You have said that in a consumer-centric world, everyone will be a retailer. Being a retailer means dealing directly with customers. We say that everyone will be a retailer because virtually all businesses will be just one click away from interacting directly with their customers. All companies must think like retailers. Time Warner and AOL are merging because AOL has 20 million relationships.
Customer relationships are paramount to success.
You say that e-retailing offers many opportunities but seizing them will be a challenge. The challenge is figuring out who owns the customer - particularly with respect to retailers. Some retailers have been very aggressive in trying to prevent manufacturers from going directly to customers because they view that as competition. Some manufacturers have already tried to disintermediate retailers. The other alternative is for retailers to work with the manufacturers to sell their products on the Internet.