In October, eMarketer predicted that online US retailers would ring up sales of $24.3 billion during the current holiday season (November and December; see Online Holiday Shopping Preview). This figure includes sales of gifts as well as goods unrelated to the holiday season.
The holiday shopping season is now in full swing and new eMarketer projections put the number of US online buyers for the holiday season at 93 million, each spending an average of $263. The bulk of this spending, around $205, will go toward holiday purchases. The remainder will be for non-holiday-related items.
The holiday season's impact on annual online spending is significant. US e-commerce sales are well on track this year to break the $100 billion mark, reaching $108 billion (excluding travel and event tickets). Online holiday sales will account for 22% of the total. Online buyers will each spend about $1,055 in 2006 on merchandise purchased from Web retailers.
Some 13% of holiday shoppers in November told the online market research firm Compete that they planned to spend their entire gift-buying budget over the Internet this holiday season. Altogether nearly one-third (31%) of consumers intended to spend more than half of their gift budgets online. This compares with 28% who planned to do at least half their shopping at major retail stores. The most popular channel for anticipated holiday purchases were discount stores, where about 38% of consumers planned to do at least half of their holiday shopping.
Looking at dollar amounts, almost one in four (23%) respondents to a survey by Vendio, the maker of Dealio, a comparison shopping toolbar on the Web, said they planned to spend at least $400 over the Internet during the holiday season. Among consumers who said they planned to conduct some of their holiday shopping online, 56% said they intended to buy from large, established online retailers, even if their prices are higher than those of smaller, lesser-known Web merchants. Some 54% said they planned to shop at discount online outlets like eBay, Overstock.com and Half.com. A quarter (24%) of respondents said they would shop with smaller, lesser-known Internet retailers as long as the price is the absolute lowest.
For more information and analysis on about online retail this holiday season, read eMarketer's Online Holiday Shopping Preview report.