Online holiday shopping: Who's doing it and where the deals are

Industry watchers predict continued growth in online shopping -- and fraud.

Cyber Monday, which falls on the Monday following Thanksgiving, has become the ceremonial kick-off to the online holiday shopping season. Most industry watchers agree it won’t be the heaviest day of online shopping, but that’s not stopping hundreds of retailers from offering free shipping and other incentives.

Coremetrics is betting the top sales day will occur Dec. 4. The Web analytics company predicts online retailers will see more traffic on Cyber Monday than any other day, but that sales one week later will best those on Cyber Monday by 19%.

For its part, CyberSource predicts the heaviest volume of online holiday shopping will occur on Dec. 18. The electronic payment and security management provider based its estimate on historical transaction volumes and the number of shipping days remaining before Dec. 25.

Regardless of which day rings in record-breaking sales, there are plenty of Web deals available to holiday shoppers. For long lists of online deals to be had, check out Shop.org’s Cyber Monday resource page; Yahoo Shopping’s Sales & Bargains Center ; and Google Checkout’s holiday site (The Google site isn’t launching until Nov. 27).

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Cyber Monday, which falls on the Monday following Thanksgiving, has become the ceremonial kick-off to the online holiday shopping season. Most industry watchers agree it won’t be the heaviest day of online shopping, but that’s not stopping hundreds of retailers from offering free shipping and other incentives.

Coremetrics is betting the top sales day will occur Dec. 4. The Web analytics company predicts online retailers will see more traffic on Cyber Monday than any other day, but that sales one week later will best those on Cyber Monday by 19%.

For its part, CyberSource predicts the heaviest volume of online holiday shopping will occur on Dec. 18. The electronic payment and security management provider based its estimate on historical transaction volumes and the number of shipping days remaining before Dec. 25.

Regardless of which day rings in record-breaking sales, there are plenty of Web deals available to holiday shoppers. For long lists of online deals to be had, check out Shop.org’s Cyber Monday resource page; Yahoo Shopping’s Sales & Bargains Center ; and Google Checkout’s holiday site (The Google site isn’t launching until Nov. 27).

Scores of online shoppers are expected to take advantage of merchants’ Web specials throughout the season. MasterCard reports that nearly three out of four people plan to shop online during the holidays, and 26% of them will shop online more this year than they did last year. The MasterCard Holiday Shopping Insights report also says consumers plan to spend an average of $700 this season -- nearly $300 of which will be spent online.

Meanwhile, buyers will be doing a considerable amount of that online shopping from the workplace. According to a Shop.org survey, conducted by BIGresearch, an estimated 61 million people will shop online for holiday gifts from work this year, up from 51.7 million people last year.

The Shop.org survey found more than half of consumers (50.7%) with Internet access at work plan to do some holiday shopping online from the office, up from 44.7% last year. Young adults are the most likely to shop from the office, with 71.5% of 18 to 24 year olds and 66.4% of 25 to 34 year olds planning to browse or buy online from the office this holiday season.

That’s not to say all businesses are losing precious employee attention, however. Harris Interactive conducted a survey on behalf of Google Checkout and found that among the U.S. adults planning to do some online holiday shopping from work (40% of participants), 57% plan to shop during coffee and lunch breaks, while 34% will wait until the end of the workday.

In the big picture, comScore Networks forecasts total online spending (excluding travel purchases) in 2006 will reach about $102 billion. Online buyers will ring in about $24 billion of that during November and December, comScore predicts.

Fraudsters, meanwhile, are keeping busy siphoning an estimated $3 billion from U.S. e-commerce in 2006, up from $2.8 billion last year, CyberSource says in its eighth annual survey of e-commerce fraud. The National Consumers League and the National Cyber Security Alliance caution that one in 10 online adults could become a victim of online fraud this holiday season.

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