Digital Media

Holiday spending on electronics for family members remains high on the to-do list, according to a survey by IDC and the National Research Network (NRN).

According to results from a survey of more than 3,000 consumers, 62 percent indicated they planned to spend the same amount or more on electronics for family members this holiday.

Those surprising results come as big-box electronics retailers face a challenging time. Best Buy announced a 77 percent drop in earnings and call for employee buyouts earlier this month and Circuit City filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last month.

Nonetheless, consumers are maintaining their holiday spending level for family members. Portable media players and digital cameras performed well over the holiday weekend that wraps in Thanksgiving, and high-definition TVs were expected to be the top electronic sale items between now and the end of the year, according to the survey.

"Consumers are shifting to staying, or nesting, at home more," Randy Giusto, IDC general manager of client and consumer markets.

The survey also found that while 25 percent of those surveyed shopped for electronics over the Thanksgiving holiday, 50 percent plan to buy electronics before the year's end.

Consumers plan to account for these recessionary times by reducing the frequency of eating out, and 38 percent of survey respondents noted they expect to spend less on gifts for co-workers.

Update at 10:30 a.m. PST, with information from IDC holiday spending report.

The Grinch has made off with Christmas.

In yet another sign that e-commerce is taking a hit over the holidays, online sales growth projections for the critical November-December holiday shopping season were cut by more than half Tuesday in a survey released by digital marketing and media research firm eMarketer.

Online sales are expected to grow a mere 4 percent year over year to $30.3 billion during the two-month period, versus eMarketer's previous projection in May of 10.1 percent growth, or $32.1 billion.

"The weak economy is placing downward pressure on e-commerce sales this season. That pressure accentuates the already declining sales growth that is a sign of the maturation of the online shopping channel," the market research firm noted in its report.

eMarketer's decision to revise its forecast follows the release of disappointing third-quarter e-commerce sales figures by the Department of Commerce.

For the entire year, eMarketer expects 7 percent year-over-year growth, marking the first time in a decade that e-commerce sales have climbed by only a single digit. Last year, e-commerce grew by 19.8 percent.

This latest assessment of the holiday shopping season, however, is not as dire as a report released Tuesday by market researcher ComScore, which reported a 4 percent decline in e-commerce sales during the first 23 days of November, versus a comparable period a year ago. That marked the first time in history that e-commerce growth fell on a year-over-year basis.

PC and consumer electronics vendors, meanwhile, have taken their best guess of how the holidays will shape up and have shipped their products into the distribution channel for the holidays, IDC noted in its U.S. holiday consumer spending report, released Wednesday.

And based on reports from Taiwanese original design manufacturers (ODMs), the sentiment is "very weak vendor demand" for December and the first quarter next year. That will likely translate into a grim environment even after the holidays, given the product these ODMs design eventually make their way onto retailers' shelves, IDC's Randy Giusto noted in his report.

Added Giusto:

The big questions over the next 35 days are, will the holiday channel volume move? Will it require Black Friday-like sales interspersed throughout December in order to clear the inventory out? Will this holiday season be known as the great CE fire sale? Obviously, every retailer and PC and CE vendor is nervous. Consumer bargains are everywhere and new price thresholds have been established--notebook PCs for $299, 10 mega-pixel digital cameras for $129, Blu-ray players for $179, 500GB external drives for $69, 8GB SD cards for $19.99, 47-inch 1080p LCD TVs for $999, many new and attractive mobile phones for free or nearly free if purchased with two-year service contracts, and GPS units as low as $79 and now available at your local CVS and Walgreens.

With the dour economy playing grinch this holiday season, e-commerce retailers may want to focus on offers of free shipping and online coupons, according to a recent survey by comScore.

In a survey of more than 1,000 consumers taken in mid-October, comScore found 73 percent of respondents planned to save money this holiday season by buying fewer gifts and 69 percent by buying less expensive presents, while 37 percent planned to use coupons.

comScore also found that in the third quarter, 25 million Americans visited coupon sites, up 26 percent from the previous quarter. And it's not just the low- and middle-income folks who rely on these money savers, either.

The number of users visiting these coupon sites, with an annual salary of $100,000 or more, increased by 37 percent in the third quarter, compared with the same time last year.

Electronic coupon clippers who earn $50,000 to $99,999 saw the number of users turning to such sites increase by 25 percent, while those earning less increased their reliance on such sites by 16 percent, according to the report.

"Clearly this is an activity that is coming to the online world and smart retailers will pay attention to this trend," Gian Fulgoni, comScore chairman, said during a conference call to discuss the survey results.

And in another cost cutting move, survey respondents noted that if an e-commerce site eliminated free shipping, 72 percent noted they would use another e-commerce site that did offer free shipping.

"Free shipping is a game changer," Fulgoni said, who advised e-commerce sites to find other cost-cutting means this holiday season, than eliminating free shipping offers.

And with one less weekend in the critical holiday shopping period between the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas eve, online retailers, as well as brick-and-mortar retailers, are jumping the gun in this weak economic climate. Online jewelry sites like Blue Nile greats users with snowflakes, a red ribbon and diamonds, while Amazon.com offers up a Christmas present nesting in a tree at the top of its page.

And who among the various economic groups actually plan to spend more this holiday season? Yup, those earning $100,000 or more.

The survey found that 54 percent of survey respondents in this economic bracket plan to spend more this holiday season that last year, where as 37 percent of the middle-income folks indicated similar plans and 39 percent for those users earning $50,000 or less.

Retail e-commerce growth rates climbed a modest 6 percent in the third quarter compared with a year ago--far below the double-digit growth of 18 percent to 20 percent in the fourth quarter.

In the third quarter, video games, consoles, and accessories, in part aided by strong sales of Wii and Xbox, increased a whopping 60 percent in the third quarter over last year, but consumer electronics, excluding PCs, came in as a blip with a 1 percent gain. Computers, peripherals and PDAs where flat.