Popularity of online tracking pushes shipping sites way up in December

Do online buyers like to track their purchases? Here’s a clue: The web sites of UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service all experienced traffic growth of more than 30% from November to December, making the shipping category of web sites the second-fastest growing category from November to December, with growth of 36.4%, reports a Christmas shopping roundup from comScore Networks Inc. Shipping sites hosted 22 million unique visitors in December, comScore reports.

The leading category in traffic gains in December was flowers, gifts and greeting cards, up 41% from November to 42.4 million unique visitors. No. 3 was jewelry, luxury goods and accessories, up 32.6%

Nine of the top 10 sites in traffic growth in December vs. November were retail-related, with taxes the only odd man out, comScore says.

In December, the U.S. Internet population totaled 152.1 million users who spent an average of 27.6 hours online, an increase of 6% versus November.

To get into comScore’s Top 50 web sites in traffic required a 14% jump in traffic. Retail sites that moved up strongly into the Top 50 included AmericanGreetings properties, moving 22 spots to No. 13, Best Buy sites, up 17 spots to No. 30, Target Corp., up 15 spots to No. 27, and Sears sites, up 11 spots to No. 38. In addition, Dell claimed the No. 50 position in December.

LLBean.com was the top gainer in terms of unique visitors, with 3.5 million, up 130.7% from 1.5 million a month earlier.