A new report from Forrester Research Inc., Cambridge, MA, estimates that more than 17 million households will shop online by year’s end. U.S. online retail sales for 1999 will reach $20.2 billion. By 2004, Forrester predicts that a new type of retailer–the post-Web retailer–will emerge to serve the 49 million U.S. households that will spend more than $184 billion online for a variety of goods.
“Post-Web retailers will need to do more than just sell everything to anyone,” said Seema Williams, consumer eCommerce analyst at Forrester, in a statement. “To succeed, they must anticipate customer demand, expand their product and service offerings into adjacent categories, and simultaneously sell through multiple retail channels, including stores, catalogs, call centers, Web sites, interactive TV and mobile devices. None of today’s merchants are prepared for post-Web retail.”
General merchants like Macy’s and Wal-Mart will need to identify their most profitable customers and narrow their product offerings to capture this particular target segment. Similarly, superstores like PETsMART and Linens ‘n Things will either have to expand their product offerings or partner with a post-Web retailer to deliver a particular category.
Specialty retailers like SmarterKids.com and Gap will have to leverage their best-of-breed products by becoming category partners with the leading post-Web retailers, said the report.
Although online retail sales will continue to soar over the next five years, Forrester expects the number of online shoppers in the U.S. to level off at around 50 million households. This trend will be offset by a steady increase in average online spending per household, growing from $1,167 in 1999 to $3,738 in 2004.
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