Where are you planning on doing most of your Christmas shopping this year? The answer to that question to a growing amount of people is they will be doing their shopping online. In fact, a Yahoo! Poll shows three out of four holiday shoppers will buy gifts online and most are likely to purchase from small businesses.

Yahoo commissioned the survey by Harris Interactive. It found that nearly one third of holiday shoppers reported that they would do half of their Christmas shopping online. The figure is especially high (two thirds) for those who are looking for specialty niche or boutique retailers for unique or hard to find gifts. One main reason for the popularity of niche shopping online is that you can save so much time finding them all at your home computer instead of having to drive all across town or to other towns to find the right item.

One interesting figure found is that one fifth of those who choose to do their Christmas shopping online report that they do it while online at work. Men were the most likely to choose to shop online while at work. Young workers were especially likely to shop online while working. The survey found that one fourth of those from the age 18-44 report shopping online while at work in contrast to only 13 percent of those who are 45 or older.

Security and ease of use were the two biggest factors in helping to make the decision to shop online for the holiday season. Three quarters of those who shop online for Christmas says that both choosing a trusted secure online payment system and easy navigating through the site are the two main decisions on choosing where to shop online. Other important factors are simple check out, easy registration, customer service and an attractive and professional looking website.

Some of the main reasons to shop online are better prices, convenience, avoiding malls and crowds and time saving. Shopping online can offer substantial savings. It is very convenient to do your shopping from the comfort of your own home and not have to fight traffic and the crowds of shopping centers and malls. Free shipping is available at many online stores too.

Online retailers often offer deals just like their brick and mortar counterparts do for holiday shopping. However, instead of the holiday shopping season beginning on Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, the big day for online shopping is Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving. The sales on Cyber Monday have been growing every year and the same is expected for this year.

So where do you plan to do your shopping for this year's Christmas gifts? If you are like most Westerners, you will join them in changing your holiday shopping to an online store.