According to the U.S. Census Bureau's newly published "2001 E-Stats report," e-commerce sales by wholesalers grew at a healthy clip of 13% while their overall sales were relatively flat between 2000 and 2001. The "E-Stats report" tracks e-commerce sales by wholesalers and other areas of the economy. The new report showed wholesalers accounted for approximately 25% of all e-commerce sales transactions tracked by the Census Bureau.

"Over 95% of the nation's 300,000 wholesalers are small businesses, making wholesale distribution a logical target for technology companies seeking growth," said Adam J. Fein, Ph.D., president of Pembroke Consulting, a management consulting firm for wholesale distribution, manufacturing and B2B technology companies.

In 2001, wholesalers had e-commerce sales of $272 billion, which equals 10% of total sales by merchant wholesalers. Overall, e-commerce sales by wholesalers grew by 13 percent over 2000 sales.