Surveys: Online holiday shopping expected to be merry

28.10.2005
Consumers are expected to spend approximately 25 percent more online this holiday season than they did last year, several analysts said.

In fact, more than half of the 1,000 shoppers surveyed by MyPoints.com, a Web site for frequent shoppers, said they plan to do at least 54 percent of their shopping online this year. MyPoints members expect to buy everything from apparel, books and magazines to home electronics and even gourmet food and beverages online this holiday season.

"Overall, we expect online holiday shopping to be up more than 25 percent over last year," said David Rosen, MyPoints' senior vice president for marketing.

According to the survey, an equal percentage of women and men agreed that shopping online has made them happier shoppers. Some 29 percent of the women and 34 percent of the men said the single biggest benefit of shopping online is finding the best prices. Another 23 percent of the women and 24 percent of the men cited the efficiency of online shopping as the biggest benefit.

Jeffrey Grau, senior analyst at eMarketer Inc., said in a statement that he's confident this holiday season will be a bright one for online retailers, despite high oil prices, a negative personal savings rate, declining consumer confidence and the uncertain long-term impact of hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Online retail sales for the fourth quarter of this year will be US$26.2 billion, up 21.9 percent over last year, according to a survey by eMarketer. Much of the gain is coming as shoppers continue to migrate online from brick-and-mortar stores.

"Several factors are behind this growth -- a longer shopping season on the Internet; improved order fulfillment, which allows shoppers to make purchases nearly until Christmas; and intense competition among online retailers, which leads to aggressive promotions -- all benefiting the deal-seeking consumer," Grau said in the statement.