The holiday shopping season is swinging into gear, and Baby Boomer bargain hunters are fueling a big gain in traffic at e-commerce sites. Traffic monitoring service Hitwise reported a 56 percent surge in marketshare for the week ended November 3rd. The gain was driven mainly by online shoppers over age 45 with the share of traffic from that age demo up 38 percent compared with a year ago.

“As we enter the holiday shopping season, consumers are beginning to research potential gift purchases and compare prices earlier than last year especially with retailers beginning to roll out seasonal promotions,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise. “Baby boomers are the main visitors of comparison shopping websites and our search term data indicates that consumer electronics continue to be popular amongst these comparison shoppers.

Biggest marketshare gainer in teh 45+ category was Shopzilla, where traffic was up 58 percent during the measured period, compared with a year ago. Shopzilla is owned by diversfied media company E.W. Scripps.

Detail on the Hitwise study, including rankings of the top e-commerce sites and brands, is here.

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