Online consumers have moved from cutting back to price-conscious spending and are using the Internet to find the best deals, according to a new survey from PriceGrabber.com.

The survey found that online consumers spend more time online and used the Internet to research their purchases. One in four online consumers said the recession led them to spend more time online.

The majority (94%) of online consumers used the Internet to compare prices, 67 percent searched for coupons, and 52 percent visited social networks. Ninety-one said they felt more confident about their product purchases after researching online, while another 37 percent purchased products on the Internet to reduce impulse buying.

Online consumers are still buying big-ticket items when they find good deals. In the past few months, 53 percent of online consumers said they have taken or planned to take advantage of aggressive sales on big-ticket items in one or more of the following categories: electronics (30%), home improvement (20%), kitchen items (12%) and furniture (12%).

Forty percent of online consumers 18 to 34 years of age purchased or planned to purchase big-ticket electronics on sale, compared with only 26 percent of consumers 55 years of age or older.

At the end of 2008, only 11 percent of global wireless subscriptions were 3G. By the end of 2013, the percentage of 3G and 4G subscriptions will reach 30 percent, according to In-Sat.

Going forward, WiMAX will have to prove itself over the next couple of years with the rise of HSPA and LTE. In-Stat says mobile WiMAX will be popular in developing countries and remote locations where fixed broadband networks are not yet deployed. It’s still not clear if mobile WiMAX will be competitive in locations with existing 3G cellular and fixed broadband networks.

“Based on contract awards, WiMAX deployments are remaining resilient in the face of the economic slowdown, although some operators are slowing the deployment rate,” says Daryl Schoolar, In-Stat analyst.

“The WiMAX equipment heavyweights of Alcatel-Lucent, Alvarion, Motorola and Samsung are benefitting from the trend. Other vendors to watch include Cisco, Huawei and ZTE.”

802.16e, the mobile standard for WiMAX, has been mainly deployed for fixed and nomadic services. Clearwire, Korea Telecom, and UQ of Japan are among the few exceptions that are embracing 802.16e for mobile data applications.

A new survey of online grocery shoppers revealed that consumers don’t just hope to get a great deal, they expect special offers as part of their shopping experience.

When market research agency Buckingham Research asked over 500 online shoppers whether or not they expected retailers to provide special offers such as percentage-off discounts or BOGOF, a massive 89% said yes, they did. In fact, 18% considered special offers to be ‘the norm’.

Just 8% said they felt special offers weren’t to be expected and 3% didn’t know.

“These results prove that the recession is actively impacting on our expectations as shoppers,” said Lucy Pedrick, Research Director at Buckingham Research. 

It should come as no surprise to online retailers that cash-strapped consumers are looking for a bargain. Retailers should be meeting those expectations or run the risk of turning consumers away, not least the determined 4% in Buckingham Research’s survey who said they would not use a store that had no special offers.

Many consumers are searching through multiple sites before making a purchase, and special offers are sure to sway their decisions. They’re also actively searching for sites with money-saving offerings. Recent comScore data showed a marked increase in the use of search terms relating to money-saving techniques. Searches for “coupon” doubled to 19.9 million in December, 2008, while “discount” rose 26% to 6.3 million. 

More so, consumers know that stores are, or should be, actively competing for their business. Nearly a third (32%) thought special offers were now a standard component of online retail strategy.

Other reasons consumers expected special offers were:

- 18% anticipated special offers as part of any shopping experience as they always like to look for a good deal

- 16% said that they expected special offers as a result of their own monetary and economic concerns, 75% specifically referenced the current financial crisis

U.S. visits to stock related Web sites increased 19 percent in February 2009 compared with February 2008, according to a new report from Hitwise.

The stocks and shares category accounted for 1.11 percent of all U.S. Internet visits in February 2009- ranking as the third-highest month in the past year, behind October and September 2008. The average time spent within the category was 11 minutes and 24 seconds, an increase of 14 percent over February 2008.

“With recent declines in the Dow Jones Industrial Average Index, consumers are increasingly turning to Web sites to monitor financial news and portfolio performance,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research, Hitwise.

“There is a strong need for continuous information, particularly during economic uncertainty, that provides an opportunity to drive repeat visits and increase customer communication - especially advice that could help customers weather the storm.”

Yahoo Finance was the most visited Web site in the category, with 22.21 percent. MSN Money received the second -highest number of visits (7.32 %), followed by CNN Money (7.16%).

Among the top 300 search terms sending traffic to the stocks and shares category, 64 percent were for branded terms. Stock searches made up 20 percent, and generic searches mad e up 16 percent.

The top search terms by brand were for Sirius XM driven by talks of potential bankruptcy filing, Bank of America, General Electric, Pure Spectrum and Cross Atlantic Commodities round out the top five search terms for the month. The top generic search terms were “currency converter”, “gold price”, “gold prices”, “exchange rates”, and “gold.”