E-tail giant Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN) and retail partner Toys 'R' Us (NYSE: TOY) dominated the online shopping arena this holiday season, according to a report released Tuesday by Nielsen//NetRatings.
The joint venture of Amazon and Toys 'R' Us saw 123 million visitors, more than five times the traffic of its closest competitor.
Rival eToys.com was a distant second, with 21.12 million shopping visits during the season, followed closely by Dell.com, the leading brick-and-mortar site, at 21 million, the Internet audience measurement service said.
Barnesandnoble.com took fourth place, with 20.25 million visits, followed by CDNow.com with 20.0 million, and Walmart.com with 18.0 million.
Overall, online shopping surged during the critical holiday season. The Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday E-Commerce Index, which measures home and work shopping trips to e-commerce sites, rose 78 percent during its peak this season.
High-Flying Bricks
The Nielsen//NetRatings "Top 15" list was heavy on brick-and-click retailers, including such sites as JCPenney.com, BestBuy.com and Target.com.
"The 2000 holiday season will best be remembered
for the onslaught of brick-and-mortar
stores," NetRatings vice president of e-commerce 
Sean Kaldor said. "In
total, established offline brands account for 11 of the top 15 holiday
e-tailers."
The NetRatings report is the latest to show that old-line retailers are learning how to take advantage of the Internet.
"Strong brand awareness, millions of loyal customers, and proven retailing savvy led to the success of brick-and-mortars this year," Kaldor said.
Department Detail
Department-store sites, such as Buy.com, Sears.com and Kmart-backed BlueLight.com, made up more than half of the Top 15 list.
"Online shopping this season mirrored the trend for traditional retailers, as the popularity of virtual department stores dominated other product categories," Kaldor said.
Added Kaldor: "Web consumers favored the huge selections and the time savings offered by virtual department stores."
Favorite Sectors
According to NetRatings, specialty gifts was the fastest growing sector, climbing 264 percent at the peak of the holiday shopping frenzy. Toys and games rose 138 percent, followed by apparel, which had a 130 percent growth rate.
The specialty gift category peaked later than others, seeing the biggest jump in traffic during the week ended December 17th as shoppers made last-minute purchases. By contrast, toy purchases peaked in the week ended December 3rd, and clothing sites did the most business during the week ended December 10th.
Nielsen//NetRatings, a service provided by Nielsen Media Research and
NetRatings, Inc., gets its data from a panel of 62,000 home Internet users
and 8,000 at-work users.
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