Jewelry sales on the Internet will grow a projected 31 percent this year, predicts a new report from Forrester Research.

The report labeled jewelry one of the categories that will experience the most dramatic growth, thanks to greater online shopping by women. “Women are flocking to the Internet in droves to comparison shop, research, and buy,” said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. “Online retailers who sell products that are purchased by women are in a favorable position this year.”

The report, titled “The State of Retailing Online 8.0,” is an annual Shop.org study of 137 retailers conducted by Forrester Research. It predicts that online sales (including travel) will rise 22 percent to $172.4 billion this year. It estimates 2004 online retail sales grew 23.8 percent to $141.4 billion. It pegs online retail sales at 4.6 percent of total retail sales.

Meanwhile, VeriSign, which processes online transactions, says that online jewelry sales did particularly well this past Mother’s Day. Online spending for the jewelry category in the weeks preceding Mother’s Day increased 79 percent in 2005, compared with the year before. Spending on diamonds was up 101 percent, with a whopping 540 percent jump in transactions.