Online shoppers predict they will spend an average of $281 online during Q4 2009, a 24 percent increase over last quarter. This is the first increase in spending since last year, but an 18 percent decrease in the overall spending rate compared to Q4 2008.

"This quarter’s uptick in spending is evidence of improving consumer optimism as we head into the holiday shopping season," said Marwan Forzley, President and CEO of eBillme. "While consumers are planning to loosen their financial constraints this quarter, they are still holding on to recession spending habits.

"This includes changing the way they shop and pay to better control debt. Forty percent of consumers plan to use their credit cards less often in favor of non-credit payment options this quarter. We have seen this significant shift in attitude towards credit carry over from previous quarters, and it will definitely impact consumer spending decisions this holiday season."

Consumers were also surveyed about projected holiday spending this year. Eleven percent plan to do most of their holiday shopping on Cyber Monday, while 48 percent plan to avoid Black Friday shopping in favor of shopping online. When it comes to how much people plan to spend this holiday season, 27 percent said they would spend more online this year for gifts compared to last year.

"This quarter’s Index shows some visible signs of improvement in the online retail sector," says Beth Robertson, Director of Payments Research for Javelin Strategy & Research. "We haven’t seen a projected increase in anticipated spending since this time last year. And it comes just in time for retailers during the most important quarter for capturing sales and customers.

"Although consumers are still spending with caution, 51 percent are delaying purchases because of continued uncertainty in the economy. This increase is a positive sign that consumer confidence is on the rise."

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For the holiday season through December 5, $14.92 billion has been spent online, about the same amount compared to the same period last year.

For the five days beginning with December 1 (Cyber Monday) online sales totaled $3.74 billion, up 9 percent compared to a year ago. Two individual days in the past week reached more than $800 million in online spending: Cyber Monday with $846 million, and Tuesday, December 2 with $823 million.

"The online holiday shopping season has picked up noticeably since Thanksgiving as consumers have given in to the holiday spirit – and very attractive retailer discounts," said comScore chairman Gian Fulgoni.

"Particularly encouraging is the growth of 9 percent in online sales that has occurred since Cyber Monday. While this growth is certainly a positive development in this tough retail season, it also needs to be put into perspective. With the compressed time period between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year – five days shorter than last year – we need to see continued strong growth during the critical weeks between today and Christmas if this year’s shopping season is to at least match that of last year."

The fastest growing product categories from December 1 through December 5 were sports & fitness (up 35%) and consumer electronics (up24%), which saw sales spike due to major price reductions on many items, including flat screen TVs.

Apparel & accessories saw a 16 percent increase along with toys (16%) and books & magazines were up 10 percent followed by video games, consoles & accessories up 9 percent.

The most popular retail sites included eBay with 36 million unique visitors followed by Amazon with 29 million, Wal-Mart with 19 million, Target 15 million and Apple with 11 million, a 29 percent increase over last year.

Advertiser Perceptions conducted a survey of professionals in this field, and Marketing Charts reports, "Just 16% of ad executives expect radio’s share of spending to increase over the next six months, compared with 26% who said so in the spring and 19% who said so a year earlier."

Also, "Just 22% of ad execs said broadcast TV ad spend would increase, down from 29% in the previous two surveys."

This falls more or less in line with all sorts of economic indicators; the number of "for sale" signs in certain neighborhoods is startling, and watching the stock market will make even an uninvolved individual sweat.

A good piece of news (although even this won’t persist through a prolonged recession) came from Advertiser Perceptions’s research concerning online ads: "Ad execs were by far the most optimistic about the prospects of online ad budgets, with 76% projecting an increase over the next six months . . ."

Small Business Online Spending To Top $70 Billion

The amount of small businesses that buy online will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 4.3 percent through 2012, driven mainly by the growth in the number of small businesses overall.

"While technology manufactures are reluctant to push the online channel over others, retailers will continue to promote the online channel as it provides them better margins," explained Sonal Gandhi, JupiterResearch Analyst and lead author of the report.

"Growing competition among online retailers for small business spending will in-turn put pressure on them to offer promotions and incentives leading to higher conversion online."

According to the report, small businesses will continue to see value in buying online either through convenience or better prices or variety. As relationships with online suppliers mature, small businesses are likely to provide them with greater portion of their business.

"In addition, 82 percent of small business decision makers research products or services for their business online, monthly or more frequently," said David Schatsky, President of JupiterResearch. "Companies should therefore make driving and tracking the influence of online on off-line sales an important part of their strategy."

Not to insult your math intelligence, but that’s over a quarter-trillion dollars.

All that money is being pumped into or via over 2 trillion Web pages, at least in March 2007, a growth of 9% over February, from 763 million active Internet users (though some estimates say it’s closer to a billion – but why count zeros when one can barely fathom those multitudes to begin with?).

Again, to emphasize the numbers and not to insult you, according to Credit Suisse, the trillions of web pages are growing at nearly 10% per month. It’s a good thing we invented exponents – that’d be a lot of zeroes to count on your calculator screen.

That’s just in pages, though. The overall spend is projected to grow at a clip of 13% between 2005 and 2010 (didn’t the telcos say something about incentive to invest?).

As access speeds get faster, expect more money to flow into the system.

Global Internet access doubled between 2001 and 2006 to 34% penetration.

That’s expected to hit 47% by 2010, and advertisers will be spending over $50 billion to that audience.

To put that better in perspective, US advertisers spent $150 billion on all media in 2006, but the Web – in total spend – only brought in $170 billion.

As media converges (there will come a day when there is little or no division between print, television, radio, and Web), imagine what these numbers will look like in 2020.

Growing at the current annual rate of 25%, if my math is right, we may see a trillion-dollar media market and give "the Roaring 20′s" a whole new meaning. 

The Nielsen/NetRatings consultancy reported 7.4 million people age 55 or older made a purchase online in the last six months, up from roughly 2.6 million a year ago. And as that market grows, another may be shrinking: the number of adults who made purchases dropped from 112 million to 107.4 million.

Howard Byck, vice president of business development for AARP Services, also had some impressive figures. He reported that 40 percent of the U.S. population is 50 or older, but that this group holds 75 percent of the country’s financial assets. “In many ways marketers have taken the 50-plus market for granted,” Byck said. “The reality is that you can’t do that anymore.”

The AARP is expanding its online presence, and is helping members do the same. Travelocity executive Philip Charles-Pierre said his company’s effort to reach out to the AARP was “extraordinarily successful.” After creating a site called the AARP Passport, sales rose 300 percent from the same period a year ago.

Some sites have discovered that an older demographic requests more customer service. But most feel the benefits outweigh the drawbacks. “Once they get beyond the technological barrier and get into the groove, they tend to be some of our most passionate members,” said David A. Joseph, vice president of corporate communications and strategy for Audible.

One other concern is that marketing attempts not make seniors feel old. The AARP Passport program found success by portraying people “who are above 50, 70, 80 doing things they may not have had the chance, or the money, to do when they were younger,” said Charles-Pierre.

Baby boomers and seniors are proving to be a valuable and largely untapped market for online sales. Companies would do well to draw attract their business.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.