Online Shoppers plan to Spend More.

The online holiday shopping season has barely begun and online retailers are already looking forward to a happy next year.

Christmas is definitely coming early this year for online retailers. Hot on the heels of news that Cyber Monday was the biggest shopping day in online history comes the annual e-commerce survey from the investment firm Cowen and Company.

It reports that, primarily due to the convenience of online shopping, 41% of Internet users say that they are going to increase their e-commerce spending in 2007.

In a possible warning sign for larger e-commerce sites, however, the report says that sites such as eBay and Amazon may be reaching the saturation point as far as US Web user penetration goes.

Future growth for both of these megasites will increasingly have to come from expanding the amount purchased by existing users. Fortunately, a third of the respondents to the survey said they plan to increase their spending at eBay and Amazon.

Competition for the increased online spending dollars will be fierce, and next year search advertising will play a more important role than ever.

The data gathered by Cowen indicate that fewer consumers are beginning the shopping process by going directly to company Web sites. For instance, while 10% of the respondents reported that they began their online shopping at Amazon in 2005, that figure dropped to 8% in 2006.

Currently, 55% of consumers state they are starting their online shopping at search destinations, compared with 51% last year.

For more information at http://www.emarketer.com