Customer Behavior in an Online Ordering Application

The purpose in writing this paper is to exemplify how the online activity of customers has changed the playing field of retail sales over the years. Online retail sales have increased substantially over the past few years. For example, sales reached a staggering $14.8 billion in the November 1 to December 26, 2004 time period: a 29% increase over the same period in 2003. More importantly, online sales growth has consistently outpaced in-store sales growth-in-store sales rose only 4.5% in the same period mentioned above. Leading brick-and-mortar retailers such as Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Gap, and Williams-Sonoma have greatly improved their web sites, operational fulfillment, and delivery as competition in a slow growing retail sector focuses on the internet as the main vehicle for growth