Forget traffic, offline names
matter most when wallets open

Study: Folks spend most at brick-and-mortars

By Jeremy Schlosberg
   
    The red and green dust has settled and, no surprise, the usual suspects seem to have won the e-commerce derby, according to all reports.
    But along comes Ernst & Young with some  interesting insights into e-commerce spending.
     What the accounting firm has done is gather data on the average amount spent at web shopping sites over the holiday season. The list of sites ranked by traffic is not at all the same as the list of sites ranked by average dollars spent there.
    The findings: Americans are more willing to spend more money online when the web site is run by a company they know from the offline world.
    When it comes to traffic, however, make no mistake: The report says that Amazon was by far the most popular e-commerce site during the 1999 holiday season, visited by 42.1 percent of survey respondents. This is more than double the number of people who visited the No. 2 site in terms of traffic, which according to Ernst & Young was eToys, visited by 20.3 percent of respondents.
    eToys barely edged arch-rival Toysrus.com, which held its own with 19.4 percent. And Ernst & Young gives the edge to Toyrus.com when it comes to average dollars spent on the site--$134 versus $127 for eToys.
    Rounding out the top 10 most visited e-commerce sites were Barnes & Noble, Buy.com, CDNow, KB Toys, eBay, J.C. Penney and Drugstore.com.
    But on the dollars-spent list, the rankings are quite different. Amazon ends up down in 12th place. The No. 1 slot on this list goes to retailer Best Buy’s web site, where visitors spent an average of $233 during the holiday season.
    The second web site when ranked by average dollars spent was Egghead.com, the electronic computer and software retailer that once upon a time was a chain of software stores. Holiday season visitors to Egghead spent an average of $217.
    Nos. 3, 4 and 5 on the dollars-spent list are perhaps the most interesting of all:
    1800flowers.com, Disney and Wal-Mart with $173, $172 and $167 respectively.
    Disney is not generally considered to have a stunning web presence, as has been highlighted by the nagging the company has received this week in the wake of the AOL- Time Warner deal. And Wal-Mart is a Johnny-come-lately, yet seems fully capable of attracting consumer online spending.
    Of the top 12 sites ranked by average dollar amount spent, only two are web-only concerns: eBay and Amazon.
    The Ernst & Young survey reports that online shoppers spent some $1,225 on average online over the past 12 months. Sixty percent of online shoppers spent at least $500.
    Eighty-seven percent said they spent more during the past 12 months than during the 12 months prior to that, and 91 percent said they would spend the same or more during the coming 12 months.
     The survey also sought to discover which sites online shoppers consider their favorites and least favorites. Most sites were mentioned first by only 6 percent or fewer respondents. The clear No. 1 favorite was Amazon.com, mentioned as top favorite by a whopping 32 percent of respondents. No. 2 was eBay at 6 percent.
    Toysrus.com was mentioned as the No. 1 most disappointing site by 13 percent of respondents, far ahead of the four sites that tied for second with a 3 percent first-place mention—Best Buy, Buy.com, eToys and Wal-Mart. 
    The top reason given for being disappointed with Toys R Us was that the merchandise was out of stock, cited by 29 percent of respondents. Another 21 percent said the main reason they were disappointed was that the merchandise could not be delivered on time.
    This latter reason caused headlines yesterday, in fact, when a class-action law suit was filed in Seattle on behalf of visitors to Toysrus.com who purchased toys online by Dec. 14 but did not receive delivery as promised by Dec. 25.

 

E-COMMERCE SITES RANKED BY TRAFFIC
Holiday season 1999
Sites % respondents shopping online that shopped at site average amount spent at site
1. Amazon.com 42.1% $128
2. eToys 20.3% $127
3. Toys R Us 19.4% $134
4. Barnes & Noble 16.9% $63
5. Buy.com 16.1% $111
6. Cdnow 14.3% $69
6. KBToys 14.3% $89
8. eBay 12.5% $152
9. J.C.Penney 9.8% $151
10. Drugstore.com 7.2% $38
11. PlanetRX.com 5.4% $33
12. Land's End 5.2% $133
13. Columbia House 4.9% $71
13. Petsmart 4.9% $38
13. Reel.com 4.9% $72
16. Disney 4.6% $172
17. Egghead.com 4.3% $217
18. Iqvc 4.1% $151
19. 1800flowers.com 3.9% $173
20. Best Buy 3.7% $233
21. Borders 3.3% $69
22. LL Bean 3.3% $138
23. Walmart 2.9% $167
Source: Ernst & Young

 
E-COMMERCE SITES RANKED BY DOLLARS
Holiday season 1999
Sites average amount spent at site % respondents shopping online that shopped at site
1. Best Buy $233 3.7%
2. Egghead.com $217 4.3%
3. 1800flowers.com $173 3.9%
4. Disney $172 4.6%
5. Walmart $167 2.9%
6. eBay $152 12.5%
7. J.C.Penney $151 9.8%
7. Iqvc $151 4.1%
9. LL Bean $138 3.3%
10. Toys R Us $134 19.4%
11. Land's End $133 5.2%
12. Amazon.com $128 42.1%
13. eToys $127 20.3%
14. Buy.com $111 16.1%
15. KBToys $89 14.3%
16. Reel.com $72 4.9%
17. Columbia House $71 4.9%
18. Borders $69 3.3%
19. Cdnow $69 14.3%
20. Barnes & Noble $63 16.9%
21. Drugstore.com $38 7.2%
21. Petsmart $38 4.9%
23. PlanetRX.com $33 5.4%
Source: Ernst & Young

 

-Jeremy Schlosberg is is the senior editor for new media.