There is good news to report on the economic front: Many online retailers are expecting average annual growth this year of up to 35 percent.

Many online retailers predict their businesses will perform better than the first half of the year's expectations. This information is courtesy of the State of Retailing Online Profitability, Economy and Multichannel report released last month by Shop.org, an online retailing unit of the National Retail Federation.

The study was based on a survey conducted by Forrester Research, Inc. involving 125 retailers in June and July 2008, when participants were asked about their plans and expectations for the year.

Five percent of the survey's participants say they believe their online business will perform even better than expected in the following year. Thirty percent say they believe their online business growth was slightly better than expected; 33 percent said business performed as expected and 32 percent say business growth was slightly worse than expected.