As the wedding season heats up, consumers are turning to the Web for their wedding shopping and planning needs, according to independent, non-sponsored research conducted by Claria Corporation's (https://www.claria.com/) Feedback Research division. The study revealed that 29 of Internet consumers buy wedding gifts online.

Feedback Research analyzed the actual online traffic of Claria's 43 million users to gain insight into how people use the Internet for wedding- related activities, including wedding gift purchases. Traffic was monitored from March 29 to June 14, 2004 among consumers who viewed retailing sites that have popular online registries, such as Target.com, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Macy's. Feedback Research also surveyed a random sampling of these same consumers to find out how they were shopping and using the Internet for their wedding needs.

  Some highlights of the survey indicate: 
 
  -- 57 of respondents who purchased a wedding gift researched it online 
 before buying (up +9 pts. from last year). 
  -- 79 of respondents bought gifts from the bride and groom's gift 
 registries either online or offline (up +17 pts. from last year). 
  -- Target was the most popular store to purchase wedding gifts with 52 of 
 respondents saying that they have purchased a gift there, followed by 
 Bed, Bath & Beyond with 46 and Macy's with 32. 
 
  Online Gift Registries Vow to Cash in on the Wedding Season 
 

Claria also measured the online user traffic of several retailers' online gift registries:

  -- From May 1 - June 14, Target.com topped the list as the most popular 
 gift registry page, with 34 of total traffic, followed by the Bed, 
 Bath & Beyond gift registry with 23 and the Macy's gift registry on 
 weddingchannel.com with 19. 
  -- The average viewer to these popular registry sites came back 5 times. 
  -- 91 of consumers viewed more than one registry, while 67 viewed only 
 one gift registry (down -10 pts. from last year). 
  -- Traffic to wedding gift registries peaked on Wednesdays, with over 25 
 of traffic occurring on that day - Thursday and Friday were the second 
 most popular days for visiting gift registries with those days making 
 up 34 of total traffic. 
 
  Shopping for the Perfect Gift 
 
  -- 50 of respondents typically spend more than $50 on a wedding gift. 
  -- 59 of respondents indicated that they purchase gifts for all weddings 
 they are invited to and another 35 purchased gifts only for weddings 
 they attend. 
  -- 70 of survey respondents indicated that they will be attending a 
 wedding within the next 3 months.