Spring triggers boost for home and fashion websites
Home, beauty, fashion and style websites were among the top-growing sites in the US in April 2010, according to new research from comScore.
“Community” sites gained a number of users during the month as people were keen to catch up with the latest in home improvements and new spring fashion trends.
Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of comScore Media Metrix, said: “As the spring season began, Americans looked for information and tips as they took on new projects around the home and refreshed their wardrobes. Online photo sharing was also on the minds of many Americans, reaching a record level of visitation with more than 50 percent of all US internet users visiting a photo sharing site during the month.”
The home improvements category boosted its online traffic by 10% in April to 48 million US visitors, with eHow home and garden up 4%, iVillage home and garden up 24% and About.com home and garden up 11%. The Home Depot retail website, which falls under the Home Furnishings subcategory in comScore’s report, also increased its users by 12% to 12.6 million visitors.
In the Beauty, Fashion and Style category, websites enjoyed an 8% increase in April, as 47.5 million Americans browsed sites for the latest fashion trends and beauty tips.
Among the most popular sites were Glam Style, Stylelist sites (up 7%), Hearst beauty & fashion network (up 37%) and Allure.com, which was up by an impressive 214% to 717,000 visitors during the one-month period.
As well as “community” sites, photo-sharing sites also proved popular in April. More than half of all US internet users visited a photo-sharing site during the month, up 3% to 112.7 million visitors.
Facebook’s photos saw a 8% increase, while photobucket.com, LLC and Flickr all witnessed a 4% rise in traffic. ImageShack also enjoyed an increase, growing 59% to 2.3 million visitors.