Holiday e-commerce sales are expected to soar 15 percent this year to $78.7bn, according to numbers released by Forrester Research. The Forrester projection is somewhat in line with other researchers' estimates: EMarketer also projects that U.S. holiday e-retail sales will increase 15.1 percent this year, while Deloitte LLP predicts a 12.5-percent to 13-percent increase in U.S. non-store sales, which primarily consists of online sales.

"Strong economic growth and low unemployment rates project a healthy playing field for online holiday sales and outweigh any lingering dampening effect of the government shutdown," the Forrester report stated. "This strength is even more evident online than it is offline, as consumers continue to shift their spending to multiple digital devices from stores."

More consumers are shopping online this year because, essentially, they believe the process is cheaper and easier. Sixty-one percent of U.S. consumers surveyed by Forrester said they shop online because it is easier than going to stores.

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