• by Laurie Sullivan , Staff Writer @lauriesullivan, December 2, 2009

Think of retargeting ads as a form of regifting.

With online holiday shopping well underway, advertisers might want to consider retargeting consumers who searched for items on the engines, made it to the retailer's Web site, but for some reason abandoned the shopping cart before completing the purchase.

It's not clear what percentage of people abandoned those shopping carts before making a purchase, but I searched on many items during the four-day weekend and closed the browser window at least half a dozen times without making a purchase. [Note: we've since added a chart below, from Coremetrics, with figures on shopping cart abandonment rates from last Wednesday through Sunday.]

In fact, in a survey released this week (but conducted in August) from Advertise.com and the Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization, almost half of the participants (46.3%), said retargeting was the No. 1 underutilized online marketing technology.

When survey participates were asked whether they have used display retargeting in their online advertising either now or in the past, 69.5% said no; and 30.5%, yes. Fifty-one percent of those who answered "yes" also said display retargeting made their advertising more impactful.

Other underused online marketing tactics were geographical targeting, chosen by 18.3% of survey participants; traffic source optimization, 15.9%; keyword targeting,13.4%; other, 3.7%; and category targeting, 2.4%.

Moving to more-seasonal stats, Google reported searches for ereaders rose nearly 40%, compared with the previous week. "Twilight"-related gifts jumped more than 50%; smartphones, about 30%; and engagement rings, 20%.

Amazon was the No. 1 retail Web site visited in the U.S. on Cyber Monday, up 44% compared with 2008, according to Experian Hitwise. The research firm says the percentage of U.S. online visits declined 9% among the top 500 Web retailers, but Amazon took 15.53% market share, followed by Wal-Mart at 9.54%; Target 5.16%; Best Buy, 3.56%; and JC Penney, 2.58%.

The Apple Store Web site jumped 71% in visits on Cyber Monday 2009, compared with the prior year, according to Experian Hitwise. The research firm said Staples increased by 61% and Barnes & Noble rose 46%.

UPDATE: Ok, here are shopping cart abandonment rates, total U.S. retail and then by product categories: