Internet shopping lone bright spot.

• Position: Retail Sales

Despite anticipated weak Christmas retail sales overall, Internet holiday shopping is expected to increase at least 10%, indicates Richard Feinberg, a researcher with the Retail Institute of Indiana. Online sales should reach $35-$40,000,000,000 this holiday season, which is less than seven to nine percent of all Christmas shopping. "Internet holiday shopping will be the only winner this year," he declares.

Internet holiday shopping peaks two weeks before Christmas because consumers believe Dec. 8-12 is the last period during which they can order something and receive it in time for Christmas. The internet equivalent to Black Friday--the day after Thanksgiving that is the traditional start to holiday shopping--is Cyber Monday, which is the Monday after Thanksgiving. Consumers are attracted to the Internet on Cyber Monday because they are checking to see if Internet retailers have things they could not find, or if they can get what they saw in stores at a lower price. It is estimated that there will be 35,000,000 Cyber Monday shoppers this year. The busiest hours for online shopping are noon to 4 p.m., which is bad news for employers.

"No one really knows how many work hours are lost as employees shop online," Feinberg surmises. "Business is facing a dilemma. If they let shopping from work occur, they lose money and productivity. If business does not allow shopping from work, they may cause hostility and dissatisfaction in their workforce, which also can lead to lost productivity and other problems. It may be that allowing workers to shop on the job actually increases productivity."

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