Online shopping figures disappoint

Reports from Media Metrix and Goldman Sachs Friday indicated that smaller e-tailers may be getting a lump of coal for poor performance this holiday season.

While Amazon.com and other established players fared well, the shopping season peaked earlier than expected this year, leaving the numbers short of analysts expectations, and indicating the overhang for smaller e-tailers will continue into mid-2001.

The news should come as no surprise; analysts have been predicting that growth wouldn't be as impressive as last year's since September. Those concerns have stoked worries about sales figures from Amazon.com and others. Full story. -- Tiffany Kary, ZDNet Inter@ctive Investor