A weekly survey: Online Gift Spending Up, Apparel Sales Remain a Question.

Internet gift spending rose by 17 percent last week, despite a modest decrease in overall Internet spending, according to data revealed by a weekly survey of holiday Internet shopping, conducted by Goldman Sachs and PC Data Online. Internet shoppers spent $208 million from home last week, down $13 million from the previous week. Over a quarter of this total, $54 million, was spent on gifts, the survey found. PC Data Online in cooperation with Goldman Sachs surveyed 3,019 home-based Internet users during the week of November 12-16. The shift toward holiday gift-buying online was confirmed by 42 percent of the survey, who indicated they already have started shopping for Christmas. This is up ten percent from a month ago. Twenty-three percent said they planned to begin shopping between now and Thanksgiving, with the remaining 35 percent indicating they would not begin until after Thanksgiving. The drop in overall spending was reflected in small dips across the board in most of the top categories, Meierhoefer said. The exception was toys, he noted, which saw a 33 percent increase in its buy-rate over last week. The top five categories in sales for the week were computer software, music, books, toys, and health and beauty products. While online apparel sales seem to be holding their own this holiday season, the long-term forecast for the sector may be less favorable, according to research by The NPD Group, Inc. NPD predicts that online sellers of apparel should see approximately $600 million in sales this holiday season, a significant jump over last year's $250 million in online apparel sales. However, a recent survey reveals that only one-third of consumers with Internet access plan to buy apparel online during the next six months. NPD_s "Apparel E-Commerce Report," found that nearly half of total Internet users said they never plan to buy clothing online. And the majority of Internet users (61 percent) who have never bought clothing online reported they do not intend to do so in the future. This reluctance was also prevalent even among those with years of experience on the Web; more than 40 percent of these Internet veterans said they_ll avoid buying apparel on the Web.