More Than 40% Of Adults Plan To Shop Online This Holiday SeasonMore Than 40% Of Adults Plan To Shop Online This Holiday Season

One out of four consumers will shop for the holidays this Friday, and online shopping will play a major role in retail sales on Black Friday and beyond, according to Consumer Reports.

Consumer Reports released results of its holiday poll on Monday, predicting holiday shopping trends that will begin on Black Friday, considered to be one of the biggest U.S. shopping days of the year. The name comes from the fact that most retailers turn the corner to profit on that day.

The number of people planning to shop on that day is up 4% from last year, according to the poll.

Adults will spend 10 hours on average shopping for the holidays this year, with 38% percent of women spending 10 hours or more, while only 23% of men will shop that much, Consumer Reports said.

Forty-two percent of adults will shop online for the holidays this year, the poll found. That's up from the 40% who said they shopped online last year. Forty-one percent of women said they'll shop online this year, compared to 37% last year, while usage among men has remained relatively flat, Consumer Reports said. Forty-eight percent of online shoppers said they buy via the Web for convenience, while 17% said they do it to avoid crowds. Twelve percent said they go online for better selection, and 11% said they do so for better prices.

Consumer Reports found that people with Internet access at home will spend about 11 hours shopping for the holidays. In other words, shopping online doesn't seem to save time.

This year's season is off to a slow start with only 38% of consumers reporting that they've already begun their holiday shopping. At this time last year, 43% said they had begun shopping for the holidays.

"Black Friday continues to be a busy shopping day and will be an even bigger retail day than it was in 2006," Tod Marks, senior editor of Consumer Reports, said in a statement. "This holiday season needs all the help it can get -- shoppers have been off to a slow start so far this year, but retailers can rest assured that shoppers will be waiting when the doors open on Friday."