May 1, 2009 12:00 PM

With 22% sales expansion in 2008, Web growth once again surpassed every other channel last year

With the recession on, companies are looking for cost-effective ways to keep sales steady — and the Internet continues to offer this in spades. In fact, while some brick-and-mortar retailers are floundering, online sales for many continue to flourish. According to Internet Retailer, U.S. Internet sales jumped 19% in 2008, while total retail sales grew a mere 1.4%. Other reports show more modest online retail sales growth in 2008. ComScore Inc., for example, estimates that 2008 Internet sales were up 6% last year, to $130.1 billion — despite being down 3% for the fourth quarter of 2008.

Certainly, the U.S. nutrition industry has benefited from e-commerce and is a leading sales category within the Internet channel. Although expansion slowed slightly last year, Nutrition Business Journal research shows that the Internet was once again the fastest-growing sales channel within the U.S. nutrition industry in 2008. According to NBJ estimates, total U.S. nutrition industry sales via the Internet grew 22% to $1.4 billion in 2008, adding approximately $250 million in new sales last year. In 2007, online U.S. consumer sales of nutrition products grew 25%. Even with its solid growth, the Internet remains the smallest of the four NBJ-defined direct sales channels within the U.S. nutrition industry. In comparison, the natural & specialty and mass market retail channels together generated nearly $90 billion in U.S. consumer sales and grew about 9.3% in 2008, according to NBJ estimates.

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