With that in mind,  Adam Lashinsky, Senior Editor at Large at Fortune Magazine moderated a panel discussion at Nielsen’s Consumer 360 with Mike Brennan, COO Peapod; Anne Jones, VP, Business Development, Kimberly-Clark and Steve Nave, SVP and GM, Walmart.com.

“For a CPG marketer, it’s a fascinating time because the way the consumer is shopping is so different,” said Anne Jones, Vice President of Business Development for Kimberly-Clark.

Jones identifies three trends in e-commerce that she coins the “digital ecosystem,” which include mobile commerce, social commerce and cloud commerce.

Mobile commerce is growing across all demographics, and most notably, among the Hispanic populations. The industry, which currently represents $2.4 billion annually, gives consumers access to on-demand information, including promotions and coupons.

“Mobile is an accelerator of e-commerce, not a challenger,” said Jones.

“Mobile is an access point because it provides one more arena for consumers to interact with a brand,” said Steve Nave, SVP and GM of Walmart.com.

The conversation around social commerce, which Jones defines as the fusion between social media and e-commerce, was largely dominated by the notion of F-commerce, or “Facebook commerce.” Jones argues that brands who have a lot of Facebook fans maintain a strategic advantage, and it seems the growing consensus is that F-commerce is more than just a fad. Research shows that younger consumers are more likely to engage with a brand on Facebook than a direct website created by the same brand. As Facebook continues to dominate consumer interest, it gives consumers the option to learn about brands and products from friends and family and rely less on retailers directly for information. As such, brands need to be involved and engaged in the conversations taking place and leverage the information garnered from Facebook to better customize the online buying experience for their consumers.

Despite a growing awareness of the importance of platforms like Facebook for e-commerce, Steve Nave points out the need for further understanding of these platforms among brand marketers before full advantage can be taken. “A lot of retailers know they need to have a presence on Facebook and engage with their customers there, but most are still figuring out the best and most effective ways to engage. We still don’t really know how this is going to play out,” he said.

“F-commerce has a unique ability to create intent to purchase among consumers because it gets people excited about brands,” said Mike Brennan, COO of Peapod.

Amidst a conversation dominated by trends in e-commerce and the growing influence of online commerce, the importance of traditional brick-and-mortar retail was echoed on numerous occasions. Jones reminded brand marketers that Facebook and other e-commerce platforms are channels that markers need to consider, but as brick-and-mortar retailers continue to diversify and become multi-channel themselves, brick-and-mortar retailers provide improved and still dominant channels for consumer consumption.

Many online retailers, including Walmart.com, are on a quest to move away from thinking about e-commerce and traditional retail channels separately. Steve Nave coins this concept the “continuous channel,” emphasizing the need to elevate the focus onto the consumer and brand directly and away from the various channels where people shop. “It’s all about letting the customer interact with the brand in the way he or she wants to,” he said.

Online Grocery Shopping
One of the fastest growing areas of e-commerce is grocery shopping online. While a number of companies failed in their attempts to deliver things like fresh produce to consumers in the late 90’s dot com boom/bust, a number of brands, including Peapod, have validated this business model in recent years. Recognizing this, more and more e-tailers, including Walmart, are looking to monetize this trend.

It’s up for debate why online grocery shopping seems to be a promising model today, as opposed to the tribulations witnessed in years past, but it seems consumer acceptance of the notion of buying groceries online – arguably a more intimate shopping experience – is fueling this growth.

Daily Deals & Online Coupons
Daily deal sites and online coupons are arguably the hottest topic in e-commerce these days. Whether or not this is a sustainable business model for the Groupons of the world, a viable long-term marketing tool for brands or simply a fad are all questions yet to be answered.

Anne Jones argues that this is not a fad and she sees sites like Groupon as a natural evolution from personalized daily deals, which have been around for some time, to personalized and localized deals as a result of improved technology.

“Groupon creates a sense of urgency for the consumer and that’s an interesting appeal to marketers,” said Brennan.

Fast Facts:

• Mobile commerce represents 2.7% of web revenue and $2.4 billion annually
• Mobile commerce has doubled in size since 2009 alone
• Moms with young kids are becoming one of the most important demographic drivers of e-commerce, with 20% of purchases from this demo falling coming from diapers and infant care

Unique visitors to the sites included in the Index reached 35.9 million, a 13% increase over this year’s Black Friday Web traffic.

Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same as those on Black Friday. eBay drew the largest unique audience (10.6 million), while Amazon and Wal-Mart claimed second and third places, with 9 million and 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively.

Among the top 10 online retailers, Sears’ site saw the fastest growth (+58%, year over year).

Beauty was the fastest growing product category on Monday, increasing 151% over the previous Monday, November 24, 2008.

Toys/Videogames ranked second, growing 112% Monday over Monday, while Apparel rounded out the top three with an increase of 58%.

“The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was better than many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth will carry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales,” Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online, noted.  “It remains to be seen if people have done the majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time, or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15th will be the peak day for online shopping traffic.”

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Ad Age, PC World, the Orlando Sentinel, ClickZ.com, and InternetRetailer.com.

“Even with the weakening economy, an unstable stock market and a rising unemployment rate, Black Friday traffic to online retail sites grew at a double digit rate this year,” said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online.

Black Friday Online Conversations and Consumer Perceptions

• Not surprisingly, shopping incentives were a key part of Black Friday discussions. The terms “deals,” “sales,” and “doorbusters,” referring to deep discounts intended to get shoppers in the door, were all closely associated with Black Friday.
• Specific retailers were also mentioned in relation to Black Friday, including Sears, CVS, Wal-Mart, JCPenney, Staples and Circuit City, among others.
• Consumers discussed specific products and gift ideas, including high definition televisions, video games, laptops and toys.

See Nielsen Online’s Black Friday BAM here.

The Nielsen Online Holiday eShopping Index is comprised of over 120 representative online retailers across twelve categories, and acts as a barometer to gauge the level of activity at online shopping destinations during the holiday season. The Index illustrates increased shopping activity through category growth.

View the complete report.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in TIME, the Financial Times, by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, and on CNET.com, NPR.org, and Digital Daily.

The company’s sales for the most recent quarter grew 41% to $4.06 billion, and its operating income increased by 86% to $217 million.

The story noted that Web traffic to Amazon.com grew 10% from last year — up from 49.3 million visitors in Q2 2007 to an average audience of 54.4 million in Q2 2008, according to Nielsen Online. 

In May, Nielsen ranked Amazon.com second among U.S. online retailers, in terms of total purchases.