Nov 19 1999: Online retailers who have not invested in customer service could end up losing $3.2 billion in sales this year, according to a new report from Datamonitor. Where last year retailers with no customer service support lost up to $1.6 billion in lost sales, this year that figure will be twice that.   Consequently, a new report from Datamonitor advices businesses to invest more in customer support and less in trying to garner new clients. Rather than spend exorbitant amounts of money on marketing and advertising, these companies should start investing in live customer service.   As the list of excuses for substandard performance on ecommerce sites this year decreases - the technology is there and mistakes made last year should not be made this year, retailers are hoping to turn new shoppers into loyal shoppers this season.   Datamonitor advice retailers to invest in providing live customer support in the form of instant messaging, call centres or IRC technology. Less than 1 percent of sites currently currently have any live support and Datamonitor believe that 10 percent of sales lost could have been saved by real contact with a person.   The research company project that by 2003, 40 percent of companies will provide mulitmedia customer support.