Daily Research News Online no. 2870 - Gift-Buying, Parcel-Posting... and Indigestion

Gift-Buying, Parcel-Posting... and Indigestion

January 22 2004

In December, a total of 152.1m US Internet users spent an average of 27.6 hours online, an increase of 6% versus November, according to comScore Media Metrix. Sites run by retailers like Sears and Best Buy rose up the Top 50 Properties table, and many of the other changes also reflect traditional holiday activities...

Seven of the top ten gaining categories in December were Retail subcategories. The top-gaining category was Flowers, Gifts & Greetings, which drew 42.4m unique visitors, an increase of 41% versus November. AmericanGreetings, the top property in the category, was visited by 24.4m Americans in December, up 88%.

Dell rose to 50th place, and received 14% more visits than the 50th placed property for November. The highest risers within the 50 were AmericanGreetings Property (up 22 places to #13), Best Buy Sites (up 17 to #30), Target Corporation (up 15 to #27) and Sears Sites (up 11 to #38).

'Our year-end sales data have confirmed that 2003 online holiday retail spending grew by 30 percent, to a record $12.5bn', said Peter Daboll, president of comScore Media Metrix. 'Consumers actively used the Web to buy online and guide their shopping offline, leaving their mark in traffic patterns across a range of retail categories from Flowers, Gifts & Greetings to Department Stores to Toys'.

The Shipping category recorded the second-largest gain, with users tracking the progress of parcels UPS.com, USPS.com, FedEx.com and others. Such sites had 22m visitors and every site in the category saw a month on month increase for more than 30%.

The Jewellery, Luxury Goods & Accessories category was the third largest gainer in December, with shopper traffic at BlueNile.com, Coach.com and Zales.com more than doubled. A 500-percent increase in visitors to OmahaSteaks.com helped propel the Retail - Food category up 27 percent from November to December, making it the fifth-largest gaining category this month. Other retail category gainers were Fragrances & Cosmetics, Home Furnishings, Department Stores and Toys. LLBean.com was the top-gaining property in December with 3.6m visitors and KB Toys recorded a 52% increase.

Nearly 7m Americans flocked to the Taxes category, making it the fourth-largest gainer in December - most probably seeking end of year advice on accounts. The number of visitors to TurboTax.com more than doubled from November to December, and IRS.gov and TaxAct.com both saw significant increases.

AstraZeneca posted a 102% jump in visitors, driven almost entirely by PurplePill.com, the Web site for acid reflux disease-treatment Nexium - a little over-enthusiastic celebration no doubt. LookSmart grew by 101 percent, largely due to the popularity of the company's recently launched FindArticles.com Web site.

Two leading scientific sites had a good month: National Geographic's hugely popular issue focusing on sharks helped draw 3.3m visitors to the site in December, up 76% on November, while RedNova.com grew 56% to 4.7m visitors as space enthusiasts tracked the progress of the Mars rover mission.

The main rankings are as follows:

Rank	Property	Unique Visitors(000)
	Total Internet Users	152,109
1	Yahoo! Sites	111,271
2	Time Warner Network	110,471
3	MSN-Microsoft Sites	110,021
4	Ebay	69,169
5	Google Sites	61,501
6	Terra Lycos	52,080
7	Amazon Sites	45,725
8	About/Primedia	42,601
9	Excite Network	25,119
10	CNET Networks	25,075
11	Walt Disney Internet Group	25,072
12	Viacom Online	24,730
13	AmericanGreetings Property	24,422
14	Weather Channel, The	23,786
15	Real.com Network	22,252
16	Verizon Communications	22,090
17	Wal-Mart	21,429
18	Shopping.com Sites	21,314
19	Symantec	19,888
20	AT&T Properties	17,535
21	InfoSpace Network	17,268
22	Monster Property	17,259
23	EA Online	16,795
24	SBC Communications	16,498
25	Sony Online	16,475
26	Weatherbug.com Property	16,426
27	Target Corporation	15,986
28	Ask Jeeves	15,807
29	Vivendi-Universal Sites	14,712
30	Best Buy Sites	14,633
31	iVillage.com: Womens Ntwrk	14,556
32	Tickle, Inc.	14,304
33	eUniverse Network	13,964
34	NFL Internet Group	13,885
35	Gorilla Nation Media	13,860
36	ORBITZ.COM	13,715
37	Cox Enterprises Inc.	3,529
38	Sears Sites	13,256
39	Classmates.com Sites	13,233
40	Expedia Travel	12,878
41	41 BLASTCOMM.COM	12,761
42	Gannett Sites	12,719
43	JACQUIELAWSON.COM	12,684
44	BIZRATE.COM	12,599
45	Earthlink	12,193
46	United Online, Inc	12,115
47	Comcast Corporation	11,948
48	News Corp. Online	11,822
49	Hewlett Packard	11,653
50	Dell	11,507

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors
December 2003 vs. November 2003
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: comScore Media Metrix

	Nov-03 (000)	Dec-03 (000)	Percent Change
Total Internet Users	151,107	152,109	0.7%
Retail-Flwrs/Gifts/Greetings	30,091	42,383	40.9%
Shipping	16,425	22,406	36.4%
Retail-Jwlry / Lux. Gds / Acces	11,171	14,810	32.6%
Taxes	5,395	6,937	28.6%
Retail-Food	10,229	13,014	27.2%
Retail-Fragrances/Cosmetics	10,134	12,709	25.4%
Retail-Home Furnishings	18,722	23,248	24.2%
E-Cards	42,125	51,480	22.2%
Retail-Department Stores	37,181	44,403	19.4%
Retail-Toys	19,138	22,742	18.8%

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percent Change in Unique Visitors*
December 2003 vs. November 2003
Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users
Source: comScore Media Metrix

Property	Oct-03 (000)	Nov-03 (000)	Percent Change	Rank by Unique Visitors
LLBEAN.COM	1,543	3,560	130.7%	201
AstraZeneca	1,474	2,971	101.5%	240
LookSmart	2,103	4,220	100.7%	172
AmericanGreetings	13,025	24,422	87.5%	13
NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM	1,858	3,264	75.6%	220
TRIPADVISOR.COM	2,797	4,666	66.8%	151
REDNOVA.COM	4,250	6,613	55.6%	101
LASTMINUTETRAVEL.COM	4,596	7,139	55.3%	91
Forbes Property	3,957	6,015	52.0%	113
KB Toys	3,308	5,022	51.8%	141

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December

Since October 2003 comScore Media Metrix have produced an 'Ad Focus' ranking of top Web entities that are supported in whole or in part by online advertising. The composition and order of the top five Ad Focus entities remained constant from November to December, and each of these entities improved its reach among the total Internet population. The five are: