Holiday Shoppers Hitting the Net Early By Michael Pastore Online shoppers in the US aren't waiting until Thanksgiving to start shopping for their holiday gifts online, as traffic to many of the Web's top e-tailers is already picking up.
Index is comprised of five representative sites in each category.
Toys are the hottest category for the early online holiday season, with almost 600,000 new visitors since the beginning of November. With Pokemon and Beanie Babies expecting to be big sellers this year, toy sites have seen a 101.6 percent increase in visitors over the past six weeks. Lesser known merchants may face challenges attracting customers, particularly since brand differentiation is becoming increasingly difficult given the number and size of advertising campaigns from Internet companies flush with cash from initial public offerings. Visa USA Volpe Brown Whelan estimates the number of Internet purchasers this year to increase, possibly by as much as 50 percent over last year, to approximately 30 million. A survey sponsored by Visa USA found that 55 percent of the respondents plan on shopping for holiday gifts online this year, a 9 percent increase from Visa's 1998 survey.