“As consumers rely more on the web to investigate potential purchases, social media, search and other online tools/technologies are having a greater impact on transactions completed within brick-and-mortar stores,” the story reports.

How big is the cross-channel shopping trend getting? Retail Touchpoints also notes the following: “More than 40 percent, or $1.3 trillion of total U.S. retail sales, will be cross-channel by 2013, according to Forrester Research’s report titled: Web-Influenced Retail Sales Forecast, 2011 To 2016 (U.S.). That total is expected to grow to approximately $1.7 trillion by 2016.”