Report: Online Spending to Sharply Increase During Holidays

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 25, 2003 - 7:03am.

New York -- Consumers are expected to significantly increase their online shopping budgets during the holiday season, according to a new report from Nielsen//NetRatings, Goldman, Sachs & Co. and Harris Interactive. During the week ending Nov. 15, 67% of those surveyed said that they had visited an e-commerce site, up from 60% during the same week last year. A separate report by Nielsen//NetRatings found that the online holiday shopping season has officially started during the past two weeks, driven by a significant uptick in shopping at toys sites. "Toys and games got the holiday season started this year, with big spikes in many of the firms' online sessions," said Robert Leathern, a director and senior analyst for Nielsen//NetRatings. "Other categories like consumer electronics, and home and garden have shown strong consistent growth throughout this year, and continue to grow traffic strongly as the holiday season is kicking off."
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_031125.pdf
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/pr/pr_0311251.pdf