Shoppers are doing more research, and starting earlier.

This Google research shows that by the end of Aug 2009, almost half of Christmas shoppers had begun shopping and over a third had started purchasing. That's 4 months prior to the holidays. On the other end of the spectrum, just 5 days prior to Christmas, many had yet to begin shopping or purchasing.

This data reveals that the shopping cycle is longer than expected with a large portion of shoppers researching far in advance but remaining more comfortable waiting until the last minute to finish up.

And how much are they researching? on average of 16 days for top researched items Electronics and Home Appliances categories.