Online Holiday Shopping Summary

January 24, 2006

It's that time again...to begin economically dissecting the results from the 2005 holiday shopping season. From what I gather reading business news, the in-person retail results were a constant, "break even" level, and the online holiday shopping levels once again exceeded expectations...$30.1 billion according to Goldman, Sachs & Co., Nielsen//NetRatings and Harris Interactive.

The same survey detailed something very interesting...82 percent of respondents said they would be less likely to return to a site where they had a frustrating shopping experience, and nearly a third said that a frustrating experience when shopping online would make them less likely to buy at that retailer’s physical store.

With numbers like that, you'd think companies would be falling over themselves to improve their online shopping experience. But then, we all know that there's a big disconnect between what companies "ought" and what they do.

Read the full survey summary here: www.allurent.com

TES