Traffic to retail and shipping sites soared in December, comScore reports
Consumers went online in large numbers in December to shop, check the progress of their packages and to put photos of themselves on animated elfin figures to create personalized electronic greetings at OfficeMax’s ElfYourSelf.com, according to the monthly analysis of U.S. online activity by comScore Media Metrix.
That OfficeMax site, which processed visitor’s recorded messages to make them sound elf-like, was a big hit with consumers for the second year in a row, comScore says. As a result, OfficeMax sites showed the fastest growth of all U.S. web sites in December, with traffic increasing 170% from 5.7 million unique visitors in November to 15.3 million in December. OfficeMax, No. 6 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide, says nearly 83 million unique visitors went to the site starting in mid-November, making 194 million visits and creating 123 million elves in a campaign aimed at differentiating OfficeMax from other office supplies chains.
The top-gaining retail category was fragrances/cosmetics, which increased 30% to 21.5 million visitors, led by BathandBodyWorks.com, with 4.4 million visitors, up 27% from November, and Sephora.com with 4.1 million visitors, up 41%. Bath and Body Works is a unit of Limited Brands, which is No. 16 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide; Sephora USA is No. 106.
The consumer goods category grew 23% to 36 million visitors in December, led by OfficeMax. Other leaders in the category were QVC sites, up 3% to 6.1 million visitors, and Hammacher Schlemmer, up 9% to 807,000 visitors. QVC is No. 14 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide and Hammacher Schlemmer No. 218.
The retail music category grew 17% from November to December, reaching nearly 28 million visitors. Barnes & Noble led the way with 9.3 million visitors, up 20%. CD Universe was up 4% to 3.5 million visitors and eMusic attracted 3.4 million visitors, a gain of 89%. Barnes & Noble is No. 33 in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide and CD Universe No. 190.
Traffic to shipping sites went up 21% to 37 million visitors in December as consumers tracked their orders. UPS sites led the way with 18.3 million visitors, up 34%, followed by USPS.com with 16.8 million visitors, up 19%, and FedEx with 12.3 million visitors, up 28%.
Yahoo sites led all U.S. web properties in traffic in December with 136.6 million unique visitors out of a total web audience of 183.6 million. Google sites followed at 133.0 million and Microsoft sites with 120.0 million. The top retail-related sites were eBay, the sixth most-visited site in December with 79.9 million unique visitors, No. 7 Amazon, 65.2 million, No. 10 Apple, 47.7 million, No. 12 Wal-Mart 44.3 million and No. 14 Target, 42.6 million.
Debbie Kristofferson, vice president of creative and user experience at Walmart.com, will speak at the Internet Retailer Web Design ’08 Conference, Jan. 30-Feb. 1 in Miami, in a session entitled Wal-Mart: Setting the pace on site design.
Back...
