The wooden train set and the dollhouse appear to be over as favorite Christmas gifts this year, as 17 of 20 top-selling gifts are consumer electronics products, according to an online survey.
Game consoles, laptops, navigation devices and cameras dominated the top 20 most searched for gifts in the "Holiday Shopping Trends" report released this week by Permuto, provider of an online advertising network.
Permuto tracked product category searches with the help of partners PriceGrabber.com and Like.com to see what people are looking for this holiday season. It only tracked the most popular products of online shoppers, not those gong to physical stores.
Of the top sellers, only women's boots, puzzles and games and dolls operate without the use of electricity or batteries (save for the occasional Chatty Kathy or her modern-day equivalent.)
The Top 20 product categories are as follows:
- LCD or plasma TVs
- Cameras
- Laptop computers
- GPS navigation systems
- MP3 player.
- External hard drives
- Camcorders
- Games and puzzles (non-electric)
- Game consoles and accessories
- Women's boots (non-electric)
- Printers
- Blu-ray players
- LCD computer monitors
- Watches (are there any wind-ups left?)
- Electric toys
- Desktop computers
- Wii games (need a Wii console to play them)
- Educational toys (example, EyeClops Night Vision toy)
- Dolls
- Xbox consoles and accessories
While traffic to online shopping sites is up this year over last, shoppers claim to be tightening their belts, Permuto says. More than half (52.9 percent) of shoppers surveyed said they'll be spending less this year than last, 42.3 percent will be spending about the same and only 4.8 percent will be spending more. The largest category of shoppers (36 percent) said they'll probably spend between $100 and $499 total on gifts.
Don't forget to save for the electric bill.
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