The holiday shopping season brought increased traffic to a number of categories including retail, shipping and weather sites, according to comScore Media Metrix.
Traffic to retail sites grew in December as consumers searched for holiday gifts and discounts. Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories jumped 30 percent to 25 million visitors to rank as the top-gaining category for the month.
Sports/Outdoor sites also had strong growth for the month climbing 24 percent to more than 38 million visitors. The top ten sites in the category all had double-digit increases, including DicksSportingGoods.com (up 57% to 4.8 million visitors) and SportsAuthority.com (up 61% to 3.3 million visitors).
Other retail categories in the top-ten included music (up 24% to 26 million visitors), flowers/gifts (up 17% to 45.7 million visitors) and computer software (up 14% to 30.2 million visitors).
“The holiday shopping season continued to be the main driver of online activity in December, with retail sites being the primary beneficiaries,” commented Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix.
“While enticing discounts and incentives were enough to attract holiday shoppers to browse online, consumers did not open their wallets as they have in past years as online sales declined 3 percent versus last year amid the tougher economic climate.”
Traffic to shipping sites rose 27 percent to nearly 40 million visitors in December as Americans went online to track packages. UPS took the top spot with 21.6 million visitors (up 47% from the previous month). USPS.com landed the second spot with 16.6 million visitors (up 28%), followed by FedEx with 13.4 million visitors (up 38%).
The weather category grew by 17 percent to 76.8 million visitors as people looked for weather updates. The Weather Channel led the category with 41.5 million visitors (up 28%), followed by Weatherbug with 27.1 million visitors (up 10%), and Yahoo Weather with 14.3 million visitors (up 36%).
Google sites remained the most visited property in December with 149 million visitors, trailed by Yahoo sites with 145.7 million visitors and Microsoft sites with 125.4 million visitors.
