• Ad Age, Wednesday, December 14, 2005 11:45 AM

It appears that consumers are shopping up a storm this holiday season, but not in stores. The place they are all flocking to this year is the Internet, where online retailers are seeing an impressive 33 percent increase in the number of visits, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. The market research firm said that during the week of Dec. 4, shoppers visited e-tailers 462.5 million times, up from 348.3 million times during that same week the prior year.

The increase is the result of shoppers doing research and comparing prices online before making a purchase, and from e-tailers pushing promotions, said Ken Cassar, analyst at Nielsen/NetRatings. "As the multi-channel retailers like Wal-Mart and Target elevate their game online, their customers have come to view their Web sites as valuable tools to help them decide what products to buy and what prices to pay for their products," he said. "This makes particular sense for a retailer like a Best Buy or Circuit City where the stores get so crowded that it's hard for reps in-store to answer all the customers' questions, so the better informed a customer is coming into the store, the better it is for them."

He also said that retailers hoping to cash in on the trend have acted accordingly by stepping up their promotional efforts this year. One example is Nordstrom, which is offering shipping for a flat fee no matter how much one buys.

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