Shoppers are flocking to this one segment of the retail market

BII

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E-commerce is not going away anytime soon.

The e-commerce market continues to outpace overall retail growth in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Online sales grew 15% year-over-year in the first quarter of 2016, compared to just 2% for the total retail market.

E-commerce sales in the U.S. climbed to more than $92 billion in the quarter, which represented 7.8% of the $1.18 trillion in all retail sales during that time. That total retail sales figure includes both online and in-store sales.

The online market is where the most growth is in retail at the moment, but retailers must still take a full 360-degree view of shopping channels. Total retail spending is not fluctuating much each year, but the role of individual shopping channels is changing quite a bit.

More shoppers are completing their actual purchases online, but they are still using traditional brick-and-mortar stores to browse for goods, research products, and speak with customer service representatives.

Given all these shopping methods, it's clear there has never been a better time to be a consumer. The rise of online and mobile shopping has given consumers more choice, flexibility, and often better service, and retailers are shifting their strategies to keep up.

Cooper Smith, senior research analyst at BI Intelligence, Business Insider's premium research service, has compiled a detailed report on new e-commerce strategies that looks at some of the top trends affecting retailers at each stage of the purchase funnel and how they're responding to those shifts.

Here are some of the key takeaways from the report:

• Within digital, consumers are spreading out their retail purchasing across channels, forcing retailers to spread out their online marketing budgets. Paid search, affiliate marketing, and email all increased their share of e-commerce referrals last year, according to Custora.
• Paid search especially stood out as a major source of spending by retailers. Search ad spending grew 18% YoY in Q4 2015, according to IgnitionOne.
• Mobile continues to drive the most sales growth for retailers, but sales still aren't keeping up with retail traffic. IBM found that smartphone traffic beat both tablet and desktop, making up 53% of all online traffic. But mobile still only accounted for 29% of all online sales.
• Retailers only have themselves to blame for underperformance on mobile, as many still aren't using best practices for mobile websites and apps. Only 60% of the top 100 global retailers currently have a dedicated mobile website, according to The Search Agency.
• The increase in online shopping has put stress on the shipping and logistics industry. The number of UPS ground packages delivered on time during the holidays fell from 97% in 2014 to 91% in 2015, according to ShipMatrix.
• Retailers are beginning to explore alternative shipping options. Earlier this year Gilt Groupe switched its primary ground shipper from UPS to Newgistics.
• Retailers that can't afford to invest in alternative shipping options are offering consumers more fulfillment options using what many of them do have — brick-and-mortar stores. Buying online and picking up in-store, also called click and collect, made up about 30% of e-commerce sales at Sam's Club in 2015.

In full, the report:

• Looks at how retailers are shifting their ad spending and marketing efforts to keep up with online retail behavior
• Identifies which channels are top performers for referral traffic and new opportunities for reaching consumers
• Analyzes how retailers are responding to the rise of mobile purchasing and where they're falling short
• Examines the evolving delivery landscape and the aggressive moves retailers are making to become their own shipping carriers

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