Online retail spending set to explode even further

Gone are the days of holiday shopping in crowded malls and retail stores, it's all about point-n-click these days. Well, at least somewhat. With there still only being 24 hours in a single day and more stuff than ever to keep us all busy, online shopping is turning into a mainstream mode of buying products and services for people globally. Online shopping has been around for a while, you might say. You're right but in Britain, online shopping is expected to explode even further, tripling by 2011 according to a new survey.

Will that prediction come true in the U.S.?

Hard to tell, but online spending is speeding up by all measurements. Although the social aspect of shopping in person has quite a bit of weight behind it, online shopping is more conducive to the "time" variable these days since we have less of it than ever before. There are some retail purchases that will always require a personal visit -- but for quite a bit of shopping, nothing beats the convenience (and sales tax avoidance, if that's your thing) of online shopping.

One area that still has not taken off in the U.S. is food retailing over the web. Sure, you can buy quite a few items from Amazon's grocery section, but the experience is nothing like grocery shopping in person and fresh items like produce and meat aren't offered. Once that can be duplicated and the logistics can work -- which is a COO's nightmare -- nationwide online grocery shopping may become a reality. In my world, that's one of the last bastions left standing right now that still has not been fully attacked.