Online retail to grow 10% annually, hit $240 billion by 2014

-- Home Textiles Today, 3/9/2010 2:00:00 PM

New York – U.S. online general merchandise retail sales will reach $248.7 billion in 2014, according to a new study released by Forrester Research.

The research also showed that, “Amid a global financial crisis, U.S. online retail (excluding auto, travel and prescription drugs) managed to grow 11% in 2009 to reach $155.2 billion.”

The forecast projects a 10% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for U.S.-based e-commerce over the next five years.

Forrester said online retail in Europe will grow at a CAGR of 11% over the same time frame, and hit a volume of 114 billion Euros in 2014.

Patti Freeman Evans, vp, research director, Forrester Research, stressed that retailers must balance online and brick-and-mortar operations to develop “a multichannel strategy that addresses consumers’ expectations, focusing on their need to move between offline and online channels and their increasing mobile and social behaviors.”