Jewelry, flowers, clothing, and computer stuff fueled a 25% increase in online buying during the holiday season. This article describes the surge in spending in more detail.
In my own experience, I've seen a dramatic improvement in the quality of many online shopping sites. Even some smaller businesses have excellent and easy to use Web sites that make it quick and easy to find what you want, order it quickly, and get confirmation of the order via email. It sames time and money to be able to shop online, especially if you live in a rural area like I do, where shopping options are pretty limited.
Broadband is a key requirement, though. I'd do a lot less buying online if I had to use a dialup connection, which is just too slow to wade through a graphics-rich catalogue site. Broadband is not only an economic development issue, it's a quality of life issue. Who wants to move to an otherwise beautiful rural area far from big city shopping opportunities if broadband is not available to help mitigate that?