Online retail, travel and event ticket sales totaled $45 billion in the second quarter - a 3 percent increase from the first quarter and 16 percent more than in 2Q05, writes Internet Retailer, citing data from Forrester Research.

More traffic, higher conversion rates larger average order values contributed to the growth, according to the report. Retail websites in the food and home improvement sectors had double-digit increases in traffic.

Online retail sales remain on course to reach $211 billion by year's end, according to Forrester.