According to Shop.org, Internet retail sales are going to pass the $200 billion mark in 2006, just three years after passing the $100 billion mark. While the largest categories, excluding travel, are expected to be computer hardware and software with $16.8 billion in sales and autos and auto parts with $15.9 billion in sales, apparel, accessories, and footwear with $13.8 billion in sales for the year are ranked third. The main growth driver for online sales is the integration between brick & mortar and online retailers. According to the study, retailers reported that 22% of offline sales are influenced by the Web and 38% of online customers are new to a company’s entire business.


According to POS data collected by SportScanINFO, the on-line channel is booming for sporting goods retailers as well. Apparel and footwear are both showing healthy double-digit increases through the on-line channel. Year-to-date, on-line apparel sales increased 18.2%. People are still less likely to buy footwear on-line, perhaps due to sizing and returns, but the category is growing; footwear sales increased 11.2%. In spite of the increases in shipping charges due to fuel surcharges, on-line sales of sporting goods equipment are still growing faster than apparel and footwear with a 30.4% increase in sales for the year-to-date as of May 21, 2006. The equipment category is not only growing faster, but it is also much larger than either apparel or footwear, at least through the on-line channel.