Forrester Research, Cambridge, MA, announced last month the launch of its newest service, Online Retailing Strategies. The service's first report, “The Look-To-Buy Imperative,” showed that although online retail sales reached $2.4 billion in 1997, less than 20 percent of “wired adults” made those purchases.
The service will focus on what is selling online, what isn't and why. Some of the research topics will include business-to-consumer e-commerce, coordinating online with in-store merchandising, building electronic customer service and managing online channel partners. Forrester is forecasting that online retailers will generate $4.8 billion in revenues in 1998 and that this amount will increase by more than 250 percent to $17 billion by 2001.
