Belatedly, we discovered the Forrester Research/Shop.org "State of Online Retailing 7.0", published in May 2004. About.com summarises the key messages pretty well. Here are the key stats...
Operating margins at 21%
Catalogue companies operating at 28%
Sales growth rates sales expected to increase more than 40 percent in the health and beauty (61%), apparel (42%), and flowers, cards, and gifts (41%) categories
Marketing costs per order at $4
Customer service costs per order at $2.30
Fulfillment costs jumped to $9.80 per order
24% of offline sales last year were influenced by the Web
One in four consumers will make a purchase in the store when returning an item they purchased online.
