• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 28, 2005

An Internet Retailer web-based survey, completed in May, on the future of web retailing reveals that:

• 35.5% of merchants and others who responded believe that their e-commerce revenues this year will grow by at least 35%.
• 8% forecast an increase of 25% or higher. Another
• 30% expect revenue growth of 15% to 25% and
• 16.8% anticipate annual web sales to rise 10-15%. Only
• 9.5% of retailers surveyed expect annual revenues this year to grow by less than 10%, clearly a sign of the bullish prospects that retailers hold about the market.

Chain retailers see the web as a major sales engine moving forward, accounting for a greater overall portion of their total revenues. When chain retailers were asked where they expect their online sales to be in five years:

• 21.7% of chain retailers indicated that they expected web sales to be 100-200% higher
• 18.8% expect web sales to be 50-100% larger
• 20.3% of chains expect sales to be 25-50% bigger by 2010
• 18.8% anticipate an increase ranging from 10% to 25%.

Today the web accounts for about 5% of total annual U.S. retail sales. But:

• 23.8% expect the web will account for 20% or more of all retail sales in five years. 25.3% expect e-commerce will account for 15% to 20%
• 31% forecast 10-15%.
• 17.6% expect the web to account for 5-10% of all retail sales in five years
• 2.3% expect the proportion to stay the same as today.

When broken down by web merchant category:

• 37.7% of chains and catalogers believe that Internet will account for 10-15% of total sales in 2010
• 63% of web-only merchants believe the web will account for more than 15% of retail sales by 2010
• 73.6% of brand believe the web will account for 10-15% of all sales in five years

38.2% of respondents to the survey rate the continued growth in demand for time-saving convenient services as the biggest reason customers will keep shopping online. Overall, 42% of respondents indicated that broadband access to the Internet from home would be the biggest technology impacting the future of web retailing.

 A decade ago many retailers saw the web as a stand-alone venue and even as a separate organization or business unit. But as the web retailing market continues to evolve, the Internet Retailer survey demonstrates that future success for retailers depends on how well they use the web to identify and convert multi-channel sales. And, 40.6% of chain retailers indicate that interactive TV will be a part of their e-commerce strategy within 5 years.