Over the past few years, there have been numerous campaigns, such as Small Business Saturday and Shift Your Shopping, which encourage shoppers to buy products from local brick and mortars. A growing number of customers are taking a similar approach when buying online, even with sites like Amazon slashing prices to get an edge on the competition, according to a story in The New York Times. "Folks are exercising their desire to support local stores where local is not just in their town, but anywhere in the country," Michael Walden, a professor who studies regional economics at North Carolina State University, told the Times. "A large number of Americans have a general suspicion of bigness in the economic world. They equate bigness with power and monopoly."

Smaller ecommerce retailers have tried to counteract big retailers by carrying exclusive items and offering other personalized touches that larger operations usually do not do. However, as of yet, the trend has not fully caught on. The 25 biggest online retailers received 70 percent of ecommerce dollars in the 2011 holiday season, a three percent increase from 2010.

This story was adapted from an original story in the New York Times.