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mountain guide - Nine out of every 10 online shoppers said they were satisfied with their overall online holiday shopping experiences, according to an NPD e-Visory report, which found that 57 percent of online shoppers reported being very or extremely satisfied. NPD also found that during the 2000 holiday season, online retailers generated nearly twice the revenues as they did during the holiday season of 1999. And the shoppers from 2000 expect to keep using online retailers in the new year. Forty percent reported they will buy online within the month of January 2001. Although online holiday shoppers say they were satisfied in 2000, 63 percent did encounter some difficulties, but the problems appear to be fewer and had little impact on overall satisfaction. Thirty-seven percent reported no difficulties at all. "People seem to be learning the nuances of online shopping," said Pamela Smith, VP of NPD Online. "Since they did

their online holiday shopping earlier this year, issues like out-of-stock items or 'site temporarily down,' while annoying, did not affect their satisfaction." Satisfied customers, double the revenue, fewer difficulties, high expectations for future online buying -- we see 2000 was a very good year after all.The demographics of online buyers looked more like mainstream US buyers than ever before in 2000. More than half of the purchasers were female; more than one-third were older than 45; and half had incomes below $60,000, according to NPD. Shipping fees remain the major reason people did not shop online. Thirty-four percent of all Internet users reported that "lower or no shipping fees" as the top feature that, if improved, would make them buy more online as opposed to traditional stores. Even among those who did buy online shipping fees emerged as the feature they were least satisfied with.

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