Nielsen//NetRatings has announced that on the day after Christmas, US traffic to retail websites included in its eShopping Holiday Index grew 35% year on year, from 20.9 million in 2005 to 28.1 million in 2006.
Nielsen//NetRatings says that shopping were going online to check out after-Christmas sales, redeem gift cards and spend holiday cash, or to sell or exchange unwanted presents.
According to the findings, there were 24% more unique visitors to the Index on Thanksgiving and 29% more on Christmas day than last year.
The biggest online shopping day of the season was December 12, with 30.4 million unique visitors to the eShopping Holiday Index.
On that day, eBay led the top shopping destinations with a unique audience of 12.4 million, followed by Amazon with 6.1 million unique visitors, and Wal-Mart with 4.0 million.
| Top Online Shopping Destinations For December 12 (US, Home and Work) |
| Site |
12/12/06 Unique Audience (000) |
| eBay |
12,359 |
| Amazon |
6,121 |
| Wal-Mart Stores |
4,026 |
| Target |
2,754 |
| BestBuy.com |
1,778 |
| Shopping.com Network |
1,676 |
| Shopzilla.com Network |
1,655 |
| Overstock.com |
1,623 |
| Dell |
1,568 |
| Sears |
1,243 |
| Source: Nielsen//NetRatings |
Visits to shopping comparison web sites also peaked during the week after Thanksgiving, increasing 75% from the start of the season to a total of 64.0 million shopping trips.
During the week ending December 24, there was a 24 percent week-over-week decline in the use of these online comparison tools, from 60.1 million visits to 46.1 million.
But the week ending December 31 saw another uptick, growing six percent to 48.7 million shopping trips, another indicator of post-Christmas retail activity.
The Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday eShopping Index is comprised of over 120 representative online retailers across twelve categories, and acts as a barometer to gauge the level of activity at online shopping destinations during the holiday season. The index illustrates increased shopping activity through category growth.
Recent analysis from Hitwise showed that UK visits to retail websites were up 8% year on year (see Visits To Retail Websites Increase Year-On-Year).
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