Strictly storefront retailers across the country are starting to see less shoppers stop into their stores. These retailers are in the midst of two battles; one with the economy, and one with online ecommerce and are quickly looking for new ways to expand their overall sales.

Over the last 5 years there has been an extremely noticeable increase of online shopping sales. This can be attributed to the advances in technology, streamlining of operations, and the increase of online retailers. According to emarketer.com, in 2004 internet retail sales amounted to a meager $70.9 Billion dollars. Since then, online sales continue to grow at a rapid and steady rate reaching a now more impressive $133.1 Billion in 2009! An impressive growth, but this is only a fraction of what the overall retail sales are in the United States. Never the less there is a growing opportunity for retailers to carve out additional revenue online.

So what is the best option for growth in retail stores?

Imperially the retailers who do the best have both a strong online presence and a strong localized storefront presence. If created and marketed correctly, having an online store is a great way to add an extra revenue stream to your company. Online stores do not have boundaries, the internet is much more inelastic to economic change, and is a great complement to traditional storefront retail sales.

This positive relationship between online and storefront sales has been especially apparent in niche product markets. When selling strictly at a storefront, you are limited geographically to the number of people interested in your niche products. But to pair it with an online presence, this lifts this geographic barrier and allows you to further expand your reach and in turn sales possibilities.

There is of course a cost to creating an online presence and between the creation of the website, marketing for the website, and operations, it can become a beast in itself. But the costs associated with starting an online store are typically extremely small in comparison to a traditional storefront startup. Think of it as a smart business investment that essentially expands your current business into the nearly limitless World Wide Web. The ecommerce portion of a business, in many cases, has the potential to out perform the original storefront retail sales.

With the changes in culture, technology, and the economy the modern retail “game” can definitely be a war. But many US retailers are playing the game smart and attacking on two fronts, storefront and internet. Many of these retailers are finding success in their battle strategy, have you found yours?