See also my musing on the subject of online retailing.

Online sales will hit GBP78bn says the headline to this Sunday Times article. The numbers come from IMRG, so who am I to argue - but then I am not a great fan of research. Sceptical, is probably the word. For example, the report suggests that online shoppers will receive an average of 33 parcels each during 2007 and, on average, will splash out GBP1,600 each in the year. Hmmm. Can't say I'm an avid online shopper - but 33 parcels and GBP1,600? And remember how averages work. If one shopper buys one CD for GBP10, then someone else has to spend GBP3,190 and receive 65 parcels. Double Hmmm. OK - I will accept that travel is big online business, so it might be possible to get close to that GBP1,600 figure with a holiday or two. And high-ticket value items like white goods are also supposed to be popular online [are they, I research online, but buy in the shop]. Maybe a computer - but their prices are dropping. I bought my GBP500 laptop online recently. I might book flights and hotel for my hols in the summer online. Still won't reach GBP1,600 however - and don't forget those items are for my wife and I - so we'll be no where near GBP3,200 and 66 parcels. Having said all this, it is obvious that online sales are now a significant percentage of retail sales.

Many Americans see little point to web says survey While the Internet evangelists say that soon we will only shop online and bricks and mortar shops will crumble to ruins through lack of customers, this research suggests that around a third of folk have no interest in the Internet - and this research is from the USA where web take up is higher than most countries.

I also have an issue with the statement "The first-ever online transaction was a CD sale in America in August 1994" which is included in the article - see what I have to say here.

As the company that produced this article says: '[online] merchandising is the way online and multi-channel businesses expose or present products optimally for selling - it’s about active-selling'. Can't disagree with that, see - 10 Best Practices for Online Merchandising.