The New York Times caused a bit of a stir yesterday when they published an article headlined “Online Sales Losing Steam” where they proceeded to all but foresee with their magical truth-telling crystals the death of shopping online. Using research statistics, market trends, and even interviews to illustrate a slowing online growth, they attempted to downplay as much as possible that the market is still growing at a rate that would make quite a few markets offline sob with glee. Is this slowdown a turning point for eCommerce? Well, the Times sure wants you to think so. Obviously, the growth of several markets in eCommerce are slowing, but certainly not going away. This response to the article notes,

A report released on Wednesday by market research company Forrester Research anticipates online sales will rise 18 percent in 2007. Online sales, including travel, are expected to reach $259 billion by the end of this year, with apparel leading the way. Looking at the bright side, the online retail business is not on a downslide.

As these, and the Times’ own statistics prove, eCommerce is still experiencing growth… just slightly at a slower rate. If anything, the slowdown is a sign of exactly how pervasive eCommerce has become in our society as a reliable, everyday experience. The Times article itself notes that there doesn’t seem to be any sort of consumer preference between physical stores and their online counterparts, which again, truly speaks to what a universal experience eCommerce is. An established market can’t hope to maintain intense growth forever, but that doesn’t signal its imminent demise, just as this slowdown WON’T cause the internet to become a barren wasteland of abandoned commerce. Instead, it seems, eCommerce is growing up.

And that, New York Times, is a wonderful thing.