Double-digit growth ahead for U.S. and European online retail

Here's some news that might motivate those small businesses who don't already have an online presence to do something about it. According to Forrester Research, online retail in both the U.S. and Western Europe will experience significant growth over the next five years.

by Helen Leggatt

forrester logo.gif Online retail in the U.S. will grow at a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years, according to Forrester, reaching almost $250 billion by 2014. In Western Europe, that rate is expected to be marginally higher at 11%.

What more motivation does a small business need to get online and grab a slice of the action? Consumers want to move seamlessly between on- and offline channels, so businesses must be in those spaces or risk losing sales.

"To maximize that growth e-business professionals will have to enable a multichannel strategy that responds to consumers' increased desire to hop between the offline and online worlds, and their increasingly mobile and social behavior," said Forrester Research vice president and principal analyst Sucharita Mulpuru.

"The retail innovators over the next five years will demonstrate customer enablement across all touch points, not just via a PC-based web browser."

Last year, joint research from Nielsen Online and Webvisible found that 44% of U.S. small businesses did not have a website.

Tags: ecommerce, online retail, research, small business, U.S., website, Western Europe

Double-digit growth ahead for U.S. and European online retail

Here's some news that might motivate those small businesses who don't already have an online presence to do something about it. According to Forrester Research, online retail in both the U.S. and Western Europe will experience significant growth over the next five years.

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