Surfers fuel online holiday shopping bonanza

Online retail holiday sales for November and December 2004 will reach $21.6bn, representing a 19 per cent increase compared to the same period in 2003, market research has found.

According to the latest analysis from Jupiter Research, online US holiday sales continue to experience double-digit increases compared with uneven growth offline, primarily due to the growing number of online buyers.

The study predicts that 86 million US residents are expected to make holiday purchases online this year compared to 73 million last year.

While the usual list of top-selling categories - toys, books and apparel - still dominates consumers' planned purchases this year, respondents to the Jupiter Research study indicated they will buy a wider variety of items online this year than previously.

"Consumers use the internet to get inspiration as well as to find good prices on holidays," said Jupiter Research retail analyst Patti Freeman Evans.

"Over half of online holiday shoppers say they will use the web to get gift ideas or to seek better prices.

"To capture these customers this holiday season, retailers are wise to use emails to alert customers who have left items in their shopping carts or wish lists when the price changes or inventories get low on those items."

Evans added that shoppers were tempted to make online purchases by offers such as free shipping.