Online shopping up 16% in first six weeks of holiday season

Market research firm Nielsen Netratings reports that online shoppers spent about $18.6 billion in the first weeks of this year’s Christmas season. This number represents a 16 % increase over the same time period in 2004, with 19% of consumers having indicated that they have yet to start their holiday shopping.

According to the report, online shoppers have spent the most on apparel/clothing thus far in the 2005 holiday season, totaling $3.4 billion or 17% of total online revenue. The consumer electronics and computer hardware/peripherals categories placed second and third with revenue totals of $2.8 billion and $2.7 billion, respectively. Books and toys/video games rounded out the top five product categories, accounting for a respective $2.2 billion and $1.4 billion in online revenue.

Websites of traditional brick-and-mortar stores attracted the majority of sales, capturing 69% of online spending. Online, the only channel to see growth during the monitored period, garnered 27.5% of the holiday budget, jumping 5.9 percentage points from last year. Catalogs accounted for 3.5% of revenues.