0	1.0
315	Apparel	45,848	9,726	54,598	10,652	−16.0	−8.7	21.2	19.5	1.3	1.5
316	Leather and allied products	7,349	783	8,834	1,438	−16.8	−45.6	10.7	16.3	0.1	0.2
321	Wood products	88,492	4,567	87,250	4,919	1.4	−7.2	5.2	5.6	0.6	0.7
322	Paper	152,378	18,385	155,846	20,208	−2.2	−9.0	12.1	13.0	2.4	2.8
323	Printing and related support activites	95,735	4,725	100,792	5,885	−5.0	−19.7	4.9	5.8	0.6	0.8
324	Petroleum and coal products	215,663	25,523	219,075	16,312	−1.6	56.5	11.8	7.4	3.4	2.3
325	Chemicals	427,754	68,674	438,410	54,041	−2.4	27.1	16.1	12.3	9.1	7.5
326	Plastics and rubber products	166,089	23,953	170,717	27,324	−2.7	−12.3	14.4	16.0	3.2	3.8
327	Nonmetallic mineral products	94,391	7,144	94,861	7,887	−0.5	−9.4	7.6	8.3	1.0	1.1
331	Primary metals	136,971	12,828	138,245	14,274	−0.9	−10.1	9.4	10.3	1.7	2.0
332	Fabricated metal products	242,204	21,427	253,113	24,168	−4.3	−11.3	8.8	9.5	2.8	3.3
333	Machinery	241,406	30,390	266,553	35,670	−9.4	−14.8	12.6	13.4	4.0	4.9
334	Computer and electronic products	353,529	73,406	429,471	73,221	−17.7	0.3	20.8	17.0	9.8	10.1
335	Electrical equipment, appliances, and components	103,599	23,043	114,067	27,845	−9.2	−17.2	22.2	24.4	3.1	3.8
336	Transportation equipment	620,649	297,280	602,496	264,326	3.0	12.5	47.9	43.9	39.5	36.5
337	Furniture and related products	73,112	8,082	72,147	9,348	1.3	−13.5	11.1	13.0	1.1	1.3
339	Miscellaneous	123,761	14,068	116,201	15,644	6.5	−10.1	11.4	13.5	1.9	2.2

first an auction site for collectibles such as Beanie Babies, quickly attracted the attention of small business owners. For a modest insertion fee, people could list their products on eBay's Web site. Buyers then could bid on the objects, and when a sale was final, the seller paid eBay a commission of 1.25% to 5% of the item's sales price. The Web site included payment options that did not require the purchaser to provide credit card information, and they even offered protections against fraud.

The eBay Web site created a whole new economic outlet for small business owners and people who simply wanted to pawn off their used goods. No longer was someone who wanted to sell embroidered pillows relegated to local flea markets. Individual vendors from crafters to high-end car salesmen could reach out to a nationwide audience. Even people with used stuff suddenly had more options than simply giving it to charity or holding a garage sale. In a September 2004 standard quarterly presentation, eBay reported more than 114 million global registered users selling over $8 billion in merchandise. The report claimed that more than 430,000 people made their living full-time or part-time auctioning items on eBay, and noted that most businesses using eBay had five employees or less.

MMORPGS AND THE SALE OF VIRTUAL GOODS. One of the more unusual industries to sprout up, due in part to eBay, was the sale of virtual goods, including "gold" and characters from massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). Games such as Everquest and Star Wars Galaxies placed players in a virtual world with thousands of other people where they could kill monsters and collect gold and other valuable virtual artifacts. Some of these online games even gave the player the option to marry and build houses in this virtual world. Progressing far in these games and obtaining a high level, however, required hundreds of hours of playtime. As a result, an entire cottage industry sprouted up around the sale of virtual gold and characters on auction sites such as eBay. Typically, a player would buy the game, build up a character and gold and then sell their password to the game to a buyer on eBay, sometimes fetching hundreds of dollars. Such sales represented the first industry centered on completely virtual goods.

SERVICE INDUSTRIES. The service industry in the United States is enormous and encompasses everything from brokerage houses to real estate companies to travel agents to health care. Generally, any business that sells its

TABLE 3.6

Total and e–commerce wholesale trade sales*, 1998–2002
[Estimates are based on data from the Annual Trade Survey. Sales estimates are shown in millions of dollars, consequently industry group estimates may not be additive.]
		Value of sales
		2002		2001 revised		2000 revised		1999 revised		1998 revised
	Description	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce
(S) Estimate does not meet publication standards because of high sampling variability or poor response quality. Unpublished estimates derived from this table by subtraction are subject to these same limitations and should not be attributed to the U.S. Census Bureau.
(D) Estimate is withheld to avoid disclosing data of individual companies; these data are included in broader industry totals.
Note: Estimates are not adjusted for price changes. NAICS is North American Industry Classification System.
*Estimates include data only for businesses with paid employees.
SOURCE: "Table 2 Historical. U.S. Merchant Wholesale Trade Sales—Total and E–commerce: 1998–2002," in United States Department of Commerce E-Stats, U.S. Census Bureau, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, April 2004, http://www.census.gov/eos/www/historical/2002ht.pdf (accessed November 11, 2004)
42	Total merchant wholesale trade	2,742,285	319,755	2,701,474	286,211	2,743,557	248,400	2,539,566	209,863	2,379,824	173,903
421	Durable goods	1,334,066	146,287	1,345,892	132,628	1,421,462	119,302	1,353,049	107,400	1,265,755	91,403
4211	Motor vehicles and automotive equipment	215,437	53,348	205,605	47,933	199,522	41,097	195,724	38,269	173,239	35,914
4212	Furniture and home furnishings	43,611	4,690	44,862	3,940	46,725	2,851	42,792	2,672	40,423	2,284
4213	Lumber and other construction material	77,879	2,896	73,605	2,556	70,900	2,292	71,284	2,004	63,661	2,001
4214	Professional and commercial equipment and supplies	249,419	32,897	251,062	31,523	269,914	31,593	273,846	27,588	254,069	20,912
42143	Computer equipment and supplies	113,541	15,032	123,342	15,705	150,798	19,042	160,492	17,744	150,784	11,158
4215	Metals and minerals, excluding petroleum	89,811	(S)	92,792	(S)	102,717	(S)	94,813	(S)	97,108	(S)
4216	Electrical goods	204,350	19,263	212,924	15,160	240,362	11,754	208,355	9,578	186,721	7,973
4217	Hardware, plumbing and heating equipment	66,088	7,706	64,738	7,056	67,108	6,610	63,444	6,512	60,352	5,961
4218	Machinery, equipment and supplies	223,295	8,645	240,891	8,132	252,126	7,765	245,453	7,069	242,531	5,400
4219	Miscellaneous durable goods	164,176	15,752	159,413	15,314	172,088	14,508	157,338	12,942	147,651	10,435
422	Nondurable goods	1,408,219	173,468	1,355,582	153,583	1,322,095	129,098	1,186,517	102,463	1,114,069	82,500
4221	Paper and paper products	76,719	4,809	77,162	4,246	80,551	3,870	74,908	3,420	69,937	2,954
4222	Drugs, drug proprietaries and druggists' sundries	233,188	110,745	200,861	96,363	168,471	77,790	146,549	61,158	124,564	49,509
4223	Apparel, piece goods and notions	91,071	13,664	87,776	12,305	88,267	10,578	85,043	8,835	84,191	7,085
4224	Groceries and related products	402,691	21,357	389,731	18,056	383,882	13,321	361,928	10,815	344,437	8,828
4225	Farm-products raw materials	111,302	3,697	108,081	3,272	107,019	3,225	101,900	3,160	107,993	2,522
4226	Chemicals and allied products	60,446	(D)	59,633	(D)	59,044	(D)	55,270	(D)	55,073	(D)
4227	Petroleum and petroleum products	181,138	10,089	180,601	(D)	187,701	(D)	135,077	(D)	116,397	(D)
4228	Beer, wine, and distilled beverages	79,760	(D)	75,156	(D)	71,551	(D)	67,464	(D)	61,822	(D)
4229	Miscellaneous nondurable goods	171,904	5,614	176,581	5,071	175,609	4,986	158,378	4,481	149,655	4,526

TABLE 3.7

Total and e–commerce retail sales*, 1998–2002
[Estimates are based on data from the Annual Retail Trade Survey. Sales estimates are shown in millions of dollars, consequently industry group estimates may not be additive.]
		Value of sales
NAICS code		2002		2001 revised		2000 revised		1999 revised		1998 revised
	Description	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce
(S) Estimate does not meet publication standards because of high sampling variability or poor response quality. Unpublished estimates derived from this table by subtraction are subject to these same limitations and should not be attributed to the U.S. Census Bureau.
(Z) Sales estimate is less than $500,000 or percent estimate is less than 0.05%.
Note: Estimates are not adjusted for price changes.
*Estimates include data for businesses with or without paid employees.
SOURCE: "Table 5 Historical. U.S. Retail Sales—Total and E-commerce: 1998–2002," in United States Department of Commerce E-Stats, U.S. Census Bureau, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, April 2004, http://www.census.gov/eos/www/historical/2002ht.pdf (accessed November 11, 2004)
	Total retail trade	3,230,122	44,287	3,156,754	34,263	3,070,186	28,000	2,878,914	14,667	2,644,785	4,926
441	Motor vehicles and parts dealers	846,248	7,231	841,141	5,336	816,631	4,255	779,763	1,762	699,457	389
442	Furniture and home furnishing stores	93,689	(S)	91,442	(S)	91,662	(S)	85,218	(S)	78,574	(S)
443	Electronics and appliance stores	89,930	778	85,174	643	86,362	507	81,921	242	75,981	133
444	Building materials and garden equipment and supplies stores	299,893	603	287,233	527	275,996	447	263,205	339	243,490	31
445	Food and beverage stores	489,445	(S)	481,388	(S)	459,211	(S)	443,159	(S)	421,579	(S)
446	Health and personal care stores	181,111	(S)	168,050	(S)	156,861	(S)	143,610	(S)	130,228	(S)
447	Gasoline stations	244,796	(Z)	246,993	(Z)	247,160	(Z)	211,271	(Z)	191,749	(Z)
448	Clothing and clothing accessories stores	171,759	487	167,313	288	167,864	199	160,050	82	149,442	12
451	Sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores	80,222	662	79,818	506	78,056	400	74,045	261	69,456	52
452	General merchandise stores	451,365	(S)	430,095	(S)	406,204	(S)	381,403	(S)	351,706	(S)
453	Miscellaneous store retailers	104,400	684	105,097	516	108,477	383	105,782	242	99,803	116
454	Nonstore retailers	177,264	33,117	173,010	25,897	175,702	21,381	149,487	11,526	133,320	3,948
454110	Electronic shopping and mail-order houses	114,480	32,191	109,158	25,145	110,073	20,943	92,440	11,430	79,489	3,928

TABLE 3.8

Total and e–commerce sales of electronic shopping and mail-order houses, by merchandise line1, 1999–2002
[Estimates are based on data from the Annual Retail Trade Survey. Sales estimates are shown in millions of dollars, consequently industry group estimates may not be additive.]
	Value of sales
	2002		2001 revised		2000 revised		1999 revised
Merchandise lines	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce
NA Not applicable
Note: Estimates are not adjusted for price changes.
1Estimates include data for businesses with or without paid employees, are grouped according to merchandise categories used in the Annual Retail Trade Survey.
2Includes other merchandise such as collectibles, souvenirs, auto parts and accessories, hardware, lawn and garden equipment and supplies, and jewelry.
3Includes nonmerchandise receipts such as auction commissions, customer training, customer support, advertising, and shipping and handling.
SOURCE: "Table 6 Historical. U.S. Electronic Shopping and Mail-Order Houses (NAICS 454110)—Total and E-Commerce Sales by Merchandise Line: 1999–2002," in United States Department of Commerce E-Stats, U.S. Census Bureau, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, April 2004, http://www.census.gov/eos/www/historical/2002ht.pdf (accessed November 11, 2004)
Total electronic shopping and mail–order houses (NAICS 454110)	114,480	32,191	109,158	25,145	110,073	20,943	92,440	11,430
Books and magazines	4,017	1,848	3,825	1,691	4,093	1,775	3,407	1,436
Clothing and clothing accessories (includes footwear)	14,020	4,272	15,021	3,165	14,857	2,184	13,251	892
Computer hardware	21,203	5,873	22,653	5,506	27,113	5,988	23,383	4,094
Computer software	4,433	1,456	4,110	1,110	3,671	1,081	2,744	741
Drugs, health aids, and beauty aids	20,709	1,446	16,130	951	14,094	660	11,129	236
Electronics and appliances	4,419	2,030	3,877	1,508	3,356	1,055	2,631	485
Food, beer, and wine	1,869	639	1,901	487	1,870	557	1,405	227
Furniture and home furnishings	7,116	2,447	6,442	1,633	6,367	1,006	5,759	353
Music and videos	3,862	1,454	3,960	1,256	4,319	1,158	4,171	751
Office equipment and supplies	6,114	2,450	6,416	1,872	6,757	1,371	7,091	586
Sporting goods	2,687	910	1,718	502	1,706	396	NA	NA
Toys, hobby goods, and games	3,458	1,250	2,954	895	3,072	819	2,164	383
Other merchandise2	15,651	3,858	16,137	2,914	15,617	1,853	14,163	947
Nonmerchandise receipts3	4,922	2,258	4,014	1,655	3,181	1,040	1,142	299

services or some type of expertise belongs in this category. Of all the industries presented in Figure 3.2, e-commerce revenue made up the smallest percentage of total revenue for the service industries. In those areas of the service industry where e-commerce has broken through, however, it has created a deal of change. Probably no other type of business in the services sector has been affected more by the Internet than travel reservations services. Before the Internet, travelers had to either comb through travel books and call airlines, hotels, restaurants, and other venues one by one, or else hire a travel agent to do it for them. When the Internet became widely available, new businesses formed that essentially took over the role of traditional travel agents by consolidating information about airfare, hotels, and vacation packages and making it easily searchable online. Existing businesses, like the airlines, developed websites of their own. And so it became much easier for travelers to comparison shop and make travel plans on their own. As Table 3.9 shows, electronic commerce made up nearly a quarter (24%) of the travel arrangements and reservation services in 2001. According to marketing research firm PhoCusWright, thirty-five million Americans purchased travel reservations in 2003, which was a 17% increase over 2002. Within the next decade as many as 70% of all travel reservations could be made by individuals online.

Needless to say, many travel agencies have faced tough times since the late 1990s. In a 2001 report on travel agency automation, the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) pointed out that airline ticket reservations were the main source of revenue for twentieth-century travel agents. Coincidentally, airline reservations have become the type of travel reservation made most often by online consumers. From 1998 to 2001, airline reservation sales by travel agents fell from 58% of total sales to 54%. As noted above, the number of travel agency jobs in the United States dropped by more than 18% between 1998 and 2003, and the U.S. Department of Labor estimates that by the year 2012 the number of working travel agents will likely shrink by another 14%. To avoid losing their jobs, many travel agents are beginning to focus on putting together more complex packages for travelers than can easily be arranged online.

Another service industry that experienced a great deal of change due to IT is the securities brokerage business. Since the early 1980s many of those who work in the industry have employed powerful computers and networking capabilities to track financial markets in real time and make financial transactions electronically. When the Internet became mainstream, large financial services organizations, such as Fidelity Investments and Charles Schwab, offered brokerage accounts to customers, allowing them to trade stocks online. Customers also had access to many of the research services only available to stockbrokers prior to the World Wide Web. An online 2001 Wall Street Journal fact sheet entitled "Trading

TABLE 3.9

Total and e–commerce revenue, selected services1, 1998–2000
[Except where indicated, estimates are based on data from the Service Annual Survey. Revenue estimates are shown in millions of dollars, consequently industry group estimates may not be additive.]
		Value of revenue
NAICS code		2002		2001 revised		2000 revised		1999 revised		1998 revised
		Description	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce	Total	E–commerce
(S) Estimate does not meet publication standards because of high sampling variability or poor response quality. Unpublished estimates derived from this table by substraction are subject to these same limitations and should not be attributed to the U.S. Census Bureau.
Note: Estimates are not adjusted for price changes.
1Estimates are subject to revision and include data only for businesses with paid employees except for Accommodation and Food Services, which also includes business without paid employees.
2Excludes NAICS 481 (air transportation), 482 (rail transportation), 483 (water transportation), 485 (transit and ground passenger transportation), 486 (pipeline transportation), 487 (scenic and sightseeing transportation), 488 (support activities for transportation), and 491 (postal service).
3Excludes NAICS 521 (monetary authorities-central bank), 522 (credit intermediation and related activities), 5232 (securities and commodity exchanges), 52391 (miscellaneous intermediation), 52399 (all other financial investment activities), 524 (insurance carriers and related activities), and 525 (funds, trusts, and other financial vehicles).
4Excludes NAICS 54112 (offices of notaries) and 54132 (landscape architectural services).
5Excludes NAICS 56173 (landscaping services).
6Estimates are based on data from the 2002 Annual Retail Trade Survey.
7Excludes NAICS 81311 (religious organizations), 81393 (labor and similar organizations), 81394 (political organizations), and 814 (private households).
SOURCE: "Table 4 Historical. U.S. Selected Service Revenue—Total and E–Commerce: 1998–2000" in United States Department of Commerce E–Stats, U.S. Census Bureau, Economics and Statistics Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce, April 2004, http://www.census.gov/eos/www/historical/2002ht.pdf (accessed November 11, 2004)
	Total for selected service industries	4,862,961	41,463	4,756,317	36,045	4,639,947	36,022	4,264,199	24,182	3,929,669	14,463
	Selected transportation and warehousing2	237,485	3,429	235,659	2,810	237,782	2,555	221,967	1,959	207,535	1,641
484	Truck transportation	169,443	2,422	169,069	1,526	172,258	1,287	162,046	821	150,816	606
492	Couriers and messengers	53,101	913	53,317	1,192	52,738	1,188	47,368	1,082	44,890	981
493	Warehousing and storage	14,941	S	13,273	S	12,787	S	12,283	S	11,829	S
51	Information	876,984	11,059	870,684	10,438	845,266	9,303	767,261	5,212	687,991	2,577
511	Publishing Industries	230,916	5,362	231,714	4,941	232,069	4,745	218,124	3,065	200,576	1,544
513	Broadcasting and telecommunications	484,652	2,549	487,799	2,516	469,349	1,880	425,127	902	381,017	481
51419	Online Information services	31,842	1,823	32,347	1,850	31,438	1,997	20,121	1,020	11,866	431
	Selected finance3	256,879	4,191	288,417	3,754	331,497	5,976	285,317	3,996	239,802	2,259
5231	Securities and commodity contracts intermediation and brokerage	163,080	4,071	191,007	3,570	227,841	5,664	193,759	3,831	161,516	2,145
532	Rental and leasing services	100,507	S	99,126	S	101,188	S	93,605	S	85,002	S
	Selected professional, scientific, and technical services4	848,109	6,490	842,261	5,237	805,834	5,467	728,468	4,142	663,411	2,501
5415	Computer systems design and related services	162,175	4,267	174,367	3,526	175,338	3,444	154,286	2,869	131,481	1,644
	Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services5	421,107	10,463	409,984	9,612	408,315	9,674	372,054	6,989	336,298	4,815
5615	Travel arrangement and reservation services	26,545	6,385	26,487	6,269	26,611	6,181	25,069	5,263	23,092	4,196
62	Health care and social assistance services	1,203,447	S	1,110,231	S	1,027,870	S	971,892	S	931,520	S
71	Arts, entertainment, and recreation services	137,236	S	128,904	S	122,117	S	114,796	S	108,643	S
72	Accommodation and food services6	456,232	S	445,236	S	437,801	S	404,631	S	381,119	S
	Selected other services7	324,975	1,097	325,815	656	322,277	554	304,208	364	288,348	178
811	Repair and maintenance	131,205	254	130,482	214	125,012	256	119,478	115	114,753	107
813	Relegious, grantmaking, civic, professional, and similar organizations	121,381	639	124,457	383	128,467	267	119,627	123	111,702	62

Stocks Online" reported that in 1996 1.5 million brokerage accounts existed online. In 2001 that number shot up to twenty million despite the recession, and brokerage accounts were projected to continue growing for many years. In America's Online Pursuits (Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project, December 2003), researcher Mary Madden reported that some fourteen million online Americans said they bought and sold stock online. Despite the increase in self-service brokering, the U.S. Department of Labor reported in 2002 that the ranks of stockbrokers would continue to grow at the same pace as the national job rate. However, the number of brokerage clerks, who generally assist securities brokers in their jobs, was projected to decline 15% by 2012. One could surmise that while information technologies have not harmed brokers' business, IT has replaced many tasks once completed by brokerage clerks.

The real estate brokerage sector is another service industry that has undergone many changes due to the Internet. Before the Internet, people could only find real estate listings in the newspaper or at a real estate agency. Many Web sites, such as Realtor.com, started listing hundreds of houses for sale in every region of the country. These sites made it possible for people in Virginia, for instance, to get a feel for real estate and real estate prices in Alaska or Arizona. Monthly Internet statistics from Realtor.com show that Internet traffic on their site increased from 3.79 million unique visitors in June 2002 to 6.15 million unique visitors in June 2004. Due in part to a real estate boom that began around the turn of the twenty-first century, the number of real estate agents and brokers increased from 347,000 in 1998 to 407,000 by 2002, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. The Internet may or may not infringe on real estate brokerage job growth in the future as many realtors do not list all their homes on the Web. Many homebuyers also require assistance in the complex process of buying a house. In Digital Economy 2003, the U.S. Department of Commerce analyzed trends in housing price and buying behavior, and they found that the only discernible effect that the Internet had on the housing market was that online homebuyers tended to use the resource to make more personal visits to more houses.