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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."