Online holiday sales set to boom

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Tis the season for online shopping. The online forecasts are pouring in, and they all point to a jolly holiday for Web retailers.

JupiterResearch estimates that online retail sales for November and December will hit $21.6 billion -- a 19 percent increase compared with the same period last year. The research group says about 86 million U.S. residents will buy online this holiday compared with the 73 million who did last year.

JupiterResearch, which has been tracking online holiday sales since 1995, had forecasted that $17 billion would be spent during the holidays in 2003. That was slightly below the more than $18 billion that was actually spent.

Online shopping has become a prominent retail activity for the holidays.

According to an America Online survey, shoppers who research and/or make purchases online plan to spend 53 percent of their holiday budget on the Web this season.

"These findings confirm that shopping online has truly come of age," said Bob Hayes, vice president and general manager of AOL E-commerce.

Closer home, D.C.-area online shoppers say they will spend 58 percent of their budget on the Web. They also will increase their online spending by 17 percent to $347, the survey said.

Flipping through pages

EBay has created a catalog for the holidays.

The online auction site giant mailed out several million catalogs earlier this month to EBay users. The 32-page catalog, the first of its kind for EBay, highlights gift ideas in categories such as clothing, toys and electronics.