Online retailers are excited by new research suggesting that a greater number of consumers will be turning to online buying over the next five years.
 
Forrester Research tipped in a report released Monday, that online retailers in the US and Western Europe will experience serious double-digit growth in the coming five years.
The report states that US online business is likely to grow 10% a year, reaching US$249 billion by 2014. Over 154 million people in the US bought items online last year, up 4% from 2008. This number represents about 67% of the total number of online users, and is even more astounding when put in the context of the global recession.

Western European online businesses are looking at an 11% annual gain over the next five years, reaching 114 billion euros (US$155.7 billion) by 2014.

What this means for online consumer electronic sales

In 2009 consumer electronics online sales saw significant growth of 17% over the previous year. This is a category especially suited to online sales as consumers can easily compare products, search for reduced prices and read extensive reviews on the internet.

In the US the most popular online retail categories were clothing, consumer electronics and computers. These three markets currently capture approximately 40% of all online retail sales accross the country. Forrester Research has found that these categories will continue to dominate the online market in years to come.
In the Eurpoean market, clothing is the best seller followed by books and event tickets. The consumer electronics market has more ground to gain in Western Europe before it becomes a strong online seller. The positive news for this market is that online buying is becoming far more mainstream - with more than half of online buyers commenting that they find products on the web they can't find elsewhere.