The integrated 2008 sales of the 500 comprehensive U.S. web retailers increased by 11.7 percent to $115.85 billion from $103.69 billion in 2007. According to Internet Retailer, which expects that entire U.S. business-to-consumer e-commerce sales will increase year over year by over 4.6 percent to $178.18 billion from $170.41 billion.
Despite of recession, the combined sales of the top 500 companies in 2008 increased about eight times faster than the complete retailing market, according to Internet Retailer’s.
According to the outcomes, e-commerce achieved sales which could not be achieved by stores and catalogs. In 2008, the combined sales of the 100 largest merchants in the Top 500 Guide increased by 14.3 percent to $98.60 billion.
The top 100 retailers corresponded to 55.3 percent of U.S. web sales. Smaller niche Top 500 merchants also overtook little bit of the e-retailing industry’s total growth rate. In 2007, the collective revenue of the Top 500’s 100 smallest merchants companies with annual gain of $9 million to $15.2 million grew by 13.2 percent to $1.20 billion from $1.06 billion.
Web-only merchants reported the biggest increases in Internet sales over all merchant categories in 2008.
The e-commerce market was not recession proof during 2008, Internet Retailer reported. In 2007, 74 Top 500 retailers reported flat or declining sales, compared with 25 in 2007 and only 13 in 2006. The Internet became the channel which increased sales for several merchants, particularly chain retailers.
For 31 of the top 50 chains, Internet sales grew while total sales were reduced. And for those chains, 41 of 50 had web sales which increased while comparable store sales reduced.