As e-tail begins to catch up to its hype, here's our guide to the 50 most important online stores. Every holiday season, as retail spending hits its peak, the pundits bravely predict that this is the year online shopping will finally hit the big time. Those predictions are slowly edging closer to the truth. The fact is, despite phenomenal growth, online sales still account for little more than 1 percent of total U.S. retail spending.
Some sites fall off the map, and new ones pop up.
Here's our list of the 50 most important e-tail sites, the top five in each of 10 categories. Some of these companies could be out of business this time next year. Others will only get stronger. And when online retail finally does hit it really, really big, chances are it's those survivors that will make it happen. 7.46 The Seattle behemoth has vowed to increase sales by 50 percent while cutting costs by 30 percent.