• by Masha Geller , August 1, 2001

When it comes to online shopping, it should not surprise anyone that Internet mass retailers with strong offline brands are the ones driving mainstream shoppers online. Nielsen//NetRatings proved that very notion earlier today with the release of their June 2001 at-home data.

Walmart.com led the top brick-and-mortar mass retailers, attracting more than two million unique visitors and soaring 133% since last year. JCPenney followed a close second, jumping 34% to two million unique visitors. Kmart took the No. 3 spot with nearly 1.7 million visitors. Target.com seized the highest percentage growth among the brick-and- mortar sites, skyrocketing 142% in June 2001 to more than 1.6 million visitors, compared to 672,000 visitors last year. Rounding out the top five was Sears.com, drawing nearly 1.6 million visitors.

Sean Kaldor, VP of analytical services at NetRatings said, "the bottom line is that having strong brand recognition and a large established customer base has proven to be a winning formula for brick-and-mortars."

Additionally, data collected from 37,000 Web users, showed that the top five brick-and-mortar mass retailers generated revenue from a broad range of product categories. These were Auctions, Books, Clothing/Apparel, Computer Hardware and Software, Electronics, Fitness/Sports Equipment, Music, Toys, Flowers/Gifts/Cards, Health/Beauty, Home/Garden, Travel Services and Video.

Among the top five merchants, the Clothing and Apparel category was the top revenue generator, followed by Home and Garden, Toys, Health and Beauty, and Video. Online spending across these categories spiked 71% for all merchants in the past year to $5.3 billion in June. Offline spending generated by online shopping rose to nearly $5.5 billion.