Tis the season for metrics. The companies that keep tabs on the Internet have released a flurry of statistics over the past couple of weeks, all of them with the same conclusion: e-commerce is growing still. Nielsen//NetRatings’ Holiday eShopping index put on a few pounds, expanding by 20 percent year-over-year.
eShopping visits have gone from 469 million for the week ending December 10, 2005, to 563 million in 2006.
Cool stuff again rules the register: Toys/Video Games top the product category gainers list, growing by 49 percent with the help of Sony and Nintendo; Books/Music/Videos are close behind, increasing by 46 percent; and Consumer Electronics shoots up by 27 percent.
The online holiday marketing parade is led by eBay, pulling 34.2 million unique visitors for the week. Amazon follows with 25 million visitors, and Wal-Mart hits third place with 13.9 million. Target (9.8 million) and Overstock.com (7.6 million) round out the top five.
But it’s not only the heavy hitters that are growing. Shopping comparison site MySimon was the fastest growing online shopping destination, growing by 124 percent, increasing from 367,000 visitors to 822,000 visitors.
Warehouse CD and DVD company Columbia House jumped from 1.2 million unique visitors to 2.7 million, a gain of 118 percent. 1800flowers.com nearly doubled its traffic, ballooning from 472,000 visitors to 933,000.
People are also turning online for winter travel plans, and for ordering in to help alleviate some of the holiday cooking hassles. Nielsen says Web traffic to ChoiceHotels.com spiked by 76 percent year over year, increasing from 377,000 visitors to 663,00.
Schwan’s Home Service, a service that delivers frozen prepared meals to homes, also grew by 76 percent, upping its visitors from 224,000 to 390,000.
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