• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 6, 2004

Top Five Categories for Holiday Season Spending Online

Though holiday performance reporting is ubiquitous, here's a quick breakdown of major categories and satisfactions on the Web this season. According to the eSpending Report from Goldman, Sachs & Co., Harris Interactive, and Nielsen//NetRatings online holiday shoppers spent a record $18.5 billion excluding travel during the 2003 holiday season. This represents an increase of 35 percent over the $13.7 billion spent in 2002.

The eSpending Report found that the product categories for apparel, toys/video games (hardware and software), consumer electronics, computer hardware and peripherals and video/DVD, generated the most revenue this season.

Popular Online Shopping Categories through December 26, 2003

	Holiday Projected Year Over Year Online Revenue (mm$)	Growth
Apparel/Clothing	$3,738	40%
Toys/Video games	$2,197	33%
Consumer Electronics	$2,044	2%
Computer Hardware/Peripherals	$1,650
Video/DVD	$1,619	46%

Source: Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings eSpending Report, December 2003

"Online retailers have enjoyed a fantastic season in 2003," said Abha Bhagat, senior analyst Nielsen//NetRatings. "This is the third straight season of record growth, which indicates retailers are doing a much better job of appealing to customers through online channels as well as successfully integrating various channels to reach out to customers effectively."

The final weekly eSpending report showed that shoppers were more satisfied with their online shopping experience.

Overall Online Customer Satisfaction

	2002	2003	Change
Satisfied	63.1%	59%	+4.1
Dissatisfied	7.4%	8%	-0.6

Source: Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings

Shoppers also reported very few serious problems when ordering online and spent more of their total shopping budget online this season.

Serious Problems Reported by Shoppers

Problem	Percentage of Respondents Reporting
Order not received when promised	2.4%
Received incorrect or defective product	1.2%
Total percentage of online shoppers experiencing serious problems	3.6%

Source: Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings

Overall Online Customer Spending

	2002	2003	2002 to 2003 Change
Percentage of Holiday Budget Expected to be Spent Online	16.3%	19.7%	+3.4

Source: Goldman Sachs, Harris Interactive and Nielsen//NetRatings

"As more people turn to the Internet to do their holiday shopping, they are finding the online shopping experience to be a positive one." said Lori Iventosch-James, director of ecommerce research, Harris Interactive.