By Nora Macaluso E-Commerce Times
12/08/00 4:26 PM PT
In addition to computers, holiday shoppers are going online to look for toys, fragrances and food.
Computers passed books to become
the No. 1 e-tail category this week as
e-commerce Web sites enjoyed a record
number of holiday visitors, according to the
latest tracking survey
from Jupiter Media Metrix.
The Media Metrix Online Shopping Index for the week
ended December 3rd was 31.2 percent higher
than the same week last year, rising to 35.6 million
unique visitors.
The index, which measures home and work Web visits to
almost 400 e-tail sites and 18 retail sub-categories, registered faster
growth than the entire Web during the same period, as overall Internet use
rose 12.0 percent, Media Metrix said.
Computers on Top
Computer sites saw an average of 2.3 million unique visitors
each day, with three of them -- HP.com, McAfee.com and
Symantec.com -- listed among the top five gainers for the week.
"Despite recent fears about slowing PC sales, computer-retail sites are
among the most popular online destinations this holiday season," said Media
Metrix measurement analyst Anne Rickert.
Rickert commented that holiday discounts on items
including computers, software and digital cameras are luring buyers.
A number of computer makers, including Dell,
Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) and Gateway, have warned in recent days that slower than expected holiday sales will lead to weak
results for the current quarter. Promotional deals aimed at attracting
customers cut into revenue, the companies said.
Holiday Surge
Overall, online sales appear to be strong this holiday season. A study published last
week by Goldman Sachs & Co. and PC Data Online found that shoppers plan to
buy a greater percentage of their holiday gifts online than they did last
year, although stores remain the preferred venue.
A separate study from Goldman and PC Data found that Americans spent US$1.3 billion
online during the week that included Thanksgiving, up 140 percent over the
same week last year.
Goldman analyst Anthony Noto predicts holiday e-tail sales will end up
totaling double last year's levels. Other projections range from $9 billion
from the Yankee Group to $12.5 billion from eMarketer and the NPD Group.
Thanksgiving Record
Media Metrix's own index last week, including the four-day
Thanksgiving weekend, registered a record 35.2 million unique visitors to e-tail Web sites, a 40.3 percent
increase over a year earlier.
In this week's index, Internet powerhouse
Amazon.com, with an average of 1.6 million unique
visitors each day, and loyalty-reward site Mypoints.com, with 1.4 million,
were the top two retail sites for the second week in a row, Media Metrix
said.
Toys also entered the top ten this week, with eToys.com landing the No. 9
spot with 338,000 average daily unique visitors. There were no toy sites
among the most trafficked last week.
The biggest gainers this week were fragrances/cosmetics and food,
posting week-over-week increases of 35.4 percent and 31.3 percent,
respectively.
The Amazon Earnings Speculation Story January 21, 2002
For Amazon to break out of the box created by the competing objectives of boosting sales
and controlling costs, a pro-forma profit in the fourth quarter will be critical, a
Goldman Sachs analyst wrote.