Survey: Online shopping growing

Survey: Online shopping growing As Black Friday nears, a survey commissioned by online portal AOL found three in four Internet users plan to do as much or more of their holiday shopping online this year as they did last year.
   The survey of shoppers in 20 cities done for AOL Shopping by Zogby Interactive found 74 percent of poll respondents plan to do at least some holiday shopping online and 26 percent plan to spend at least half of their holiday shopping dollars online. Top online purchases include books, music or movies, clothing, shoes and accessories and gift cards.
   The interest in online shopping comes at a time when more than one-third of holiday shoppers surveyed plan to cut back their gift-buying budget this year. The main reasons cited were lower income this year, general economic concerns, and increasing energy prices. Forty-five percent plan to spend less than $500, and 16 percent plan to spend more than $1,000 on holiday gifts this year.
   The growth in Internet shopping has important implications for the logistics business since goods that otherwise are trucked to stores are often carried by integrated carriers or other truckers direct to consumers' homes or workplace.
   Earlier the month the Associated Press reported that UPS and FedEx “have both suggested volumes will improve this holiday season, while trucking companies are suffering through one of the weakest holiday peaks this decade.”
   One caveat about the methodology of the poll: It was an online survey.