U.S. retailers more than doubled their search engine adspend in 2004, spending $877,630 on average, compared with $399,923 in 2003, according to a Forrester study of nearly 140 nationwide retailers released Tuesday, MediaPost reports. The retailers also reported, on average, that 43 percent of traffic to their websites resulted from search engine marketing. Forrester's "State of Retailing Online 8.0" study was conducted for Shop.org, the National Retail Federation's e-commerce division.

Internet Retailer reports, citing the same study, that online retailers improved overall operating margins to 28 percent from 21 percent in 2003, with catalog-based retailers continuing to record the best operating margins, which rose to 32 percent from 28 percent in 2003.

The study also forecast that various retail categories would register high rates of growth in 2005 as women continue to embrace e-commerce: cosmetics and fragrances, up 33 percent to $1.6 billion; over-the-counter medicines and personal care, up 32 percent to $1.3 billion; jewelry and luxury goods, up 31 percent to $3.2 billion; flowers, cards, and gift purchases, up 30 percent to $4.8 billion.

Retailers also expect the internet to account for 10 percent or more of sales in several categories this year, including computer hardware and software (48 percent), tickets (28 percent), travel (26 percent), books (20 percent), consumer electronics (13 percent), cosmetics and fragrances (12 percent), toys and video games (12 percent), and flowers, cards, and gifts (10 percent).