Keep the e-Commerce Door Open for Online Holiday Shoppers, Now to December 24.

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October is the month that online gift shoppers pull out their holiday shopping lists, at least according to Holiday eSpending reports from Nielsen/NetRatings, Harris Interactive and Goldman Sachs.

Online holiday shopping trends from 2005 and 2006 held steady for timing of shopper activities, though the hottest spending categories have shifted slightly.

The eSpending Report starts tracking online holiday gift buyers over a seven-week period, beginning the end of October. Its national holiday shopper survey polls 1,000 adult online consumers a week, and analyzes the spending attitudes and behaviors of a total 7,500+ online shoppers per season.

Past Findings: Over fifty percent of online shoppers have finished their holiday shopping within a week of Christmas … although only slightly over one-third said they were done two weeks before Christmas.

According to retail analysts at Nielsen//NetRatings, online shoppers are starting their shopping later and later in the season for holiday spending tracked in recent years.  Online marketers can capture that 50-to-54 percent who are finished by mid-December by guaranteeing delivery right up through December 24, which falls on a Monday and the end of a three-day shopping weekend this year.

Nielsen//NetRatings’ holiday retail analyst also suggests offering additional discounts and shipping incentives early in the holiday shopping season … to capture online shoppers before they go “last minute” over the three-day weekend in bricks-and-mortar stores.

Topping eSpending Report online shopping lists the past two holiday seasons were Apparel/Clothing, Computer Hardware/Peripherals and Consumer Electronics … in that order. Online Retail Industry Analysts see some softening in overall spending projections for this season, due to larger economic, employment and mortgage market weaknesses.

However, consumer Electronics sales (particularly with release of the iPhone and iPod Nano) are expected to remain strong; Discount and Priced-to-Sell Apparel/Clothing are expected to move. Sales of toys imported from China and the Pacific Rim are a question mark, given CPSC product safety recalls (lead paint, hazardous small parts). Some retail analysts see revenue levels for lower volume but higher-priced toys sourced in North America and Europe as compensating for declines caused by the Chinese import toy recalls.

Start thinking Christmas and Holiday Shopping Cheer before putting the Halloween costumes and candy corn back into cyber-inventory. Smart online marketers might want to capture that persistent 10% of online shoppers who still, as of one week before Christmas, have not yet cracked their holiday lists.