The National Retail Federation announced today that only 46.7% of US consumers had completed their Christmas shopping by the end of the second week of December, which should be of interest to anyone with an ecommerce store.

Those are the stats according to NRF’s 2009 Holiday Consumer Intentions and Actions Survey, conducted by BIGresearch.

Based on survey results, almost 42 million people, 19.1%, hadn’t even started their shopping yet as of late last week.

A mere 8.6% had completely finished their holiday shopping.

Of that minority group, people aged 65 and older had completed the most shopping, 50%, and those aged 45-54 have completed the least at 44.1%.

The survey found that only 11.9% of shoppers plan to complete their gift buying on Christmas Eve. The majority are planning to wrap up their Christmas shopping by December 19th.

During these lean times of a national recession, consumers are looking for bargains. So, discount stores can expect to see a fresh wave of shoppers this coming weekend.

Ditto for grocery stores because more people are buying food such as candy or fruit as gifts this year than last year, and buying groceries to cook meals at home during the holidays rather than eating out.

44.7% of shoppers say they are buying clothing as gifts this year. Almost 40% of shoppers are buying DVDs, books, CDs, videos and video games.

Toys account for 34.6% of sales this holiday season.  Gift cards make up 27.5%. Consumer electronic sales are about 22%.

More people are paying with checks, cash or debit cards than credit cards.

Now, about those procrastinators:

“Retailers know the final lap counts the most and are planning to emphasize promotions and discounts to bring in last-minute shoppers,” said Tracy Mullin, President and CEO, NRF. “As Christmas Day creeps closer, retailers will be ready for an influx of procrastinators, from those who are checking the final names off their list to millions who haven’t even started shopping.”

Based on survey findings, 38% of these last minute shoppers will be shopping online.

This means that if you have an online store, you need to be sure that all is in readiness for the last final surge of Christmas shoppers.

If at all possible, offer expedited shipping because time is running out on buying online and getting delivery by Santa’s big day. Also, if you aren’t already offering online gift cards and e-gift certificates, you should give this some serious consideration.

As we enter the countdown and it’s right down to the wire, having online gift certificates available or not might well make the difference between making a sale or losing it.

So, heads up, ecommerce entrepreneurs! Make routine checks to ascertain that your website is optimized and maximized to the nth degree for that horde of last minute shoppers!