Staples’ shoppers top list of web spenders

Staples.com customers have the highest propensity of online shoppers to buy, Diameter, a division of DoubleClick Inc., and comScore Networks Inc. reported today in the netScore Buying Power Index report for May.

The index measures the total dollars spent online by the average member of a site`s audience, indexed to the total online dollars spent by the average Internet user. The baseline index is 100, so an index of 200 would mean the average visitor to that site spends twice as much online as the average Internet user.

The 10 shopping sites with the biggest spenders are:
1. staples.com 770
2. bizrate.com 748
3. newport-news.com 660
4. officedepot.com 579
5. dell.com 557
6. egghead.com 531
7. urbanq.com 508
8. buy.com 467
9. compusa.com 466
10. necxdirect.com 460

The index also reports that some of the Internet`s most widely recognized sites are not necessarily the most valuable in terms of attracting online spenders. For instance, the Detroit News site, with a score of 367, outranked the Wall Street Journal site, with a score of 353. The rankings help advertising agencies, publishers and advertisers to make advertising, product placement and marketing decisions by providing information based on buying behavior.

The leading portals had the following rankings:
1. altavista.com 143
2. excite.com 142
3. juno.com 142
4. netscape.com 140
5. nbci.com 140
6. aol.com 140
7. go2net.com 139
8. lycos.com 133
9 yahoo.com 125
10. msn.com 123

The leading travel sites ranked as follows:
1. hertz.com 874
2. basshotels.com 686
3. delta.com 668
4. hilton.com 649
5. budget.com 635
6. southwest.com 598
7. nwa.com 577
8. travelweb.com 568
9. united.com 558
10. aa.com 542