The true meaning of Christmas

(Upstart) There’s a lot more riding on Christmas this year--have you noticed? The usual anticipations (Will Mom like the ab-toning machine I got for her? Am I a bad son? Do I deserve to live?) are overshadowed by the importance Christmas holds for the health of Internet industry. E-commerce practitioners and Internet-related companies are counting on Christmas to catalyze America’s relationship with the Net. To speed the transition from taking a test drive to making out in the back seat.

The results so far are as inconclusive and difficult to discern as the ingredients of eggnog. The New York Times reported on Monday that online shopping in the week containing Thanksgiving rose 50% from the same week in 1999. But the week before Thanksgiving showed 140% growth. Online shoppers might have simply made their purchases earlier this year, perhaps due to lessons learned from shipping problems last year. But the Times article suggests this may mean a sales slowdown in the crucial weeks before Christmas.

The good news: Consumers say they’re spending more online this year. According to a recent survey of online shoppers conducted by Active Research, 34% of online shoppers say they’re spending more than they did last year, and 15% expect to pay the same amount. On average, they expect to spend $388 online this season, more than half of what they expect to spend in brick-and-mortar stores.

More good news: More people are trying online shopping. Forty-five percent of the shoppers making online purchases this holiday season are doing so for the first time. And people 55 years or older are spending more on average than any other age group, defying what Active Research calls “the usual stereotypes about tech-phobic geezers.”

When the holidays are over, America will have a clearer picture of the strength of e-commerce in the current culture. If we also happen to have a president by that time, we’ll have dispelled much of our economic uncertainty, and we can begin thinking about what we want for next year.

Does Senior Writer Ed Gubbins deserve to live? Cast your vote at ed_gubbins@intertec.com or at the Competitive Challenges discussion, which he moderates.