Early indicators observed by the research company forecast a healthy holiday spending season online.

The holiday season is quickly approaching and certain early online shopping indicators have etailers seeing green. While the majority of online holiday purchase behavior occurs during the months of November and December, many consumers begin researching holiday gifts during the preceding months. Traffic to the retail category in October 2006 showed above-average growth versus the previous year, which indicates that while offline sales may be sluggish, the outlook for online holiday spending remains strong.

• In October 2006, more than 142 million people visited Retail sites, accounting for 82 percent of the total internet audience, up seven percent versus a year ago.
  
  
• The top retail site on the internet, eBay.com, attracted 80.8 million visitors (up 16 percent) in October, or nearly half the U.S. internet audience. Amazon Sites ranked second with 51.3 million visitors (up 15 percent), and Apple Computer ranked third with 32.3 million visitors (up 60 percent).
  
  
• Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories is the top gaining retail category during the past year, increasing 27 percent to 15 million visitors, followed by Sports/Outdoor (up 18 percent to 24.9 million visitors), and Home Furnishings (up 16 percent to 36.9 million visitors).

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