Blockbuster posts sharpest holiday traffic gains among online retailers

Following its launch last July of an online DVD rental service, Blockbuster Inc. posted the sharpest year-to-year gain in online holiday season 2004 average weekly traffic—to 2.89 million unique visitors from 593,000, up 387%—among online retailers, comScore Networks Inc. reports. Walmart.com still led in total weekly traffic, with 10.55 million, up 68% from 6.28 million.

ComScore based the holiday shopping season on Nov. 1 through Dec. 26, then compared it to the corresponding weeks of 2003. Among the top 15 online retail sites ranked in terms of traffic growth rate, six other than Blockbuster serve as online storefronts of offline retailers: The Home Depot, Neiman Marcus, Wal-Mart Stores, Nordstrom, May Department Stores and Target.

The top 15 sites in terms of traffic growth rate cited by comScore and their 2003/2004 average weekly traffic figures (in millions):
Blockbuster.com, 0.593/2.89, up 387%;
LetsTalk.com, 0.340/1.01, up 197%;
Overstock.com, 2.99/5.60, up 87%;
ATTWireless.com, 1.89/3.44, up 82%;
EBates.com, 0.791/1.44, up 82%;
T-Mobile.com, 0.935/1.70, up 82%;
Zappos.com, 0.46/0.798, up 73%;
HomeDepot.com, 1.3/2.24, up 72%;
NeimanMarcus.com, 0.378/0.644, up 71%;
PeoplePC.com, 1.39/2.33, up 68%;
Walmart.com, 6.28/10.55, up 68%;
Nordstrom.com, 0.675/1.12, up 66%;
May Department Stores, 0.715/1.14, up 59%;
Shopzilla Sites, 3.02/4.78, up 59%;
Target Corp., 4.27/6.70, up 57%.