The past year has been alternately challenging and rewarding for the e-commerce industry, but throughout it all, I have been excited to deliver the news you need to stay in the know. Part I of this Shop.org SmartBrief special year-end report aggregates the most important trends, stories and events of 2008. Part II, which will hit your inbox Thursday, will take a look at what's in store for 2008.

Online retail was one of the few industries that experienced continued growth throughout 2008. In fact, in November, a study by Shopzilla for Shop.org found that more than half of online retailers expect their holiday sales to increase at least 15% over last year's.

While sales growth continued, retailers focused on adding innovative and improved features to their sites, such as site search, customer reviews, and product images and videos. Customers flocked online to take advantage of these new features, save on gas money and do research for price comparisons.

What else were online retailers up to in 2008? In September, they gathered for the 2008 Shop.org Annual Summit in Las Vegas. For more SmartBrief coverage of that event, which featured George Jones, president and CEO of Borders, and Toby Lenk, Gap.com CEO, read the Annual Summit Post-Show Special Report.

International e-commerce also came into focus more clearly this year. In October, the first Global eCommerce Summit was held in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. There has been widespread uptake of broadband in Europe and an increase in Internet users, according to Forrester.

As always, you can check out the Shop.org Blog for regular updates from e-commerce experts.