We all know that the current economic slowdown was bound to hurt holiday spending, and today we get news of just how much an impact it had on online shopping, as comScore announced that shoppers spent 3% less this year compared with 2007.

The report was based on spending between November 1 and December 23, and showed that consumers spent $25.5 billion online, compared with $26.3 billion in the same period last year, another clear signal that people are cutting their spending because they are worried about the economy.

A bright spot in the report did show that Cyber Monday, the Monday immediately following Black Friday, was the second biggest day ever for online spending, with an increase of 15% in sales from last year, to $846 million in sales.

After concerns that e-commerce spending was growing well behind the rate that it grew last year, the pace picked up some in recent days.

According to comScore, online spending from November 1 to December 18 was up 19% to $25 billion. On Monday, December 17, e-commerce revenue jumped 33% and on December 18 it rose 25%.

The news may come as some relief to those who believed that customers shopping on the web were beginning to pull back. It now appears that they may have simply waited to see if discounts would improve as Christmas got closer. Shares in some e-commerce companies like Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) have come under some selling pressure.

The holidays may not be so bad after all.

Douglas A. McInyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) is shutting down the call center support function for its retail website walmart.com. The question is whether the cut stems because Wal-Mart's website working well enough to not need human-powered support or because the company is merely shaving costs here? It's hard to imagine that a retail website the size and breadth of Wal-Mart's does not need a support function that connects human customers to a human support system, so that makes me think the company is shaving costs alone.

But, the retailer is saying that the Wal-Mart website has had so many improvements that live support is no longer needed. Okay, let's look at this: the world's largest online retailer, Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN) still offers live phone support, as it apparently believes there is still a need for some customers to talk to a person instead of wading through innumerable website support pages looking for answers. The answers are available, but can be hard to find.

Does Wal-Mart believe its website is superior to Amazon's or something? That makes for an interesting argument if you ask me. The human touch is a requirement for some customers, period. But, that number must be high enough to justify an in-house or outsourced help line, right?

Wal-Mart says that a majority of calls to the online help center were related to order tracking and that improvements have been made so that information is much easier to find on its website. As such, the help line is no longer needed. What about help for other types of questions? It is still hard to believe that Wal-Mart trusts so much in the superiority of its website that it believes no human support will ever be needed again.

[Update, 10-1-07, 6:12pm EDT: According to Wal-Mart officials, the call center for www.walmart.com is not closing. Per Wal-Mart: while we expect a reduction in the number of customer service calls given the enhancements and immediacy of the online self-help tool launched last week, we don't have plans to adjust our customer service staffing. In fact, we'll be increasing our staffing level with the upcoming holiday season.]

As a entry level investment, I like the potential I see in HiBidder.com. After my telephone interview with Rich Esbensen, HiBidder's owner, I came away with one thought emblazoned in my mind... "Mighty Nice".

Rich makes a strong impression as a man who knows business. He's experienced in direct sales and he knows his way around servers and hardware. Rich started up HiBidder with some good basic hardware and a solid business plan. Since January of 2006, his site has established itself mostly by word of mouth, and HiBidder has nearly 28,000 item listings to show for it. HiBidder's current active membership is building beyond 2400 and Rich states that they are currently enrolling new members at a rate of over 200 a month. Given the fact that most of these members are sellers who were displaced from another online auction site, I would expect that they're a group of seasoned veterans who know what customer service is all about.

HiBidder's fee structure is easy on the brain and very easy on the wallet. There are no membership or listing fees. You only pay for what you sell. It costs just .10 cents for selling an item with a value of up to $100. It costs .45 cents for sales valued between $100 and $500. You may sell items valued up to and beyond $10,000. The maximum fee you'll be charged at this time is a paltry $1.75. Rich's formula for keeping seller's costs so low is that all HiBidder's server space is owned by Rich himself. Rich also is fielding two other online sales venues, BidorSell.com and YourHighBid.com .

When asked about security measures, Rich made it clear that he pays special attention to that. Every new member is individually ID verified for a fee of $1.00. Anyone who declines the verification fee is still checked out but they don't get the benefit of having proof of verification disclosed to the community. Rich said that so far they've only had one unsavory business dealer whom they've had to put out.

HiBidder has eight volunteer community support staff members trained by site experience. Rich stated that he expects to have five full time employees around the end of the year. With an estimated page view load of 3 million from March through the end of this year, I think he'll need those added employees. I was curious if outside investment for some media advertising might speed HiBidder's growth... Rich made it clear that what his clients want, his clients get. I'm betting that would include a well funded media blitz. You may seek investment opportunities by starting here.

Disclosure: My wife, Anna Sattler does do business on HiBidder.com