• by November 24, 2004

Shoppers, start your engines. It's that time of year again. Online, offline, it really doesn't matter.

On this day before Thanksgiving, Nielsen//NetRatings reports that online shopping traffic rose 60 percent for the week ending Nov. 14 versus the prior seven-day period. For the months of November and December, eMarketer projects that U.S. consumers will spend a whopping $16.7 billion online, up 29 percent from the same period a year ago.

But comScore Networks projects that spending for the November-December period will come in just a shade lower, with U.S. consumer spending between 15.1 and $15.5 billion online, excluding travel. The Reston, Va.-based research firm says its projection represents an overall gain of 23 to 26 percent over last year's $12.3 billion.

"At the category level, we continue to see strong growth in jewelry and watches, furniture, appliances and equipment, and home and garden products, indicating a continued shift to online buying in categories that were traditionally only bought offline," said Dan Hess, senior vice president of comScore Networks, in a statement.

ComScore says the jewelry and watches category will jump 67 percent, to $739 million this year, while furniture, appliances and equipment will increase 58 percent, to $1.7 billion. Home and garden products are expected to grow 28 percent to $1.35 billion.

Hitwise found that traffic to the 13 top comparison-shopping sites rose 22 percent for the week ending Nov. 20, compared to the same week a year ago. Hitwise notes that 50 percent of the sites' traffic came from search engines including Google and Yahoo! Search. Hitwise analyst Bill Tancer says that consumers are growing more sophisticated in their online shopping behaviors and are employing comparison shopping sites to help them find the best prices.

Hitwise reports that the most visited comparison-shopping sites last week were Yahoo! Shopping, Bizrate.com, and Shopping.com. They claimed 30.9, 18.3, and 15.9 percent, respectively, of all visits to the 13 leading sites.

With that, the Minute advises you to get offline this instant in order to start your cooking!

Best wishes for a special and happy Thanksgiving.