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Strong overall traffic growth despite economic fears – The total market share of visits to the Hitwise Retail Index increased by 17% between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
Shoppers fl ocked online on Thanksgiving Day to check out online-only specials and Black Friday promotions – The largest market share of visits to the Hitwise Retail Index occurred on Thanksgiving Day this year, an increase of 20 percent compared to 2006. This is the fourth year in a row that traffic has peaked on Thanksgiving Day, making it the busiest day online in terms of market share of visits during the holiday shopping season.
Promotions drive season’s highest growth in market share on Cyber Monday – The Hitwise Retail Index comprising the top 100 retail websites received 5.07 percent of all US visits on November 26, 2007, representing an increase of 26 percent versus November 27, 2006, with 4.02 percent of visits.
Search and cross-shopping drive the majority of referrals – Search engines and other retail websites topped the list of traffic sources to the Hitwise Retail Index and together contributed 57% of upstream traffic in December 2007. Email also remained a key communication tool to help drive customers to retail websites.
Traffic to comparison shopping engines (CSEs) increased during the 2007 holiday season – The comparison shopping engines experienced strong growth during the holiday season, as price conscious shoppers research holiday purchases. The market share of visits was 48% higher in December 2007 than last year.
Retailer participation helped drive additional consumer interest for Black Friday ad websites – Traffic to Black Friday websites increased by 51% for the week ending November 24, 2007 compared to the same week in 2006 as a result of broader consumer awareness and a greater array of content from retailers.
Nintendo Wii and Uggs dominate product searches – Nintendo Wii and Ugg boots were consistently the top searches among products during this holiday season. Interest in the Nintendo Wii remained strong leading up to the Christmas holiday even as retailers ran out of stock.
Shoppers sought gift cards from credit card issuers – Visa and American Express gift cards were the most popular searches for ‘gift cards’ during much of December. Price-conscious consumers also looked for free and discounted gift cards to stretch holiday budgets.
Holiday traffic patterns remain stable – Holiday traffic trends to retail websites have exhibited a similar pattern over the past 4 years, where the highest market share of visits to the Hitwise Retail Index occurred on Thanksgiving Day, followed by Black Friday. Traffic to retail websites increased by 20% and 16% on Thanksgiving and Black Friday respectively, over the last year. Much of the activity on these days can be attributed to shoppers researching Black Friday sales and taking advantage of online-only specials while the stores are closed during Thanksgiving Day. Additional spikes in traffic also took place during each of the three weekends following Thanksgiving Day and the day after Christmas.
Significant traffic growth during the holiday season amidst fears of a recession – Although there were looming fears about the economy due to the credit crunch and rising oil prices, traffic to retail websites grew during the holiday season. The total market share of visits to the Hitwise Retail Index increased almost 17% between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
Bricks and mortar retailers top websites for Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday - For the third year in a row, Walmart.com was the most visited retail website on Thanksgiving Day 2007, receiving 16% of visits among the top 100 retail websites. BestBuy.com and CircuitCity.com were the second and third most visited websites on Thanksgiving respectively, followed by Amazon.com and Target.com. On Black Friday, Wal-Mart was the most visited website, followed by Amazon. Best Buy, Target and Circuit City rounded out the top five most visited websites.
Cyber Monday promotions created enthusiasm and demand – Heavy promotional activity from retailers successfully increased traffic on Cyber Monday (a term coined by NRF’s Shop.org, a trade organization for online retailers to kick-off the online shopping season). This is the third year in a row there has been an increase on the Monday following Thanksgiving; however, Cyber Monday moved up in the rankings as the third highest day for traffic during the 2007 holiday season and increased 26 percent over the previous year.
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