In a post-holiday poll, Members of QFLEA.com - The Virtual Flea Market were asked to rank their holiday success on a scale of 0-4, with 4 signifying that they experienced a much better than anticipated holiday sales performance, 3 being better than expected, 2 being as expected, 1 being worse than expected and 0 being far worse than expected.

128 QFLEA members responded, representing more than 128 small businesses, as some members have more than one business listed with the virtual flea market. The scores were member-specific as opposed to business-specific. The average score for the 128 members was 2.45, representing a 21% improvement over the 2004 average of 2.03.

Further analysis was performed based on member participation in two specific programs available through QFLEA.com, the FIND program and the Holiday Promotion web site.

Those members who participated in the FIND program (a searchable database of member sites) scored 2.57, 7.5% better than those who did not participate in the program. Those members who purchased an advertisement on the QFLEA Holiday Promotion site scored 2.81, 19.1% better than those who did not advertise on the promotion site.

Those members who both participated in FIND and purchased a holiday ad in the promotion scored an overall 3.05, which was 30.9% above those who participated in neither of the two programs.

While it is clear that those who participated in the additional activities scored better than those who did not, it is difficult to assess a "cause and effect" relationship between the groups. While it can be interpreted that those participating had a better than expected holiday season, it can also be interpreted that those who were expecting a better season felt they had the financial resources to participate in those activities.

One clear interpretation is that the members in the 2006 study faired better for the holidays than they did QFLEA members in 2004. Possible reasons for this improvement could include better positioning by the individual vendor sites, greater traffic through QFLEA.com and/or the general increase in internet shopping.