DALLAS, Dec 13, 2005/ FW/ --- The holiday shopping season is just six weeks old, but online retailers are already enjoying a 33% year-over-year increase in the total number of online shopping trips during the week ending Dec 4, according to Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday eShopping Index.

America is shopping online and it shows! Last year at this time, the Holiday eShopping Index showed shoppers visiting retail sites 348.3 million times during the week; this year, the number of shopping sessions grew to 462.5 million.

"Online shopping has increased over last year because both new and experienced Internet buyers are not only researching products and comparing prices online before making a purchase, but they are also finding good holiday discounts online," said Heather Dougherty, senior retail analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings, in a statement.

And although Books/Music/Video showed the most remarkable increase of 238%, Apparel ranked No. 2 with 38% increase, great news for fashion houses and designers who are already thinking of the upcoming fashion season that officially kicks on in Milan with the start of the Milan Menswear Show in January.

Another remarkable development is that during the 6th week of the holiday shopping season, Jewelry, another fashion category shot up 81%. That’s another plus point for the fashion industry, which is 2006 is facing competition from China in terms of production.

Here’s the statistics as released by Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday eShopping Index. For more information please log on: www.nielsen-netratings.com

Table 1: Year-Over-Year Fastest Growing Online Retail Categories in Week 6 of Holiday Shopping Season (U.S., Home and Work)

Category	Wk Dec 4, 2005	Wk Dec 4, 2004	Year-Over-Year Week 6 Growth
Books / Music / Video	45,945	13,594	238%
Apparel	17,186	12,498	38%
Home and Garden	12,325	9,592	28%
Toys/Video Games	11,283	8,795	28%
Retail	262,121	204,805	28%
Consumer Electronics	24,880	19,614	27%
Computer Hardware / Software	27,129	22,228	22%
Flowers and Gifts	6,216	5,154	21%
Shopping Comparison/Portals	53,078	49,277	8%
Total	462,468	348,267	33%

Table 2: Table 2: Top Growth Categories for Week 6 Over Week 1 of 2005 Holiday Season* (U.S., Home and Work)

Category	Percent Growth from Week Oct 30, 2005 to Dec 4, 2005
Toys/Video Games	149%
Flowers and Gifts	117%
Jewelry	81%
Shopping Comparison/Portals	64%
Home and Garden	44%
Apparel	43%
Retail	34%
Books/Music/Video	23%
Computer Hardware/Software	10%
Total	39%