• by November 23, 2005

Oh, the pleasures of holiday shopping. Black Friday looms. But online, it's always a shopping day. Online, the stores are never closed.

So, with that in mind, Hitwise began its holiday shopping analysis early and found that Google and Yahoo! Search sent 25 percent more visits to the 10 leading shopping comparison sites versus last year (for the week ending November 19, 2005 versus the week ending November 20, 2004).

Hitwise found that the 10 leading comparison shopping sites users visited after they used Google.com, comprised 11.3 percent of total visits to Shopping & Classifieds sites during the week ending November 19, 2005. In that same period, the 10 leading comparison shopping sites visited after Yahoo! Search comprised 12.8 percent of its Shopping & Classifieds downstream visits.

Online shoppers seem quite comfortable with comparison shopping sites. In fact, these sites--as well as aggressive search marketing engines--create "a funnel through which online shoppers are more likely to pass in their search for the best price. Competition for the online shopper's dollar will be very fierce this holiday season," says Bill Tancer, general manager of research at Hitwise.

Of the 200 leading search terms sending visits to the top ten comparison shopping sites, 32 percent were for electronic items such as iPod and digital cameras (for the four weeks ending November 19, 2005), according to Hitwise. During the same period, house & garden items made up 20 percent of the 200 leading terms, with money-saving home heating items like "pellet stoves" and "wood stoves" topping the list.

Happy shopping--in cyberspace and at retail. Our choice: cyberspace!