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Executive Summary
Since the late 1990s, the Internet has attracted considerable attention from retailers as a potentially important and lucrative marketspace in which their marketing and retail activities can be conducted both efficiently and economically. Considerable numbers of businesses and persons wishing to supply information or sell goods and services to the public have been attracted to the Internet, extending daily activities, including shopping, to an unlimited virtual world.
Initial predictions were that the combination of technological sophistication, equipment power, and ease of use, in conjunction with the supporting infrastructure, would make electronic purchasing widespread in the United States by 2005. However, after a brief spurt in 1999, the rate of growth of Internet retailing declined, with many pure-players failing and falling out of this new virtual marketspace altogether. Internet retailers have been striving for increased sales and profitability since.