EMarketer today increased its e-commerce growth forecast for 2012, and now projects that U.S. online shoppers will spend $224.2 billion this year, up 15.4% from $194.3 billion in 2011. The research firm previously projected that sales would increase 11.3% from 2011, to $209.3 billion from $188.1 billion.
 
The rosier view of e-commerce came about because of several factors, says an eMarketer spokesman. Those include “stronger-than-expected figures reported by the U.S. Department of Commerce for e-commerce sales in 2011, particularly in Q4, as well as multiple reports suggesting that consumer optimism, homebuilding and the number of people willing to buy goods online is growing, while unemployment is declining slightly,” he says.
 
In February, the U.S. Department of Commerce said that U.S. e-commerce sales last year totaled $194.3 billion, up 16.1% from $167.3 billion in 2010. Seasonally adjusted online retail spending for the fourth quarter of 2011 hit $51.4 billion, up 15.5% from $44.5 billion for the same period in 2010. The unemployment rate in February was 8.3%, unchanged from January and down from 9.0% in February 2011, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.