Online shoppers will spend a record $9.9 billion during the upcoming holiday season, up from 43% from $6.9 billion last year. But they are expected to spend less.
More than 106 million people are expected to shop online in December, a 27% growth over the 85 million surfers that shopped at the same time last year, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
The study is based on historical online spending trends across 13 key product categories: auctions, books, music, video, clothing/apparel, computer hardware, computer software, electronics, fitness/sports equipment, flowers/gifts/cards, health/beauty, home/garden and toys.
“With more people shopping and buying online compared to last year, e-commerce activity is set to post respectable year-over-year growth, despite the effects of the economic slowdown and recent national events,” said Sean Kaldor, vice president of analytical services, NetRatings.
In a related study, 34% of consumers plan to spend less overall this holiday season compared with last year, with only 10% planning to spend more, according to a study by Vividence Corp.
“This study confirms what analysts and economists have predicted — that consumers do indeed anticipate spending less this year,” said Jeff Greenberg, president and CEO of Vividence. “However, our study also indicates that online retailers have an unexpected opportunity to showcase the advantages of shopping online, as people plan to shop on the Web more this year than they did last year.”
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