At the 2009 International Home + Housewares Show in Chicago, we had the chance to sit down with Bill McCoy of SkyMall to talk about one of the biggest trends shaping retail — the massive shift toward online sales. Bill shared some incredible insights into how traditional retail industries are embracing e-commerce and what that means for product inventors and marketers.

According to Bill, the handwriting is on the wall: consumers are shopping online in record numbers, and companies that aren’t adapting are getting left behind. SkyMall has been at the intersection of retail and innovation for years, and their move into digital channels mirrors what we’ve been seeing across the entire direct response industry. The brands and products that win are the ones that meet consumers where they are — and increasingly, that’s online.

This is music to our ears at Livemercial. We’ve been preaching the power of online direct response since 2003, when we pioneered “instant on” streaming video for the web. Every year, more industries come around to what we’ve known all along: the internet is the most powerful sales channel ever created, and video is the key to unlocking its potential. Thanks to Bill McCoy for sharing his perspective — it’s great to see the rest of the world catching up.