RESTON, VA, December 19, 2005 -Retail Jewelry and Luxury Goods sites grew faster than any Internet category in November 2005, according to the latest monthly analysis from comScore Media Metrix.  While many retail subcategories saw significant growth thanks to the start of the holiday shopping season, Jewelry and Luxury Goods led the list of top gaining categories with 39-percent growth over October 2005, yielding 16.4 million visitors in November.  

 

"Consumers are investing an increasing amount of trust and discretionary dollars in the Web, as evidenced by the growth of sites where big ticket items are sold," said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of comScore Media Metrix.  "While sales on luxury goods sites are significant, most visitors use these sites to research a potential offline purchase, making it critically important for retailers to showcase their offerings online for current and future customers."     

 

Major winners within the Retail - Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category were Coach.com, which topped the category with 2.71 million unique visitors, and Zales.com (1.72 million unique visitors), which used a heavy holiday advertising push to entice consumers. 

 

November is traditionally a strong month for retail sites and 2005 was no different.  Nine of the Top Ten Gaining Categories and seven of the Top Ten Gaining Properties were related to retail. 

 

AROUND THE WEB

Seasons Greetings Sent Online - The Services - eCards category was the second-highest gaining category in November 2005, rising 26 percent to 50.2 million unique visitors.  This follows a peak performance by electronic greeting cards in October when the category ranked as the Web's highest-gaining category.  Once again, American Greetings Property was the star of the category with 28.3 million unique visitors on a 64-percent increase over the previous month.  The site's success can largely be credited to a "disco-dancing turkey" e-card that was widely distributed via e-mail (see Movers & Shakers).   

 

Food Sites Meet Multitude of Consumer Holiday Demands - The Retail - Food category landed among the top ten gaining categories in November with 15.8 million unique visitors, a 22-percent increase over October, as a variety of sites drove the category's success. Consumers sought edible gifts at Williams-Sonoma.com (1.9 million visitors, up 64 percent) and OmahaSteaks.com (1.5 million visitors, up 152 percent), which finished first and second in the category respectively.  Other sites featuring food-related gift arrangements saw extraordinary success, including HickoryFarms.com (493,000 visitors, up 192 percent) and SwissColony.com (469,000 visitors, up 142 percent).  Meanwhile, Cooking.com was the category's third-ranked site with 1.5 million visitors on 68 percent growth, as consumers sought Thanksgiving recipes.  Conversely, for those seeking a break from turkey, PapaJohnsOnline.com followed at number four with 1.1 million visitors, up 15 percent from October.

 

Multi-Channel Retailers Make Early Push For Holiday Shoppers - Retailers featuring a presence online and offline helped the Retail - Department Stores category reach 62.1 million visitors in November on 21-percent growth.  The category was carried by Wal-Mart.com, which gained steam from an early holiday advertising push.  The mega-retailer received 32.1 million unique visitors in November, up 54 percent from October.  The site's strong performance was boosted by Wal-Mart Movies (6.6 million visitors, up 435 percent) and Wal-Mart Electronics (7.8 million visitors, up 197 percent).  Following Wal-Mart in the top position, the Department Store category was carried in November by Target Corporation (27.3 million visitors, up 25 percent), JCPenney Sites (14.8 million visitors, up 35 percent), and Sears.com (12.1 million visitors, up 42 percent). 

 

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

 

·          Local.com - This local business search and shopping engine saw an astounding 251 percent increase in unique visitors to 4.4 million in November.  The site boasts over 16 million business listings with enhanced content, including directions to and from the location, contact information, reviews, and business Web sites. 

 

·          World Wrestling Entertainment - Traffic swarmed to the site over the somber news of wrestler Eddie Guerrero's untimely death on November 13 at the age of 38.  The WWE site featured up-to-date news and commentary regarding his death, as well as a variety of interactive tributes including screensavers, wallpapers, personal interviews, and fan remembrances.

 

·          American Greetings - The leading e-card destination drew people to the site in November with its popular Thanksgiving greeting featuring a disco-dancing turkey dubbed "Gloria Gobbler" singing a Thanksgiving-themed version of "I Will Survive."  The e-card, which American Greetings said was its most popular in company history, played a large role in attracting more than 28 million people to the site in November.

 

 

TABLE 1

 

Top Ten Gaining Properties by Percentage Change in Unique Visitors* November 2005 vs. October 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
Property	Oct-05 (000)	Nov-05 (000)	Percentage Change	Rank by  Unique Visitors
Total Internet Population	169,315	169,747	0%	N/A
Local.com	1,258	4,414	251%	183
RadioShack Corporation	1,633	3,287	101%	239
KB Toys	1,778	3,556	100%	223
ShopLocal.com All	5,950	10,599	78%	73
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)	2,434	4,296	76%	188
Toysrus Sites	6,794	11,682	72%	61
Sportingbet PLC	2,259	3,840	70%	210
AmericanGreetings Property	17,251	28,295	64%	14
Best Buy Sites	11,511	18,400	60%	31
Heavy.com	3,632	5,589	54%	147

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in November 2005

 

  TABLE 2

 

Top Ten Gaining Categories by Unique Visitors November 2005 vs. October 2005 Total U.S. Home, Work and University Internet Users Source: comScore Media Metrix
	Oct-05 (000)	Nov-05 (000)	Percentage Change
Total Internet Population	169,315	169,747	0%
Retail - Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories	11,809	16,426	39%
Services - e-cards	40,020	50,246	26%
Retail - Movies	23,521	29,019	23%
Retail - Food	12,924	15,815	22%
Retail - Flowers/Gifts/Greetings	39,971	48,630	22%
Retail - Department Stores	51,402	62,089	21%
Retail - Sports/Outdoor	21,061	24,474	16%
Retail - Consumer Electronics	48,553	54,967	13%
Retail - Home Furnishings	31,859	35,826	12%
Retail - Toys	22,213	24,862	12%

 

 

TABLE 3

 

Top 50 Properties
November 2005
Total U.S. - Home, Work and University Locations
Unique Visitors (000)
Source: comScore Media Metrix
Rank	Property	Unique Visitors (000)		Rank	Property	Unique Visitors  (000)
	Total Internet Users	169,747
1	Yahoo! Sites	125,038		26	OVERSTOCK.COM	20,218
2	MSN-Microsoft Sites	115,526		27	Shopzilla.com Sites	19,590
3	Time Warner Network	114,218		28	Bank of America	19,511
4	Google Sites	90,889		29	Real.com Network	19,183
5	eBay	71,944		30	AT&T Properties	18,949
6	Amazon Sites	49,946		31	Best Buy Sites	18,400
7	Ask Jeeves	42,859		32	Sears Sites	18,376
8	Viacom Online	35,811		33	Trip Network Inc.	17,618
9	Wal-Mart	34,972		34	E.W. Scripps	17,544
10	New York Times Digital	33,886		35	Wikipedia Sites	17,345
11	Verizon Communications Corporation	30,572		36	Comcast Corporation	16,940
12	Walt Disney Internet Group (WDIG)	29,943		37	ESPN	16,779
13	CNET Networks	29,556		38	Weatherbug Property	16,387
14	AmericanGreetings Property	28,295		39	Citysearch	15,681
15	Target Corporation	27,296		40	Dell	15,265
16	United Online, Inc	27,180		41	Infospace Network	15,126
17	Vendare Media	26,984		42	JCPenney Sites	14,844
18	MYSPACE.COM	26,684		43	Earthlink	14,309
19	Weather Channel, The	26,421		44	NFL Internet Group	14,200
20	Lycos, Inc.	25,665		45	iVillage.com: The Womens Network	14,037
21	Expedia Inc	25,494		46	Sony Online	13,845
22	Apple Computer, Inc.	22,742		47	Circuit City Stores, Inc.	13,478
23	Monster Worldwide	22,201		48	Citigroup	13,419
24	Gorilla Nation Media	21,347		49	Capital One	13,301
25	Gannett Sites	20,282		50	CareerBuilder LLC	13,206

 

 

TABLE 4

 

 

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that views a particular entity at least once in November.  For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 72 percent of the over 169 million Internet users in November.  The notation "**" indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

 

About comScore Media Metrix

comScore Media Metrix, a division of comScore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report - with unmatched accuracy - details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe.  comScore Media Metrix continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its Media Metrix syndicated Internet ratings - long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers - while drawing upon comScore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements.  All comScore Media Metrix syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

 

About comScore Networks

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