Online retail sales to skyrocket by 2008

"The growth will be sparked by a growing online consumer base, increases in new product categories and efforts by online retailers to optimize the online shopping experience, according to Forrester Research."

Here's a tidbit from the original Forrester report:

"As retailers invest in site design and usability testing, online shopping continues to evolve -- from an experience resembling a trip to a bare-bones strip mall to one more akin to shopping the Miracle Mile. Retailers have spent the past two years crafting better online and multichannel eCommerce sites: 84% of the top 92 sites now offer zoom on product detail pages, retailers like J.C. Penney and Lillian Vernon offer catalog quick shop features and online versions of their offline circulars, and Sears and Office Depot serve the Hispanic market with Spanish-language sites. In response, consumers open their wallets more often: Average online retail conversion rates have risen from 2.2% in 2000 to 3.2% in 2002, according to Shop.org's "The State of Retailing Online 6.0" Report."

From the Shop.org press release:

“It took the catalog industry 100 years to represent 4.7 percent of retail sales. It took online retailers only six years to accomplish the same feat.” said Elaine Rubin, Chairman, Shop.org.


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