SmallBusinessNewz

There's fresh good news - and unfortunately, a little fresh bad news, too - with regards to the 2009 holiday season.  It looks like online sales will increase, but consumers will be focused on low prices and thus perhaps put small businesses up against big retailers.

The source(s) of this information are a respected news organization and a huge research firm.  Nicole Maestri reported for Reuters, "U.S. online sales are expected to rise 8 percent this holiday season, with mass market retailers who can offer discounts performing best, according to Forrester Research."

Still, saying that large corporations will do well isn't the same as saying that small businesses will do horribly.  The phrasing doesn't even seem to mandate that small businesses match large corporations in terms of price cuts; there's only the reference to offering discounts.

Toss in the info the National Retail Federation released a couple of weeks ago ("Four out of five online retailers (60%) believe the U.S economy will improve within the next year, and half (50%) think their web business will actually fare better than expected in the next 12 months"), and we're practically back to things looking cheery.

Just remember that these figures apply to online retailers, so brick-and-mortar shops won't want to count on any free windfalls.