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Today, Internet Retailer released their annual Top 500 Guide that chronicles the online retail industry in general and the top 500 online retailers in particular. As I am listening to their presentation of the report, I am typing these highlights.

Total E-Retail revenue hit $166 billion in the US in 2007, representing 6.3% of total revenue. The top 500 online retailers accounted for 61% of the total E-Retail revenue. Total retail growth was at 3.8% last year while E-Retail grew at a much healthier 21.8%.

The fastest growing categories in 2007 online were jewelry (36%), books/other media (32%), mass merchants/dept. stores (31%) and apparel (24%). The slowest growing categories were health and beauty (11%), flowers/gifts (11%), food/drugs (12%), and hardware/home improvement (13%).

Internet Retailer segments online retailers into four categories—retail chains, web only companies, catalogers, and manufacturers. Strangely, catalogers grew the fastest at 30% and the retail chains grew the slowest at 18%. This is interesting because retail chains are in the best position to capitalize on the multi-channel advantage.

Amazon dominated in 2007 with $14.8 billion in revenue and growth at 38.2%. QVC.com grew 50% and Apple saw growth of 33.3%.

The big players with the biggest declines in sales? Palm shrunk 45%, Sharper Image dropped 33% and Gateway lost 33% (Wow!).

There are many other nuggets in the report that I will get to later.

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