The worldwide downturn can be blamed for many things, but it has produced positive effects for the online shopping community.
As consumers worldwide tighten their belts, data from PriceGrabber.com suggests that 2009 has been the year in which comparison shopping has really taken off, with 70 per cent of the people surveyed saying they are researching more of their potential buys online, a near doubling of last year’s figure of 38 per cent.

Straitened financial times are also forcing more than half of those questioned to cross acquaintances and co-workers off their festive shopping list.

In all, 53 per cent of the just over 2,000 Americans sampled by PriceGrabber said they were planning to spend less than last year. And a significant proportion of respondents said they also intended to start their festive shopper earlier in an effort to spread their budget and start spending long before what Americans call ‘Black Friday’ – the day after Thanksgiving (which in 2009 falls on November 26).
More than one in five of those questioned suggested they had started their holiday shopping in October, with 29 per cent planning to start in November.