Internet Sales, still at 8% of total sales

M. Brennan, CNBC says that internet sales are benefiting from the same conditions that are hurting sales at brick-and-mortar stores.High gas prices keep consumers away from malls or cut sdoen on visits. He shows that e-mails sent to repeat customers by stores have the cheapest marketing cost ($6.85 is the average cost per order), while the average order value is high ($120.27 )
"Search engine shopping is also among the cheapest ($8.63 average cost per order) while yielding a high return ($109.73 average order value.) These cheap marketing tools are helping retailers maximize profits."

Again CNBC is giving more than just snippets of info, but is combining it with behind the scenes data!

Which lead me to a question: Are Google

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and other search engines truly the main beneficiaries of the growth in retail? Is this "retail trade" really more of a "tech play"?