Most Top Online Retailers Grew Web Sales in 2008

Sales by 245 retailers on the Internet Retailer’s Top 500 have grown by 15.16 percent to $55.64 billion in 2008. Amazon.com, with a reported $19.17 billion in online sales, was on the high side, while catalog companies posted a modest 2.03 percent growth to $7.54 billion.

The figures will appear in Internet Retailer’s forthcoming 2009 Top 500 Guide.

Amazon.com sales in 2008 exert a disproportionate influence on the numbers, Internet Retailer said Wednesday. Without Amazon’s sales, online sales for the remaining retailers included in the current update have increased by 8.82 percent to $36.47 billion. A handsome growth in a “normal” financial year, and an impressive one considering the very difficult fourth quarter of 2008.

Web retailers continue to be the fastest growing channel with combined sales of $31.30 billion in 2008, up 23.37 percent from 2007.

Following web-only merchants, chain retailers were the next fastest growing category of merchants with 2008 combined sales of $16.15 billion, up 8.12 percent from in the prior year.

Consumer brand manufacturers posted collective e-commerce sales of $635.9 million, up 5.03 percent from the prior year.