shopzilla

While eager shoppers cram into stores, fight over bargains and wait endlessly in lines Friday, a growing number will avoid the mayhem.

That group will buy from home. And they'll probably be in their pajamas.

Nearly 60 percent of the nation's shoppers will purchase gifts online this holiday season, according to Helen Malani, chief shopping expert at Shopzilla.com, an online comparison shopping resource.

Overall, online holiday shopping is expected to grow by 21 percent over 2006 with four out of 10 consumers spending $300 or more online. Forrester Outlook for U.S. Online Retail projects that will translate into $33 billion in spending, compared to $27 billion last year.

Most of the spending will start Nov. 26, the official kickoff for the online shopping season -- known to some as "Cyber Monday." It's also when online retailers begin to roll out their promotions, such as free shipping, one-day sales and discounts.

This year, industry watchers predict that most online spenders will put their money to apparel, accessories and gift cards.

And in a culture in which more consumers want control over their experiences -- whether it be the kind of hotel they stay in, the movies they watch at home (think On Demand) or where they shop -- for online consumers, it's all about making the process easy.

"The convenience factor is the numero uno reason why people just love online shopping," said Malani. "Around the holidays, shopping is part chore and part enjoyment. We choose the channels according to what experience we want to have."

Based on findings by BizRate Research, a division of Shopzilla.com that measures buyers' experiences, the growth in online shopping is also being fueled by consumers' recognition of invisible costs. Those hidden expenses include things such as parking fees, eating out while at the local mall, gift wrapping and gas for travel. An October Shopzilla/BizRate survey found that 87 percent of consumers felt the unanticipated costs of shopping will be higher this year.

What with their desire for convenience and to curb those invisible costs, it appears that consumers are developing new online shopping behaviors, too.

Malani calls it "The Pajama Effect." In the past, most shoppers went online on a Monday afternoon at their workplace. These days, more are doing so after dinner, before bed or in the early morning hours, she said.
CAMPBELL, Calif., Nov. 20 /PRNewswire/ -- ONStor, Inc., the leading provider of scalable clustered NAS storage solutions for the enterprise, today announced that one of the company's Web 2.0 customers, Shopzilla, won InfoWorld's 100 Award for its innovative data center consolidation project built upon ONStor's Bobcat clustered NAS gateways. The annual InfoWorld awards honor IT projects that demonstrate the most creative use of cutting-edge technologies to further their business goals.
"This is great win for our customer as well as ONStor," said Bob Miller, CEO of ONStor. "We are always seeking ground-breaking ways for our products to improve the efficiency and performance of a company's data center -- whether through file server virtualization, reduced energy costs or storage consolidation. This award win validates our technology and demonstrates ONStor's ability to have a dramatic impact on a company's day-to-day operations."
To enhance the shopping experience of more than 20 million unique visitors per month and ensure system availability throughout peak holiday shopping times, Shopzilla revamped its infrastructure to alleviate cache overloads. The company needed to find a storage solution that offered the highest throughput available, with the capacity to scale at a moment's notice and support up to 500 terabytes of data passing through the system each day. Implementing a solid-state disk SAN from Texas Memory Systems and 22 ONStor Bobcat NAS gateways to front two datacenters, the company consolidated its backend architecture into a unified system capable of quick scaling of capacity and performance without downtime.
"Whether ushering legacy systems into the agile era or revolutionizing how their companies leverage technology to meaningful ends, this year's winners are both inspirational and proof that striking a new path in IT can reap deep organizational rewards," said InfoWorld, Senior Editor, Jason Snyder.
About InfoWorld Media Group
InfoWorld Media Group helps IT solutions management choose the right technology, within the context of a cohesive strategy, for business impact at their organizations. Rather than merely covering the enterprise technology market, InfoWorld identifies and promotes emerging technology segments that add unique value for the organizations that implement them, as well as the vendors that provide those solutions. Using an integrated communications approach including online, events, research, and a continued investment in an independent Test Center, InfoWorld analysts and editors provide both hands-on analysis and evaluation, as well as expert commentary on issues surrounding emerging technologies and products. Visit InfoWorld at /.
About ONStor
ONStor drives down the cost of storage management by delivering scalable clustered NAS that saves enterprises 50 percent on total cost of ownership with systems that let customers start small and scale massively as their requirements grow. ONStor's award-winning Pantera Clustered NAS Systems and Bobcat NAS Gateways consolidate information from multiple Windows, UNIX and Linux devices into a single, highly scalable file storage environment. The open storage architecture allows existing assets to be leveraged, while integrated file server virtualization enables resources to be redeployed quickly to accommodate changing needs. Proven at hundreds of enterprise customer sites, ONStor delivers the cost-effective approach to scalable storage. More information about ONStor can be found ator by calling toll-free 877-2ON-STOR (877-266-7867).
ONStor, the ONStor logo, Pantera and ONStor Bobcat are trademarks of ONStor, Inc. in the U.S. and other countries. All other marks and trademarks may be the property of their respective owners. Information regarding products, services and offerings may be superseded by subsequent documents and are subject to change without notice. For the latest information and specifications regarding ONStor, Inc. and any of its offerings or services, please contact your local sales office or the corporate headquarters