• by June 23, 2004

'Tis the wedding season, and cash registers are ringing--especially online.

Research conducted by Claria Corp.'s Feedback Research unit finds that 29 percent of Internet consumers purchase wedding gifts online.

A few of the findings:

*Fifty-seven percent of the survey respondents who purchased a wedding gift researched it online before buying, up 9 points from last year.

*Seventy-nine percent of the survey respondents bought gifts from the bride and groom's gift registries either online or offline, up 17 points from last year.

*Target, the bulls-eye brand, was the most popular store to purchase wedding gifts with 52 percent of respondents saying that they have purchased a gift there, followed by Bed, Bath & Beyond (46 percent) and Macy's (32 percent).

Claria's Feedback unit also found that from May 1-June 14, Target.com topped the list as the most popular gift registry page, with 34 percent of total traffic, followed by the Bed, Bath & Beyond gift registry with 23 percent and the Macy's gift registry on weddingchannel.com with 19 percent. The average viewer to these registry sites came back 5 times, with 91 percent of consumers viewing more than one registry, while 67 percent viewed only one gift registry.

The survey found that 50 percent of respondents typically spend more than $50 on a wedding gift.

A note about methodology: Claria's Feedback Research analyzed the actual online traffic of Claria's 43 million users to gain insight into how people use the Internet for wedding-related activities, including wedding gift purchases. Traffic was monitored from March 29 to June 14, 2004 among consumers who viewed retailing sites that have popular online registries, such as Target.com, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Macy's. Feedback Research also surveyed a random sampling of these same consumers to find out how they were shopping and using the Internet for their wedding needs.