The study concedes that many on-line retailers will be forced to close in the near future because of poor performance levels, but it expects that those that survive will be strongly established competitors for off-line retailers.
It predicts that the strongest internet retailers will be ‘click and mortar’ companies, that operate traditional stores as well as internet services. These ventures are expected to generate 60% of internet sales by 2002, while pure on-line retailers will only account for 26% of the market.
Speaking on behalf of Giga, Andrew Bartels said, “consumer use of the internet for product research will grow, but the majority of sales will still close in stores where consumers can touch products and take them home immediately”.