Mulpuru points to Federated Department Stores as a company that has prioritized online shopping as a major initiative on an executive level, which panelists say is the first step in becoming a leading Internet retailer. "The big thing that they retailer has to do is say 'This is important to us,'" says Pat Connelly, executive vice president and chief marketing officer of Williams-Sonoma.

Panelists agreed that one of the best ways for a retailer to make inroads online is by acquiring search terms that search engines like Google and Yahoo sell as advertisements. Those terms are valuable ways of driving traffic to retail sites, speakers say.

Meanwhile, it is becoming increasingly important to customers that online brick-and-mortar retailers allow purchasers to return their Internet-bought items in stores. They also want to be able to order products online when it might be out of stock in a store, says Rob Schmults, vice president of sporting goods business management at GSR Commerce. "The customers are taking retailers to the next place, not the other way around," he says.