Hypergrowth of online sales might start slowing down. Online sales have grown 25% or more annually in the recent years, but growth in sectors such as book and ticket sales slowed down in 2006.
The reaction to the trend is apparent at Dell, which many had regarded as having mastered the science of selling computers online, but is now putting its PCs in Wal-Mart stores. Expedia has almost tripled the number of travel ticketing kiosks it puts in hotel lobbies and other places that attract tourists.
It seems that people aren’t ready yet to buy all of their stuff online. Major corporations such as Dell cannot only rely on online sales if they want to retain or increase their annual growth rates. Therefore, they start getting back to offline markets in order to make good for the loss in additional annual online sales.
The slowdown is a result of several forces. Sales on the Internet are expected to reach $116 billion this year, or 5 percent of all retail sales, making it harder to maintain the same high growth rates. At the same time, consumers seem to be experiencing Internet fatigue and are changing their buying habits.
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