Online retail landscape looks bright:

And this trend is set not just to continue but to grow. Bain & Co. forecast that by 2020, 95% of music and 75% of books will be sold online. And even luxury goods, reticient at first to embrace the internet given the lack of advice from trained sales staff they could give to customers, are now enjoying significant sales growth derived from online transactions. A greater proportion of luxury fashion is sold over the internet than mass-market clothing, which is testament to just how much mindsets in the luxury goods industry have shifted.

Multichannel results in greater value transactions:

This is all achieved without mentioning m-commerce. Mobile phones are increasingly being used to research purchases before consumers hand over cash in stores or online. About 20% of sales in 2010 were classed as multichannel, meaning that orders were picked up in store or goods were ordered online after research in a traditional shop or showroom. Deloitte recently published research showing that multichannel customers spent an average £143 per transaction compared with £57 for traditional store customers.

So for those retailers vulnerable to online competition, the future does not look particularly bright. Moreover, research has shown that the more consumers shop online, the harder it is to sell at a healthy premium. This explains much of the trouble for the likes of HMV, and retailers of electrical goods such as Comet and BestBuy.

A whopping £5.2billion was spent online in the UK during April of this year. This equates to £82 per person, and a year-on-year increase of 19%. Figures the High Street may well never reach again. Indeed, the High St is reporting some of its worst results in years.

One of the key factors in driving e-commerce is comparison shopping. Instantaneously, consumers can find the best price for what they are looking for. People are still shopping, but they are increasingly savvy. They are going online to find the best deal.

With the advent of social commerce channels, and mobile applications, growth in e-commerce is forecast to continue. Indeed, those multi-channel retailers – those with both a high-street and an online presence – have seen the fastest growth in the past year.

It is when recognised brands such as Tesco, House of Fraser, and John Lewis, are focusing on their online presence, that you know online retail is truly coming of age. Indeed, John Lewis’s online sales have risen 24% in the past year.

The development of technology has clearly assisted these retailers in their ability to facilitate successful transactions. Now the challenge for e-retailers both big and small, is to integrate the growing number of sales channels to ensure a clear marketing message and consistent customer experience.

Many foresee mobile commerce soon overtaking desktop internet access and are gearing up with shopping applications for mobile phones. This means consumers will expect to receive relevant messages based on where they are.

So if you are a traditional shop, get serious about the web and its possibilities to ensure long-term success.

Online sales grew by 18% in the month compared with a year earlier, the biggest jump since 2007, IMRG said.

UK shoppers spent £5bn online in July, more than in any other month this year, it added.

Figures published on Thursday showed total UK retail sales rising much faster than expected in July.

Sales volumes jumped 1.1% compared with June, the Office for National Statistics said, with almost all non-food sectors showing strong growth.

World Cup dip

The average UK shopper spent £81 online in July, with promotions and discounts also boosting spending.

Travel sales rose by a third compared with a year earlier, as people looked to escape the rain and head for sunnier climes, said IMRG, the industry body for global internet retailing.

This more than offset a fall in alcohol sales, caused perhaps by England’s disappointing performance in the football World Cup, the group said.

“Although online retail sales survived the recession more convincingly than High Street sales, the last two years or so have no doubt been shaky at times,” said Chris Webster, head of retail consulting and technology at Capgemini, which publishes the online sales index with IMRG.

“It is really encouraging to see growth levels returning to those seen pre-2007 and before consumer confidence was knocked by the financial crisis and the recession.”

The IMRG Capgemini Index tracks online sales at more than 100 retailers across the UK.

Some executives are more optimistic. Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon.com, has said on several occasions that e-commerce will account for up to 15 percent by 2016. The major catalyst for e-commerce growth in the short term seems to be in stimulating existing online shoppers to continue to buy and to shift a greater percentage of their total purchases to the web.

To do this, companies will employee online marketing initiatives but also stress the convenience, broader selection, and ostensible cost savings associated with buying online. In the longer term, teenagers already spending online will acquire more purchasing power and independence and will invigorate the online channel.

More than half of online retailers believe that the outlook for the retail industry as a whole is gloomy and that retail sales will continue to slow in the coming 12 months. But 8o percent of online retailers said that they believe that the Web channel is better suited than other channels to withstand an extended economic downturn. (But more than half also think that multi-channel retailers are better suited to weather the economic turbulence than single-channel retailers).

E-commerce retailers report that their conversion rates continue to range from 3% to 3.5% as they have for years, which is another indication that the Web has not been as adversely impacted as other channels.

Going forward, online retailers will continue investing heavily in interactive marketing, a significant expenditure for e-commerce groups. In this vein, companies will experiment with social commerce initiatives, even though questions still remain for social marketing ROI, such as blogs and social networks.

Acquiring new customers is still the number one goal of online marketing efforts. While other retail channels struggle to innovate and perform, e-commerce managers have a unique opportunity to drive more sales and to test different tactics that resonate with consumers. Even more so now than in fatter times, retailers must strictly segment their customer groups and create messaging that speaks directly and powerfully to these groups.