8% of retail sales to be online by 2013

Online retail is forecast to skyrocket to a $229 billion market in four years, or 8 percent of all U.S. retail sales, according to a report being released today.

One irony is that clothes, shoes and accessories -- the items that shoppers would be expected to want to try on -- top the list of the most popular future online categories, with sales expected to top $40 billion in 2013 from this year's forecast $27 billion, according to the findings by Forrester Research.

The next largest categories are computer hardware, software and peripherals, projected to grow to $36 billion in 2013 from this year's $27.2 billion, and appliances and home improvement products, projected to grow to $30.3 billion from this year's projected $19.2 billion, according to the report titled "The State of Retailing Online 2009." BY SANDRA GUY sguy@suntimes.com via SunTimes