• by November 22, 2000

Today may just be the most appropriate day of the year to talk about my favorite online activity - shopping. Well, that's after email, the newswires, online news magazines and other stuff I spend most of my days on, but nevertheless... shopping is the topic.

Not only because today is one of the biggest offline shopping days of the year, but because nearly 20% of Americans will shop online for Christmas gifts this year, according to a new Maritz Poll conducted by Maritz Marketing Research Inc., one of the world's largest marketing research firms.

That's up 7% from the 13% who said they would shop online last year.

Surprisingly, much of the gain is with people between the ages of 55-64, which is up nearly ten percentage points. Sixteen percent in that age group will shop online, up from 7% last year. Also of note, the number of women shopping the Internet is about equal to the number of men. Nineteen percent of women will make online purchases, compared to 20 percent of men.

e-Shoppers will spend an average of $251 online for Christmas gifts, a 9% jump over last year's $230. That's about a third of their total purchases, considering the average American will spend $830 on gifts from all sources. On average, men will outspend women on the Internet. Men expect to dole out an average of $272 online, up $51 from last year. Expenditures by women will actually decrease $14 to $225 this year.

The point of the story - it's probably a good idea to include online in your media plans for the rest of year to get a slice of the $251 pie. Speaking of pie... I hope you're having a great Thanksgiving weekend.