Cyber Monday Traffic Increases 26 Percent in 2007

November 29, 2007; 03:00 AM
NEW YORK, NY -- U.S. traffic on Cyber Monday increased 26 percent compared to 2006, Hitwise reported today. This is the third year in a row there has been an increase on the Monday following Thanksgiving.

Traffic to the Hitwise 100 Retail Index, which is comprised of the top 100 retail websites, received 5.07 percent of all U.S. visits on Nov. 26, 2007 representing an increase of 26 percent versus Nov. 27, 2006, which received 4.02 percent of visits.

“Following a strong holiday weekend, consumers continued to shop online on Cyber Monday, increasing visits to retail sites from last year,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research, Hitwise. “Traffic to the electronics and video games categories experienced the strongest growth as shoppers searched for products such as GPS navigation systems and Nintendo Wii consoles.”

Amazon.com Top Website on Cyber Monday

For the third year in a row, Amazon.com was the most visited retail website on Cyber Monday receiving 10 percent of visits among the top 100 retail websites. Walmart.com and Target.com were the second and third most visited websites respectively, followed by BestBuy.com and CircuitCity.com.

Cyber Monday stats:

• Traffic to CyberMonday.com increased 55 percent on Cyber Monday as compared to 2006.

• Traffic to Comparison Shopping websites increased 47 percent on Cyber Monday as compared to 2006.

• Multiple retail categories saw an increase in online traffic on Cyber Monday as compared to 2006 including:

  • Appliances and Electronics – 47 percent

  • Video and Games – 40 percent

  • Apparel and Accessories – 22 percent

  • Toys and Hobbies – 16 percent

Online Holiday Shopping Update:

• The Hitwise U.S. Retail 100 Index chart shows that visits to the websites within the Index were up 43 percent for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007 versus last week (Nov. 17, 2007). U.S. traffic is up 15 percent compared to the same week last year (Nov. 25, 2006).

• Walmart.com took over the top spot as most visited website within the Index last week, receiving 11 percent of U.S. visits. Amazon.com received the second-most visits with nine percent. CircuitCity.com was again the biggest gainer for the week, as their website traffic increased 94 percent compared to the previous week.

• The Nintendo Wii and iPod were again the most popular product search terms sending visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites for the week ending Nov. 24, 2007. The terms “wii”, “nintendo wii” and “ipod” were the top three product searches. The Microsoft Zune made its debut among the top 10 searches this past week, coming as the fifth most searched for product.

About Hitwise

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Only Hitwise provides its 1,400 clients around the world with daily insights on how their customers interact with a broad range of competitive websites, and how their competitors use different tactics to attract online customers.

Since 1997, Hitwise has pioneered a unique, network-based approach to Internet measurement. Through relationships with ISPs around the world, Hitwise’s patented methodology anonymously captures the online usage, search and conversion behavior of 25 million Internet users. This unprecedented volume of Internet usage data is seamlessly integrated into an easy to use, web-based service, designed to help marketers better plan, implement and report on a range of online marketing programs.

Hitwise, a subsidiary of Experian (FTS: EXPN) www.experiangroup.com operates in the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

For up to date analysis of online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at http://weblogs.hitwise.com and the Hitwise Data Center at www.hitwise.com/datacenter.