Holiday Fever Drives Traffic to Shopping Sites in December

Comscore MMX Releases December Top 50 Web Rankings and Analysis;

Increases Seen at Tax, Luxury Goods, Postage and E-Card Sites

RESTON, VA, January 16, 2007 – Comscore MMX today released its monthly analysis of U.S. consumer activity at top online properties and categories for December 2006. The month was dominated by pre-holiday shopping as nine of the top 10 gaining categories during the month were retail-oriented, led by luxury goods, postage, and e-cards. Overall non-travel (retail) e-commerce spending increased 26 percent this holiday season versus 2005 to a record-setting $24.6 billion. Amid the holiday frenzy, Americans also began to focus on tax planning, as evidenced by a 17-percent increase in visitation to the Tax category versus November, The Tax category rose to 7.5 million visitors, led by IRS.gov with 4.4 million visitors (up 25 percent).

“Consumers gave e-tailers reason to celebrate during December, with huge increases in e-commerce spending and visitation,” said Jack Flanagan, executive vice president of Comscore MMX. “Experiencing 26 percent growth, e-commerce was certainly retail’s bright spot this holiday season.”

Shopping, Shopping and More Shopping

Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories was the top gaining category in December (see Table 2), growing 21-percent for the second consecutive month to 21.9 million visitors. Redenvolope.com led the category with 2.9 million visitors (up 19 percent), followed by Coach.com with 2.9 million visitors (up 25 percent), and Zales.com with 2 million visitors (up 45 percent). The biggest gainer in the category was Fossil.com, which rose 56-percent to 663,000 visitors.

Other top gaining retail categories included:

• Shipping, up 19 percent overall to 34.6 million visitors. UPS Sites led the category with 17.4 million visitors (up 26 percent), followed by USPS.com with 15.9 million visitors (up 21 percent), and Fedex.com with 11.3 million visitors (up 15 percent).
• E-cards, up 15 percent overall to 45.1 million visitors. AmericanGreetings Property led the E-card category with 12 million visitors, followed by Hallmark.com with 8.1 million visitors (up 24 percent) and Evite.com with 7.3 million visitors (up 4 percent). 123Greetings.com was the Web’s second fastest gaining site overall, rising 82-percent to 7.1 million visitors (see Table 1).
• Sports/Outdoor, up 15 percent overall to 32.6 million visitors. Foot Locker Sites led the category with 4.7 million visitors (up 30 percent), followed by eBay Sports U.S. with 4.3 million visitors (up 7 percent), and Cabelas Inc. with 3.8 million visitors (up 4 percent). CBSSportsStore.com experienced the highest gains within the Sports/Outdoor category, increasing 71-percent to 576,000 visitors.
• Retail-Food, up 11 percent overall to 17.2 million visitors. Omahasteaks.com led the category in visitation and growth rate, with 2.1 million visitors (up 157 percent), followed by Papajohnsonline.com with 1.4 million visitors (up 33 percent), and Cooking.com with 1.2 million visitors.
• Retail-Movies, up 11 percent overall with 28.2 million visitors. Netflix.com led the category with 10.1 million visitors (up 2 percent), followed by Blockbuster Inc. with 6.4 million visitors (up 21 percent), and Columbia House Sites with 4.1 million visitors (up 7 percent). Flixster.com was the top gaining site in the Retail-Movies category, jumping 124-percent to 1 million visitors.
• Retail-Music, up 10 percent overall to 29 million visitors. Barnes & Noble led the category with 8.8 million visitors (up 34 percent), followed by BMG Music Service with 4.4 million visitors (up 1 percent), and CDUniverse.com with 3.1 million visitors (up 7 percent). Trans World Entertainment was the top gaining site in the category, up 71 percent to 1.1 million visitors.
• Computer Hardware, up 9 percent overall to 66 million visitors. Apple Computer, Inc. led the category with 39.4 million visitors (up 17 percent), followed by Hewlett Packard with 14 million visitors (up 7 percent), and Dell with 13 million visitors. 4Inkjets.com was the top gaining site in the Computer Hardware category, surging 247 percent to 1.2 million visitors.
• Apparel, up 8 percent overall to 61.9 million visitors. Limitedbrands led the category with 11.9 million visitors (up 26 percent), followed by OldNavy.com with 6.9 million visitors (up 13 percent), and Nordstrom.com with 5.9 million visitors (up 17 percent). Finishline.com was the fastest growing site in the category, rising 33 percent to 2.1 million visitors.

Top 50 Properties

In December, Yahoo! Sites retained its number one ranking with more than 131 million unique visitors, while Amazon Sites and Viacom Digital each moved up one spot to rank seventh and tenth, respectively. The holiday season saw Best Buy Sites jump nine spots, attracting more than 24 million unique visitors, and both UPS Sites and Toysrus Sites entered the Top 50, ranking 36th and 49th, respectively. Also entering the ranking this month were Yellowpages.com Network, drawing just over 16 million visitors, and JPMorgan Chase Property with just over 15 million visitors.

Top 50 Ad Focus

December saw Advertising.com retain its number one position in the Ad-Focus Ranking, reaching more than 149 million Americans online. AOL Media Network inched up a spot to rank fifth, connecting with 64 percent of the U.S. online population, while Blue Lithium moved up three positions to rank seventh. DRIVEpm and Facebook.com both enjoyed large increases, each gaining six spots in the ranking 15th and 38th, respectively. Finally, WhitePages Network, Photobucket.com, and ARTISTdirect Network all re-entered the Top 50 Ad Focus in December, ranking 43rd, 45th, and 49th, respectively.

TABLE 1

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in December 2006.

TABLE 2

TABLE 3

TABLE 4

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in December. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 75 percent of the more than 174 million Internet users in December.
* Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities.
** Denotes an advertising network.

About Comscore MMX

Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy – details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. Comscore MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon Comscore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About Comscore Networks

Comscore Networks is a global leader in measuring the digital age. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. Comscore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, Comscore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. Comscore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. Comscore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Microsoft, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Fox Sports, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Expedia. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com