We shop 'til the mouse drops

Maybe it's the long winters that keep Minnesotans indoors. Maybe it's the high gasoline prices.

Whatever the reason, Minneapolis and St. Paul each rank in the top 10 among U.S. cities when it comes to online shopping.

According to Bundle.com, a website devoted to tracking individual spending habits, St. Paul ranks No. 8 in terms of online purchases and Minneapolis ranks ninth. Miamians do the most online shopping.

The study involved the 65 largest cities in the U.S. and looked at online ordering trends of 30 top online retailers, including Amazon.com and Overstock.com.

The study said Minneapolis and St. Paul residents spend nearly twice as much online as the rest of the population.

Minnesotans certainly aren't shopping online more because of a dearth of shopping destinations in the area. After all, the Mall of America is only the most recent covered mall in a region that has enjoyed climate-controlled shopping centers since 1956 when Southdale opened.

No, the online presence of Minnesota shoppers seems to thrive for a number of other factors.

Rao said online shoppers often are either price-sensitive or time-sensitive.

Some might be attracted to electronic commerce because items are cheaper -- no sales tax, for instance -- but they have to consider shipping and handling fees.

Others might realize they have a teenager's birthday the next day and quickly purchase an e-mail gift card from a retailer that is delivered almost immediately.

"You don't have to get in a car and drive somewhere," Rao said.

A study earlier this year by Forrester Research, Inc., predicted online retail will grow at a double-digit pace in both the U.S. and Europe over the next five years.

Rao said electronic commerce will become more and more dominant but will not spell the end of bricks-and-mortar shopping.

"Sometimes you just have to feel an item. If you were getting a new tennis racket or golf clubs you could do the research online, but then you would go to the store and feel them out," he said.

But sometimes, it's the opposite -- where shoppers peruse a store for certain items and then go home and order what they like online.

At a recent Best Buy conference call, a stock analyst jokingly referred to Best Buy as "Amazon.com's showroom" in the hypercompetitive world of consumer electronics.