There is currently a need for brick and mortar sales in this economy, but there is some good news for ecommerce merchants. According to research firm comScore, online sales for the second quarter of 2011 totaled $37.5 billion. That reflects a 14 percent improvement over 2010, not to mention the seventh quarter in a row of positive growth.

The research does not suggest that people are spending more individually, but rather that more customers are shopping online for the first time. Interestingly, market share for the largest online retailers declined slightly, showing that independent and medium electronic online retailers are holding their own and even regaining some ground against the Amazon.coms and the Walmart.coms. The largest retailers? share dropped from 67.7 percent to 66.4 percent.

Offering some additional data on the trends, the U.S. Census Department released its estimate of total second quarter web sales in mid-August, reporting total ecommerce sales at $47.5 billion, up 3 percent from the first quarter of the year, as well as up 17.6 percent from the second quarter in 2010. That?s twice the annual growth rate experienced in the general retail sector. The government data is based on its regular survey of 12,500 retailers, most not specializing in ecommerce.