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Yep, bold statements often come back to bite you hard and that seems to be happening to me. On Friday I made the bold statement that online sales over in mainstream was booming and now, as I write this on Saturday afternoon US time, the Drudge report is suggesting that the New York Times is about to declare otherwise in its Sunday edition.

It seems that perhaps growth in sales are not just declining gradually but:

'Growth in online sales has dropped dramatically in such diverse categories as health and beauty products, computer peripherals and pet supplies. Analysts say it is a turning point and growth will continue to slow through the decade.'

Could analysts be right? Could sales really continue to slow throughout this decade? It's definitely one of those statements that just make you go 'Hmmm'. With more and more businesses taking their business online and more and more factors making shopping from home so attractive why would growth in online sales really continue to slow?

Then add to that the fact that traffic to major shopping sites doesn't seem to be dropping and Hitwise is suggesting that when the weather is bad traffic to shopping sites has been spiking and you do have to wonder.

Sure, we should expect to see a slowdown (and maybe even a downturn) in sales at this time ... and I'm not just talking about the summer slowdown – economies in some parts of the world are contracting and that leads to fewer sales everywhere – but declaring that online sales will continue to slow for the rest of this decade might be a bit bold.

You have to wonder about that statement even more as many retailers are finding that selling online offers economies of scale that just aren't there in bricks-and-mortar businesses. I'm told that the Discover Channel is closing all of its bricks-and-mortar stores because its online sales are booming and far outstripping the sales from their real-world shops.

Smaller retailers are finding the same thing and some small businesses are only able to survive because they're closing the shops and taking their business online. So perhaps the sky isn't falling in the world of online sales just yet. It could be time to make some adjustments so you can weather a difficult period but whether that period will last till 2010 remains to be seen.

Incorporating video into search
I came across an interesting tip about incorporating video into search on a mainstream blog yesterday that I thought I should share with you. As you should know by now Google is incorporating video links into the search results it returns for most terms and a few people have been finding that video clips posted to Youtube have been appearing in great positions on the front page.

But Youtube isn't the only video sharing site out there. Do a search for them and you'll come up with quite a few including Google Video. So if there are all those video sharing sites out there why not take advantage of them? What is to stop you from posting the same video clip to each of the Youtube clones and optimising the entries for each clip for different search terms?

Not only will you have a great chance of ranking for a variety of terms with just the one video clip but you could also pick up some business from people surfing that video sharing site. Even something as boring as a one minute clip by a chiropractor seems to have picked up a lot of views from the surfers on the video sites where it has been posted.

But just how effective a video clip might be in promoting a business is definitely going to depend on the level of professionalism that can be seen in the video.

And video isn't just for search
Now if the growth in sales is declining perhaps it's time to introduce new ways of making those sales. Perhaps now's the time to introduce some video into your mainstream marketing sites to better showcase the product your selling.

Here in adult we've seen every paysite include video clips in their tours but perhaps now is the time to change the way we use video here in adult too. Everyone has clips taken directly from the hardcore video that the surfers will find in the members' area but perhaps it's time to use genuine promotional video on the tour rather that straight cuts from what's inside.

Perhaps it's time to blend some footage of interviews with the models with short clips from the video to encourage surfers to want to see more. Of course if you want to do that you're going to need to use models who are actually capable of speaking but then if you want to make sales you've got to do what you've got to do even if it might cost a little more.