Traditional Retailers Poised to Overwhelm Pure-Plays: EMarketer

Offline retailers, once considered dinosaurs by so-called Internet pure plays, are threatening to overwhelm online-only retailers, according to a report released yesterday by research aggregator EMarketer.

Seven of the 10 most visited e-commerce sites this past holiday-shopping season belonged to retailers who are already dominant offline, the report said, drawing on information from ComScore.

“It is no aberration that Wal-Mart and Target are among the most heavily trafficked Web sites,” the report titled “Multi-Channel Shopping: The Rise of the Retail Chains ” said.

Retail chains accounted for 40% of online sales in 2004, compared to just over 25% for Internet-only retailers, the report said.

“Today, to compete anywhere, you have to be everywhere," said the report’s author, Jeffrey Grau, EMarketer senior analyst. “Wal-Mart and Target have joined Amazon and EBay as the most heavily trafficked e-commerce Web sites.”

One reason traditional retailers are so significantly represented online is because of an ongoing shift in consumer spending.

Whereas online shopping was 0.9% of total retail sales in 2000, EMarketer predicts it will grow to 3.4% by 2008.