Jupiter Research predicted on Monday that a record number of US shoppers will make purchases via the Internet this year-end holiday season, spending more than 39 billion dollars online.
"This market remains insulated from macroeconomic factors cited to adversely affect overall holiday retail sales," the technology-tracking firm concluded in a report titled US Online Retail Holiday Forecast.
"As a result, retailers are planning to increase their efforts to attract customers across a variety of tactics with search marketing leading the way."
The forecast is good news for major Internet search engines Google, Yahoo and Microsoft that generate revenues from advertising displayed along with the results of online queries.
Google was used for approximately 63 percent of online searches conducted in the United States in September, according to Internet intelligence firm Hitwise.
Yahoo was the second most popular search engine, handling nearly 23 percent of online queries. Slightly less than eight percent of online searches were handled by third-place Microsoft's MSN service, Hitwise reported.