US Online Holiday Shopping Booming

According to a research, the number of US people who do shopping via the internet will increase dramatically this year-end holiday season. It is predicted that those people will spend more than 39 billion dollars online.  

"This market remains insulated from macroeconomic factors cited to adversely affect overall holiday retail sales," the technology-tracking firm concluded in a report titled US Online Retail Holiday Forecast.

"As a result, retailers are planning to increase their efforts to attract customers across a variety of tactics with search marketing leading the way."

The forecast is good news for major Internet search engines Google, Yahoo and Microsoft that generate revenues from advertising displayed along with the results of online queries.

Google was used for approximately 63 percent of online searches conducted in the United States in September, according to Internet intelligence firm Hitwise.

Yahoo was the second most popular search engine, handling nearly 23 percent of online queries. Slightly less than eight percent of online searches were handled by third-place Microsoft's MSN service, Hitwise reported.

JupiterResearch expects an estimated 126 million people in the United States will buy items on the Internet by the end of December -- a six percent increase from the holiday shopping season last year.

Amazon is the top online retail website with slightly more than 12 percent of the market, according to Hitwise figures.

The world's largest real-world retailer, Wal-Mart, has the second busiest online retail website with five percent of the market, Hitwise reported.