Online retail sales continues to grow

Redwood City, Calif. Year-over-year growth in total e-commerce revenue rose 11% in February, and shows the overall health of the industry improved 14%, according to MyBuys’ E-commerce Wellness Index, which measures the overall health of U.S. e-commerce and tracks key trends among retailers. MyBuys is a provider of personalized recommendations for multichannel retailers.

The index highlights a strong move in purchases of full-priced items, which increased by 16% versus February 2009. Sales of discounted items increased by 28% versus the same period a year ago, down markedly from the more than 100% increases steadily seen through the last half of 2009.

"With strong February results far outweighing a weaker-than-expected January, the index averaged positive 8% over the last 90 days, demonstrating positive momentum for the e-commerce industry," said Robert Cell, CEO MyBuys. "February saw growth in overall e-commerce sales, and importantly, this growth was fueled by increases in both full-priced and discounted goods.”

Cell said retailers are expected to continue to wean themselves from discount pricing tactics as their main growth engine through the remainder of 2010, and focus on innovative merchandising tactics instead.

Cell added that retailers that leverage personalization on their Web sites deliver higher average order values (AOV). In February, AOV was an average of 18% greater for orders with personalized products in the basket.