The impact of technology on e-commerce - online sales - is leading to the spread of real-time trading, from stock exchanges to almost every business sector, from airlines to auction rooms and retail sales.

Michael Ross, co-founder and a director of eCommera, said traditional physical retailers reviewed stock and sales weekly and the key management skills
and information, such as like-forlike sale performance, was well understood.

This is not the case in e-commerce, he added, after carrying out a survey of 100 e-commerce directors in the UK.

Almost two-thirds of respondents said their online sales were growing by 20% or less or had fallen in the past year.

Ross said reporting lines were important…