• by January 6, 2005

Online shopping tallies for the holiday period have come in courtesy of eMarketer which today reports that its own projection of a 29 percent increase in sales from November through December, was on the money.

In fact, eMarketer notes that its prediction of a 29 percent increase for the Nov.-Dec. period was in line with comScore Networks' figures which were released today. The aggregator of online data says that comScore projected that consumers spent $12.3 billion online in Nov. and Dec. of 2003, and $15.8 billion for the same period in 2004, for an increase of 29 percent.

Other research organizations reported their own tallies:

JupiterResearch: (Nov., 2004), 19 percent
Forrester Research: (Oct., 2004), 20 percent
Nielsen//NetRatings: (Dec., 2004), 25 percent
comScore Networks (Dec., 2004), 26 percent
Retail Forward: (2004), 26 percent

There are many reasons why online shopping posted healthy gains this holiday season. For one, many consumers are acclimated and comfortable with online shopping and enjoy broadband connections at home. In addition, many found attractive pricing and free shipping. They also wanted to avoid the crowds at retail. If consumers found competitive prices online for the items they wanted, why would they go to the store to wait in line?