Traffic is down for online retail destinations over all
By Heidi Dawley Oct 28, 2008
The economy is on the fritz, home prices keep falling, the stock market continues to sink, and retail sales are hurting at the worst time of the year, heading into the holidays.
Now add another to that list: declining traffic to online retail sites.
Visits to the top 500 online retailers were down 5 percent in the week ended Oct. 18 compared to the same week the year before, according to Hitwise, the web tracking outfit.
Yet it's not across the board.
Traffic is actually up in certain retail categories, such as groceries and alcohol, as well as the health and beauty category, which includes drug stores.
What's driving it is the urge among more and more consumers to save money by shopping smarter. These suddenly hot sites offer coupons and information on weekly specials.
“You are really seeing people using the internet to gather information and coupons before they head to the store,” explains Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise.
Interestingly, the slowdown to retail sites overall is recent, going back just seven weeks, despite what's been a weakening economy going back well into 2007.
But for those seven weeks traffic has been off consistently.
“I think that what we are really seeing is consumers shutting their wallets, at least temporarily, as they watch to see what happens with the economic climate,” says Dougherty. But she notes another factor could be the upcoming election, with consumers holding off on spending as they wait to see who wins the White House.
In this traffic slowdown, hardest hit has been computers, where traffic was down 19 percent the week ended Oct. 18, followed by sites that sell tickets to movies and local events, off 12 percent.
Which makes sense when you think about it. People are likely to be making do with their old computers and skipping a trip to the movies in favor of a night watching TV.
Traffic's also down to perennial holiday favorites like toys, music, games and appliances, and that's because people are holding off deciding what gifts they are going to buy for the holidays, says Dougherty.
The toys and hobby sites saw traffic fall 10 percent, while music sites dropped 9 percent.
But for those sites where traffic is up, it's up smartly: 18 percent for grocery and alcohol sites and 14 percent for health and beauty. And as Dougherty notes it's the draw of coupons that's driving it. Indeed, sites dedicated to offering coupons of all sorts are up 53 percent.
Also up: The house and garden category, though just 3 percent, as people turn to fixing up the homes they've got in this weak housing market and searching for energy-saving products.
Interestingly, visits to price-comparison sites are down, and Dougherty believes it's because people just aren’t spending. But she expects it to pick up when consumers begin buying present for the holidays.
The same goes for overall retail traffic, says Dougherty. "I think we will see higher traffic than in the past, and also a record traffic year for the comparison shopping sites."
***
Meanwhile, in online ratings for the week ended Oct. 19, according to Nielsen Online, Google claimed the top spot among parent companies, followed by Microsoft, Yahoo, Time Warner and News Corp. Online. The top five brands were Google, Yahoo, MSN/Windows Live, Microsoft and AOL Media Network.
Experian Group Limited maintained the top advertiser spot for the third straight week with 2.35 million impressions, followed by Scottrade at No. 2 with 1.37 million. With 14.57 million ads served, Yahoo was again the top advertising site, well ahead of No. 2 MSN at 2.76 million.
Sessions per person per week were even to the previous week at 16, and domains visited per person were up one to 39. PC time per person was up 3 percent compared with the previous week to 18 hours.
Top 25 parent companies Through Oct. 19
#
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time Spent per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
97,313
69.0
0:37:08
2
Microsoft
87,812
62.2
0:47:53
3
Yahoo!
81,585
57.8
1:06:50
4
Time Warner (Division)*
58,869
41.7
1:15:53
5
News Corp. Online
46,387
32.9
0:37:14
6
InterActiveCorp
31,789
22.5
0:10:52
7
eBay
31,249
22.1
0:45:05
8
Wikimedia Foundation
27,509
19.5
0:10:20
9
Amazon
25,036
17.7
0:11:51
10
Walt Disney Internet Group
24,427
17.3
0:20:43
11
Apple Computer
23,004
16.3
0:28:46
12
CBS Corporation
22,731
16.1
0:11:57
13
Facebook
22,403
15.9
0:46:11
14
Turner Network (Division)
21,815
15.5
0:19:58
15
New York Times Company
19,847
14.1
0:13:43
16
Landmark Communications
19,373
13.7
0:11:09
17
AT&T Inc.
16,653
11.8
0:21:07
18
RealNetworks, Inc.
13,882
9.8
0:17:34
19
Comcast Corp.
13,849
9.8
0:26:26
20
Glam Media
13,738
9.7
0:09:48
21
CraigsList
13,424
9.5
0:35:03
22
United Online
13,042
9.2
0:24:09
23
Viacom Digital
12,697
9.0
0:21:25
24
Verizon Communications
12,188
8.6
0:17:52
25
General Electric
12,137
8.6
0:12:04
* Time Warner division excludes Turner Network’s audience
Source: Nielsen Online
Note: The parent level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs owned by a single company or division.
Top 25 brands Through Oct. 19
Parent
Unique Audience (000)
Reach %
Time spent per person (hh:mm:ss)
1
Google
88,778
62.9
0:26:48
2
Yahoo!
80,434
57.0
1:07:16
3
MSN/Windows Live
67,660
47.9
0:48:45
4
Microsoft
54,373
38.5
0:16:33
5
AOL Media Network
52,778
37.4
1:22:07
6
YouTube
38,860
27.5
0:26:55
7
Fox Interactive Media
38,269
27.1
0:38:49
8
Wikipedia
27,291
19.3
0:10:22
9
eBay
25,243
17.9
0:48:29
10
Apple
23,004
16.3
0:28:46
11
Facebook
22,403
15.9
0:46:11
12
Amazon
20,042
14.2
0:11:50
13
Ask Search Network
19,160
13.6
0:09:21
14
CNN Digital Network
17,961
12.7
0:20:22
15
Blogger
17,312
12.3
0:06:27
16
Weather Channel
17,053
12.1
0:11:42
17
Real Network
13,872
9.8
0:17:34
18
Glam Media
13,738
9.7
0:09:48
19
Craigslist
13,415
9.5
0:35:04
20
AT&T
13,374
9.5
0:23:53
21
About.com
13,059
9.3
0:03:43
22
Bank of America
11,471
8.1
0:24:30
23
ESPN
10,334
7.3
0:24:39
24
Comcast
9,878
7.0
0:34:58
25
Gorilla Nation
9,210
6.5
0:05:10
Source: Nielsen Online
Note: The brand level is defined as a consolidation of multiple domains and URLs that has a consistent collection of branded content.
Top 25 advertisers (excludes house ads)
Through Oct. 19
#
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Experian Group Limited
2,347,005
2
Scottrade, Inc.
1,370,250
3
Vonage Holdings Corp
1,219,135
4
Verizon Communications, Inc.
1,033,989
5
Netflix, Inc.
867,748
6
AT&T Corp.
829,240
7
HSBC Holdings plc
770,327
8
InterActiveCorp
709,563
9
United Online, Inc.
640,173
10
Ford Motor Company
633,228
11
Deutsche Telekom AG
613,563
12
NexTag, Inc.
581,363
13
Sprint Corporation
570,012
14
E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
558,435
15
General Motors Corporation
520,374
16
Cendant Corporation
520,168
17
Bank of America Corporation
496,781
18
Apollo Group, Inc.
394,372
19
TD Ameritrade Holding Corporation
384,194
20
Monster Worldwide, Inc.
383,788
21
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
324,318
22
FreeScore.com
324,313
23
Degrees.info
324,129
24
Dell Computer Corporation
323,041
25
Fandango, Inc.
288,914
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
Top 25 advertising sites (excludes house ads)
Through Oct. 19
Company
Impressions (000)
1
Yahoo!
14,569,726
2
MSN
2,761,290
3
Comcast.net
1,623,428
4
MSNBC
1,356,727
5
MySpace
1,200,552
6
AOL.com
1,090,412
7
FOXNEWS.COM
679,310
8
The Weather Channel
615,060
9
Facebook
565,681
10
IMDb
513,593
11
CNBC
471,005
12
Juno
468,094
13
ESPN.com
372,806
14
eBay
361,946
15
CNN
361,521
16
CNN Money
347,083
17
Pogo
316,301
18
NetZero
314,053
19
TheStreet.com
312,499
20
New York Times
304,033
21
Amazon
255,945
22
NeoPets
232,531
23
Perezhilton.com
224,361
24
AT&T Worldnet
209,873
25
Drudge Report
204,666
Source: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance
Note: Nielsen Online, AdRelevance service estimated online advertising expenditures account for CPM-based image-based advertising. All reported estimated expenditures and impressions do not account for the following placement types: text only, paid fee services, performance-based campaigns, sponsorships, barters, in-stream ("pre-rolls") players, messenger applications, partnership advertising, promotions and email campaigns. AdRelevance currently does not report estimated spending for paid search advertising. Above data does not include any house advertising activity. Also, Nielsen Online, AdRelevance reporting data reflects advertising activity served on pages accessible via the World Wide Web and not within AOL's proprietary service.
