6 Online Retail Trends

2. Latest sales data. Silverman presented data from Shop.org's latest first quarter flash survey of 75 retailers. The results included the following:

• average web retailer sales growth for the first quarter of 2010 vs. the first quarter of 2009 was 12.3 percent;
• more than half of the retailers surveyed reported year-over-year (YOY) sales increases of 10 percent and higher;
• only one-fifth of retailers reported YOY sales increases of 10 percent or less; and
• the majority of large and midsize retailers surveyed experienced sales increases, and almost two-thirds of small retailers ($10 million and under) also experienced sales growth.

3. Cross-channel retail. Cross-channel retail strategies remain in the early stages, Silverman said. "The problem we're having as an industry is that if you're a multichannel retailer with retail stores, you're thinking about the ROI and profitability of your online sales, so every dollar you spend you want to plow that back into online sales," he said.