A survey conducted by J.P. Morgan has found that nearly 30 percent of U.S. online shoppers plan on spending less over this year’s holiday season compared to last year.

But it’s not all bad news - 32 percent for online shoppers plan to spend more over the holiday period. Which means that, if online shoppers do what they say they will do, online sales during the holiday season are likely to be flat.

J.P. Morgan’s survey also found that 50 percent of online shoppers planned to shop at Amazon, while 35 percent planned to shop at Walmart.com, 32 percent at eBay, and 27 percent at Target.com.

Another key finding is that the single most important factor driving online shoppers is price, followed by selection, and familiarity with the store.

Source: Erick Schonfeld, “Survey Suggests Nearly 30 Percent Of Online Holiday Shoppers Plan On Spending Less This Year”, TechCrunch, November 29, 2008

As quoted in Clickz, research firm Javelin Strategy & Research predicts that nearly 20 percent of all online purchases during the holiday season will be paid for using alternative payment methods.

In its report, “2008 Online Retail Payments Forecast”, the research firm quoted such alternatives as prepaid or gift cards, eBay’s PayPal, and eBillMe, an online banking service, as being major winners over the holiday period.

Evidently, the ‘credit crunch’ will see online shoppers to cut down on their use of bank-issued credit cards, while increasing their use of store-branded credit cards and alternative payment methods.

Of the $42.8 billion expected to be spent online during the holiday season, Javelin estimates that or $7.8 billion or 18 percent will be paid using alternative payment methods. By 2012, this is expected to increase to one-third of all online transactions.

Source: Enid Burns, “Consumers Want to Pay Now for Online Purchases, Not Later”, The ClickZ Network, November 11, 2008