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Online Shoppers More Bargain-Bound Than Ever, Report Says

by Amar Toor on February 16, 2010 at 11:10 AM

Bargain hunting isn't a new phenomenon by any means. Still, according to a recent study from comScore, coupon-cutting has infiltrated e-commerce like never before -- and online merchants are now catering to it.

As the New York Times reports, e-retailers offered more discount deals last holiday season than ever before, and virtually institutionalized free shipping, after realizing that customers had become insistent upon it. Similarly, coupon sites attracted droves of customers -- 36 million in December alone -- while discounted "private sale" sites saw correspondingly steep increases in traffic. Most online holiday spending went towards things like jewelry, electronics, event tickets or books, while the clothing sector, strangely enough, was the only one to see a decrease in online sales and an increase in offline sales.

Given the financial turmoil that 2009 saw, it's not that surprising that people would be even more acutely sensitive to prices. When times are lean, we all tend to seek out the cheapest deals with more tenacity. And although the discounts offered this year were smaller than last year's, the sheer number of those discounts speaks to the growing competitiveness of the digital market. Internet shopping may still constitute only 8-percent of total retail sales, but 10-percent more households shopped online this year than last. And, as a new generation of Web-savvy consumers begins to earn disposable income, it seems that the market and its competitiveness will only grow from here. [From: The New York Times]

Tags: coupons, discounts, e-commerce, money, retail, shopping, top

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