E-tailers took the first three spots on the latest list of the top 10 fastest-growing sites, according to a new report released Friday by Jupiter Media Metrix. The research firm also reported that Internet malls widened their audience reach in December more than any other type of site.
The surge in the popularity of e-commerce sites was largely due to the holiday shopping season, when even traditional retailers managed to boost sales.
But IDC e-commerce 
analyst Jonathan Gaw
predicted that online shopping will continue to be strong well
past the holiday season. "The notion that e-commerce
died sometime last year is really way off," Gaw told the
E-Commerce Times. "We're
buying more online than we ever did before."
Bookspan Property, a partnership between Doubleday Direct and the holding company for Book-of-the-Month Club, saw the biggest increase in the number of unique visitors over November, up 164 percent to 6.5 million unique visitors.
Greeting card site Hallmark shot up 68 percent to 9 million unique visitors, and Verisign-owned Netsol.com took third place with visits up 53 percent to 8 million.
Amazon-backed e-tailer Drugstore.com came in seventh with a 32 percent increase in visitors and BestBuy.com was ninth with a 31 percent increase in visitors.
E-Tailers Reach Bigger Crowds
Of the top 10 Web site categories with the strongest growth in audience reach, for both home and work use combined, five were in the retail category.
Internet retail malls saw the strongest growth, with an increase in December of 13 points, or 60 percent, over November. Sites selling jewelry and luxury goods saw audience reach increase 60 percent, while online ticket-sellers saw a 42 percent increase. Food e-tailers extended their audience by 26 percent, and online consumer electronics stores increased their reach by 6 percent.
Twelve retailers made Jupiter's list of the top 50 most-visited sites for December, including Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), at No. 7, and EBay (Nasdaq: EBAY), at No. 8. Also making the list were Ticketmaster (Nasdaq: TMCS), Sony Online and BestBuy.com (NYSE: BBY). AOL took top honors, followed by the MSN and Yahoo!.
Flood of Newcomers
An unusually high 34 sites appeared in the ratings for the first time, and holiday and gift sites were among the strongest of those newcomers. Gourmetgiftmail.com entered the ratings with 2 million visitors, Jewelry.com saw 990,000 visitors, and TV-products.net had 521,000 visitors.
Newcomers also included sites with spiritual themes, which have seen a burst of popularity in the wake of September 11th, as well as promotional sites and search engines.
The preponderance of new sites to make the list
"signals continuing and growing demand for online
services," said Buchwalter.
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