US retail e-commerce sales will rise by 17% to $204 billion in 2008 according to the Shop.org study "The State of Retailing Online 2008," conducted by Forrester Research.

"What’s spearheading online retail sales growth is a tale of two shoppers that visit the Web for very different reasons," said Sucharita Mulpuru, analyst at Forrester.

"The casual shopper goes online to look for the best price, leveraging the transparency of the Internet to save money. However, more affluent customers appreciate the convenience of shopping online and are not necessarily looking for the best deal. Retailers would be wise to recognize there are significant opportunities within both audiences and should market to them accordingly."

Retailers often name paid search as the most effective way to reach new customers. It is no surprise then that 90% of retailers surveyed said they plan to use pay-for-performance search placement and 79% said they will make it a greater priority in 2008.