• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, January 5, 2005

Web traffic to shopping and classified sites between Nov. 1 and Dec. 11 rose nearly 25 percent year-over-year, according to a Hitwise roundup released Wednesday. The retail category was led by auction site eBay, which accounted for 91.4 percent of the auction subcategory, and 31.1 percent of the entire shopping and classifieds category.

The Hitwise Online Shopping Report found that search engines and directories were a strong driver of retail traffic, responsible for nearly 20 percent of all visits to retail sites for the week ending Dec. 4.

Google held onto a comfortable lead in shopping referrals by ushering 4.23 percent of all traffic to the category. Yahoo! sent 2.29 percent of all traffic, and MSN followed at 0.54 percent of all traffic sent to shopping and classified sites.

Hitwise also found variation among the three leading search engines when it came to sending users to retail segments. Downstream traffic from Google tended toward books, sports and fitness, and music. Yahoo! Search sent more of its users to video and games, automotive, and classifieds. MSN Search sent a disproportionate number of its referrals to apparel and accessories, house and garden, appliances, and electronics. Also, eBay accounts for 12.68 percent of traffic to shopping sites.

The report also found that 75 percent of keyword searches that resulted in visits to shopping and classifieds contained three words or less. Comparison shopping sites within the rewards and directories category also did well. The market share of visits to the top 14 comparison shopping sites increased by 18 percent.