Forrester Data: Web-Influenced Retail Sales Forecast, 2016 To 2021 (US)

Web influence is a measure of internet research’s effect on offline retail sales, and this forecast highlights the effects of retailers’ cross-channel selling efforts. By 2021, we expect 40% of in-store sales to be influenced by the internet during the customer’s purchase journey. From 2016 to 2021, web-influenced sales will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.6%. This forecast calculates web-influenced sales across 31 retail categories, with historical data going back to 2004. The day when almost all products are 100% web-influenced is rapidly approaching. Therefore, online presence is vital to retailer success, especially when web-influenced sales are more than three times larger than online sales. This report also includes a top-line forecast on mobile-phone-influenced sales, which is the percentage of offline retail that is influenced by mobile phone research.