Spending Time on the Internet

U.S. holiday shoppers will increase their Internet spending by 43% this year as they buy more clothing, toys and books on the Web, a forecast said.

Online spending in November and December will rise to $9.93billion from $6.93 billion a year earlier, according to Nielsen/NetRatings, a partnership between Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings Inc.

The estimate doesn’t include travel purchases.

The forecast is in line with other projections for higher Internet spending. Gartner Inc. expects Web sales in the U.S. and Canada to climb 30% to $11.9 billion from October to December, from $9.13billion in the year-earlier fourth quarter.

The number of buyers making purchases online during December will rise 27% to 106 million, Nielsen/NetRatings said.

“The fact is online shopping has widespread appeal,” said Sean Kaldor, a NetRatings analyst.

Clothing sales are forecast to total $2.45 billion, whereas books, movies and video sales will be $1.7billion, he said.

Gartner projected that worldwide sales of holiday gifts purchased on the Internet will jump 39% to $25.3 billion this year. Its forecast excludes travel purchases.

Forrester Research Inc. has forecast that Internet sales from the day after Thanksgiving to the end of December will rise 10% to $11 billion, including travel sales.

A poll of U.S. consumers taken after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks found that 80% of shoppers will spend the same at Internet stores as they did last year, said David Schehr, research director for Gartner’s GartnerG2 unit.

About 14% said they will spend less, and 6% said they will spend more.