The shape of e-tail, however, is very different from what was predicted a few years ago. Apart from Amazon and eBay - the web's biggest forum for buying and selling, though it is an auction house not a retailer - most of the biggest online retailers are not internet start-ups but traditional shop or mail-order groups. Retailers have brought their investment capacity and trusted brand names to bear on internet shopping - thus boosting public confidence. Many have integrated online sales into a "multichannel" strategy that may link a website, shops and a mail-order catalogue.
"There was a time when everybody said the internet was going to steal purchases from shops. But the opposite is happening: multichannel retailing is the reality today," says Darrell Rigby, head of the global retail practice at Bain & Co, the management consultants. "Many classic bricks-and-mortar retailers actually started making money on their online operations long before Amazon did."
A prime example of the fusion of the online and so-called "offline" retail worlds is Amazon itself. The company has expanded well beyond its roots as a seller of books and CDs, acting as an online mall selling everything from gourmet foods to clothing. Evolving from pure retailer to "retail platform", it now conducts its online commerce in partnership with bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Target, Nordstrom, Borders and Circuit City.
"There was a time when everybody said the internet was going to steal purchases from shops. But the opposite is happening: multichannel retailing is the reality today," says Darrell Rigby, head of the global retail practice at Bain & Co, the management consultants. "Many classic bricks-and-mortar retailers actually started making money on their online operations long before Amazon did."
A prime example of the fusion of the online and so-called "offline" retail worlds is Amazon itself. The company has expanded well beyond its roots as a seller of books and CDs, acting as an online mall selling everything from gourmet foods to clothing. Evolving from pure retailer to "retail platform", it now conducts its online commerce in partnership with bricks-and-mortar retailers such as Target, Nordstrom, Borders and Circuit City.