Online Shoppers Plan to Buy More Holiday Gifts on the Web

Internet Retailer brings more encouraging news about the upcoming holiday season. Everywhere I look, there's another article predicting the shift away from brick-and-mortar stores to online retailers as shoppers are learning about the many advantages of buying through the web. Take a quick moment to read what they had to say:

Although most online shoppers say they plan to spend about the same on gifts this holiday season as last, 55% of them plan to do the majority of their shopping online, up from 49% a year ago, according to the 2009 Mindset of a Multi-Channel Shopper Survey, commissioned by e-commerce platform and services provider MarketLive, Inc., and e-commerce consultancy The E-tailing Group.

Moreover, the survey found that 26% of consumers surveyed plan to purchase more gifts online than they did last year, up from 21% a year ago. Shoppers say they buy gifts online to save time (85%), locate hard-to-find items (82%), cull through wish lists (40%) and read consumer reviews (38%).

Even with flat overall projections, MarketLive chairman Ken Burke says this holiday season won't be too grim.

"The difference between this year and last is the inventories are lower so there won't be as much on the store shelves or warehouses, which means deep discounting won't be as prevalent as a year ago," he says.

And, he adds, many merchants seem to have learned lessons from last year's holiday season and are focusing on customer service in stores and on specific, segmented marketing online.

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