• by Masha Geller , January 2, 2002

As we slowly get back into the swing of things after the holidays, let's take one last look at the online holiday shopping season.

As Jupiter Media Metrix reported last Friday, during the last week before Christmas, the Jupiter Media Metrix Online Shopping Index, which aggregates Web visitors from both home and work to nearly 500 shopping sites and 19 subcategories, increased 57% versus the same week last year, climbing from 31.8 million to 49.9 million unique visitors.

JMM's VP of Media Research Charles Buchwalter pointed out that in 1999 and 2000, the world was wondering if online shopping would contribute anything significant to holiday spending, and expectations were exceeded each year. This year, he said, holiday shopping traffic stayed strong through the days just before Christmas. "The consistent increases in holiday shopping traffic since Thanksgiving should silence any remaining skeptics."

The findings echo a Yahoo! announcement, which last week highlighted the fact that during the 2001 holiday shopping season, sales volume to Yahoo! Shopping showed an increase of more than 86% over the same period in 2000. According to company officials, Yahoo! users spent $10.3 billion online in the fourth quarter of 2001. Also, Yahoo! Shopping's growth outpaced analysts original holiday growth estimates of 10% by more than eight times.

Moreover, Yahoo! Inc. and ACNielsen last week said that their Internet Confidence Index, which measures confidence levels in Internet products and services, continued an upward trend, rising one point over a similar study fielded in October. The increase indicates that there has been a positive, long-term change in consumers' attitudes.

And that's a good piece of news to start the new year with.