Cyber Monday Drives 10 Percent Increase in Web Traffic to Online Shopping Sites, According to Nielsen Online

Nielsen Online, a service of the Nielsen Company, reported today that as people headed back to work after the holiday weekend, Web traffic from home and work to the Holiday eShopping Index increased 10 percent year over year on Cyber Monday. Unique visitors to the sites included in the Index reached 35.9 million, a 13 percent increase over this year's Black Friday Web traffic.

"The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was better than many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth will carry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales," said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online. "The combination of aggressive holiday sales and incentives, such as free shipping, across many of the major retailers is helping drive a large number of consumers online this year." Cassar added, "It remains to be seen if people have done the majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time, or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15th will be the peak day for online shopping traffic."

Holiday eShopping Index Category Growth

Beauty was the fastest growing product category on Monday, increasing 151 percent over the previous Monday, November 24th. Toys/Videogames took the No. 2 spot growing 112 percent Monday over Monday; while Apparel rounded out the top 3 with an increase of 58 percent (see Table 1).

Table 1: Product Categories ranked by Growth on Cyber Monday
(U.S., Home and Work)

Categories            Unique Audience Growth from 11/24/2008 to 12/01/2008
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Beauty                                                                 151%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Toys/Videogames                                                        112%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Apparel                                                                 58%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Consumer Electronics                                                    49%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Computer
 Hardware/Software                                                      44%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Home and Garden                                                         40%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Books/Music/Video                                                       22%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Flowers and Gifts                                                       21%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Shoes                                                                   13%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Retail                                                                  11%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Shopping
 Comparison/Portals                                                    -12%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Jewelry                                                                N/A
                      ----------------------------------------------------
TOTAL                                                                   14%
                      ----------------------------------------------------
Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis

Cyber Monday Top 10 Online Retail Destinations

Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same as those on Black Friday. eBay took the No. 1 spot, with 10.6 million unique visitors, while Amazon and Wal-Mart were No. 2 and No. 3, with 9.0 million and 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively. Among the top 10 online retailers, Sears was the fastest growing online retail destination, increasing 58 percent over last year (see Table 2).

Table 2: Cyber Monday Top 10 Online Retail Destinations Ranked by Unique
Audience on Cyber Monday 2008, and Compared to Cyber Monday 2007
(U.S., Home and Work)

Site            11/26/2007 UA (000) 12/01/2008 UA (000)   Percent Growth
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
eBay                         10,799              10,564                 -2%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Amazon                        7,225               8,998                 25%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Wal-Mart Stores               5,165               5,189                  0%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Target                        3,393               3,646                  7%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Best Buy                      2,363               3,558                 51%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Sears                         1,698               2,680                 58%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Dell                          2,673               2,369                -11%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Overstock.com                 2,154               2,070                 -4%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Netflix                       1,442               2,046                 42%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
ToysRUs                       1,386               1,652                 19%
                ------------------- ------------------- ------------------
Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis

About Nielsen Online's Holiday eShopping Index

The Nielsen Online 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.

About Nielsen Online:

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive, independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising, video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumer behavior, and includes products previously marketed under the Nielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands. With high quality, technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients to make informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital and marketing strategies. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-online.com. Also, visit our blog at www.nielsen-online.com/blog.

About The Nielsen Company:

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.

Editor's Note: Please source all data to Nielsen Online.