From Advertising Age magazine regarding online sales:
Overall retail sales are projected to grow only 2.2% by the National Retail Federation, making online growth projections of 12% downright cheery.
Deloitte's annual holiday survey also presents several compelling reasons to maintain spending online. The category is ranked by consumers as the No. 2 shopping destination this year behind discount department stores. A full 21% of consumers plan to shop primarily or entirely online this season, up from 19% last year. And 24% of total dollars spent this season are expected to be spent online, compared with 22% last year.
"Retailers should be viewing [online investments] as a way to capture lost sales and prevent them from going to a competitor," said Mr. Silverman. "I'm not going to say the growth in online is all additive -- a lot of it is shift. However, if you haven't been investing in your online store, that shift may not go to you, it may go to a competitor."