Who cares if the weather outside is frightful? Shopping online can be delightful!

Holiday shoppers can sit snugly at home, sipping eggnog, while their Christmas list gets filled with the click of a mouse!

According to Nielsen//NetRatings, which published its fifth annual Holiday eCommerce Index on Tuesday, this year's online holiday-shopping season started the second week in November - 2 weeks earlier than "Black Friday," the day after Thanksgiving, which traditionally kicks off the holiday shopping season for offline retailers.

Online holiday sales from Thanksgiving to Christmas will grow by 42 percent over last year to $12.2 billion, predicts research from Forrester. And the average consumer plans to spend $671.89 this holiday season, up from 2002 when consumers spent an average of $648.85, according to the National Retail Federation (NRF) 2003 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey released in October.

The Internet is great not only for finishing your holiday shopping, you can also conduct product research, comparison shop, look up government recalls, and find locations and hours of retail stores – should you care to venture outside.

What's Hot
Toys, Home & Garden and Consumer Electronics are hot categories this year. ToysRUs and KB Holdings led traffic gains since October, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. In the Home & Garden category, MarthaStewart.com and Sears saw significant growth, as did CircuitCity.com and RitzCamera.com in the Consumer Electronics category.

Hot toys include Barbie in Swan Lake and G.I. Joe 40th Anniversary, according to a "Hot Toys List" compiled by online auction site eBay in conjunction with toy expert Chris Byrne. Parents often turn to eBay when offline stores run out of popular toys, according to Geoff Donaker, Director of eBay Toys.

Big name retailers like Target and BestBuy hope consumers will shop online, but also use their online sites to give information about their offline locations for shoppers' convenience. Many have added in-store pick-up to give online shoppers more flexibility.

"Old-fashioned" ecommerce sites like eBay and Amazon offer unique gifts and good deals. A host of sites offer gifts for collectors, including online "antiques malls" like Tias.com, GoAntiques.com and RubyLane.com, or smaller auction sites like ePier.com and Bidville.com.

Looking for luxury items at rock-bottom prices? Consider a site like Bid4Assets.com, which offers high-end assets from government, non-profits and private industry in an online auction format.

Shoppers can also turn to catalog companies like Lands End, LL Bean and Harry and David. Consumers often feel comfortable ordering from these companies "sight unseen," and the companies are experts on delivering goods via mail.

And if you’re not sure what to get, gift cards are becoming increasingly popular with shoppers. Many retailers allow you to purchase gift cards online. For example, Macy's offers a Happy Holidays Crystal Snowflake Gift Card. Choose the denomination (from $25 to $500), and the recipient can use it to shop at macys.com or at any Macy’s store nationwide.

How to Find It
Shopping tools are a popular way to comparison shop and find items. "The persistent, always-on nature of broadband Internet connections means more consumers are conducting searches, doing comparison shopping and discovering more product- and merchant-related information. This also results in a noticeable offline impact - more informed buyers," said Robert Leathern, director and senior analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings.

Popular shopping search engines include Shopping.com, Yahoo Shopping and Froogle (see http://digbig.com/3gbx for more information). Or go directly to an ecommerce site. If you’re unsure of the URL, do a search on Google or Yahoo for the store name.

You can also check online to make sure your product has not been recalled. Web site http://www.recalls.gov gives consumers easy access to information about the thousands of toys, appliances, cosmetics, medicines, foods, boats, automobiles and other products recalled every year by the six federal agencies that have such authority.

There are other tips to keep in mind when shopping online, such as making sure you calculate the total price, including taxes and shipping & handling charges. Also make sure you are dealing with a reputable company.

So curl up to your computer with some hot chocolate and shop in your bathrobe and slippers. We won't tell.