ChoiceStream

This year's Internet Retailer Conference in Boston left me nostalgic, proud and in need of more shiny stuff (don't worry, I'll explain). On the plane ride home, I thought about the journey that e-commerce teams in large, multi-channel retailers have taken the past ten plus years. Starting back in the late 90's, we were a rogue group of innovators with some great ideas about a new shopping channel accessed from the ease of a consumer's couch, then quickly became the group that 'wanted more resources,' to now — a team of seasoned executives with power but still separate from their store counterparts. Today, e-commerce teams have successful lines of business and are more integrated into the overall retail organization than they have ever been.

Even with all this progress, multi-channel retailers are in a financially sensitive situation given the state of the economy and the impact that it has had on consumer spending. eBay's SVP and GM of North America, Stephanie Tilenius , shared in her keynote address last Tuesday that many retailers have been reporting negative in-store sales growth, but are seeing continued positive growth in their e-commerce channels. Recent numbers from Gap, Kohl's and others confirm this trend.

And while the online growth story bodes well for all the hard work and smart decisions these teams have exhibited over the years, the reality is that e-commerce still only accounts for 3.5% of overall retail sales in the US. Consumers still prefer to make purchases in actual stores.

Let's use an analogy to help bring this multi-channel evolution to life visually. Picture the proverbial silver lining. Its thin shimmery metallic material surrounded by a much larger volume of less shiny material. So while this lining of e-commerce growth is thin — less than 5% of the whole package of retail sales — it is the layer with the most shine and sparkle.

At the show this week, speakers and panelists focused their remarks on the technology and innovation fueling the growth of the e-commerce channel. But, what if the attitudes and aptitudes being applied to e-commerce solutions directly impact online pre-shopping and influence the decisions made by those shoppers who prefer to buy in-store? Will the online teams show their counterparts in the rest of the retail organizations how to communicate with consumers online at each stage of the buying cycle and attribute purchases – in-store or online – to the right campaign? What would this look like? Isn't it possible to leverage the silver lining online marketers created to reverse the current trend of declining in-store sales?