holiday season

After a ‘temporary peace’ given for the time of the festive days spam volumes returned to their normal levels doubling over just 24 hours globally. As reported by MessageLabs the Rustock botnet is now out of hibernation and working at its full capacity sending tons of useless junk mail messages from hundreds of thousands of compromised Windows machines.

Online shoppers in America have spent a lot this season and are expected to spend further. according to the latest stats from comScore online shoppers in the United States so far have already spent more than $21.95 billion. That's a 12% increase over the same period last year.

As retailers are offering more discounts and deals the number of shoppers wishing to buy "impulse" gifts for themselves or others is on the rise this season. An exclusive survey for Reuters by consumer research firm America's Research Group revealed that about 46% of U.S. consumers have already purchased an "impulse item" this season.

According to 2 similar surveys conducted earlier in November that number rose from 28% and 38%.

According to the survey statistics from PriceGrabber this year online shoppers plan to spend more on holiday gifts as compared with the previous season. The research shows that 66% of shoppers will spend over $500.

Last holiday season over 59% of shoppers spent $500 or more on gifts. This year shoppers plan to spend $845 on average.

The survey also found that the average 2010 holiday shopper will make 57 percent of their holiday purchases online, 40 percent in brick-and-mortar stores and 3 percent from a mobile phone.

As the economic struggles continue and more and more people are trying to find a way to make extra money online, there is increasing interest in playing the investment game program industry. Why? One reason is that investment game program playing occurs 24 hours a day and 7 days a week so people who have a job can play at anytime they want such as those who work day time can play in the evening, and those with evening jobs can play during the day. Also, it is not very expensive to get into investment game program and does not require much fund capital to start up.

Convio, Inc. estimates that US online giving to nonprofit organization will be more than $4 billion during the holiday season of 2009 as more than 111 million say they plan to give via the Internet this year.

American consumers shopped more for bargains at the start of the U.S. holiday season and spent significantly less than a year ago, according to early data released on Sunday.

Consumers said they will have spent nearly 8 percent less on average, or about $343 per person, over the weekend that includes U.S. Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and runs through Sunday, according to the National Retail Federation.

Holiday season provides shoppers with the variety of awesome discounts. Thus, customers can now get discounts almost any way you want to pay online.

Such companies PayPal and Google Checkout are serving up discounts for purchases this holiday season. While online payment giant offers its PayPal's Deal page, search engineer behemoth presents its Google Checkout's Deal page.

Amazon Payments is also offering special holiday deals for its holiday shoppers targeting not to be left behind.

With the holiday season just around the corner, consumers are already on the hunt for the best bargains. While the bulk of holiday sales still occur in brick-and-mortar stores, surveys suggest most consumers will also go online to find deals on holiday gifts. A recent MarketLive survey reports that 55 percent of consumers plan to shop online for holiday gifts, compared to 49 percent last year, and 26 percent plan to spend more online this year compared to last year. In advance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, blogs and social networking sites are buzzing with coupons and promotions.

The Western Union Company, a leader in the money transfer segment of global payments, found in a recent survey that nearly half of America will travel less this holiday season due to the economy. With fewer people traveling, 52 percent expect to send holiday gifts to family and friends.

Discover card today announced a variety of ways Discover Cardmembers can take advantage of extra cash rewards when shopping this holiday season, including the opportunity to earn Double Cashback Bonus on all online purchases, as well as at department stores, jewelry and apparel retailers.

Even after a year of recession, for some consumers ‘tis the season for a rise in spending. A new survey from American Express reports that 10 percent of consumers actually intend to open their wallets and spend more on holiday gifts relative to last year and 43 percent plan to spend about the same. In the next 30 days, more than one in five U.S. consumers (22%) expect to spend more when compared to the last 30 day period.

 The Western Union Company, a leader in global payment services, started its holiday season today with the announcement about a strategic partnership with Wyclef Jean. Wyclef Jean is multi-platinum Grammy-Award winning international recording artist. It is supposed that Wyclef Jean will promote Western Union Money Transfer® and prepaid services to American consumers. Western Union plans to use social media, grassroots events and consumer promotions in its promotional program in the U.S. with the participation of Wyclef Jean.

 Forrester Research Inc. predicts this holiday season to be successful for U.S. online sales with its expected 8 percent growth, with mass market retailers who can offer discounts performing best. It is estimated that online retail sales in November and December are expected to reach $44.7 billion this year, compared with $41.4 billion a year ago. Forrester stated in its report that despite the lingering effects of the global financial crisis, the online space remains the retail industry's growth engine.

 As the largest retail shopping season of the year approaches, eCommerce retailers can expect a surge in consumer spending compared to the previous quarter. Consumers anticipate that they will spend an average of $281 online during Q4 2009, a 24 percent increase over last quarter. While this represents the first increase in spending since last year, it is an 18 percent decrease in the overall spending rate as compared to Q4 2008. This is according to the eBillme™ Online Spending Index, a quarterly survey examining consumer spending trends online.