IHS Global Insight projects e-commerce retail sales to increase approximately 17% during 2012, climbing to $230 billion–contributing to another record-breaking year for that rapidly growing sales category.  The first half of 2012 was marked with astounding performance for e-commerce retail sales.  Chris Christopher, Jr. Senior Principal Economist at IHS Global Insight stated “On a seasonally adjusted basis, 2012’s second quarter gain pushed e-commerce sales to their highest level and claimed more share of total retail sales. Currently, e-commerce retail sales account for 5.1% of all retail sales.”  Most interesting, the performance of cyber sales in the second quarter is stellar compared to the poor showing of the brick-and-mortar stores. Many chain stores are now looking to e-commerce to gain market share and supplement weak in-store sales.