Entertainment, Religion Edge E-Commerce Web Sites in March

March was not a big month for e-commerce, according to Internet research firm Jupiter Media Metrix. For the most part, Web users put away their wallets and flocked to sites about religion and entertainment, though travel also gained ground among online users.

Easter and Passover observances during the month drove traffic to religion sites, according to Jupiter. Between February and March, the number of Web users who visited religion sites at home or at work grew from 4.2 percent to 6.4 percent of the total online population, a 52.4 percent increase.

"While religion sites have grown steadily over the past year, the surge in visitors in March was quite significant, with traffic to the category double what it was just six months ago," Jupiter analyst Stephen Kim said.

The fastest-growing religion sites during the month included Christianitytoday.com, Christianbook.com, Catholic.org and Jewishworldreview.org.

Staying Entertained

Entertainment also was a strong Web theme in March. Five of the top 10 fastest-growing categories measured by audience reach involved entertainment or hobbies, including multimedia, genealogy, humor, radio and entertainment news.

Driven by interest in the Academy Awards, E! Online was the fastest-growing property between February and March, with its number of unique visitors growing 63 percent to 7.7 million.

Slow Shopping

E-tail sites were less popular, with home furnishing sites showing the most growth. According to Jupiter, home furnishing e-tail sites showed a 30.4 percent increase in audience reach, going from 6.3 percent of online users in February to 7.9 percent in March.

Travel was also popular as Web users began to plan for summer trips. In Jupiter's ranking of the top 50 Web properties for the month, Expedia (Nasdaq: EXPE) was number 31 with just over 12 million unique visitors and Travelocity stood at number 34 with just 55,000 fewer visitors than Expedia.

Two travel sites were also among the top-gaining properties in the month. Trip Network, whose properties include travel site Trip.com and discount travel seller Cheap Tickets, was the third-fastest gainer during the month, with a 48.8 percent increase in unique visitors. Visitors to Travelocity rose 31.7 percent between February and March, making it the ninth-fastest gainer.

Old Standbys Strong

And online shoppers did not abandon the old standbys. In the top 50 most-visited sites during the month, eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) and Amazon each fell one spot to numbers eight and nine, respectively. Both sites had nearly 29.3 million visitors.

Ticketmaster moved up two positions in the standings to number 19 with 17.6 million unique visitors, up from 15.5 million in February.

Online users may not be doing much shopping, but their numbers continue to grow. According to the Jupiter report, there were 114.1 million online users in March, up 2 percent from 112 million in February.