• by December 22, 2000

With only a few days left until Christmas, it seems retail- site traffic has leveled out and the online shopping season is officially over. And some say online advertisers didn't even come close to getting the timing right.

Yesterday, Nielsen//NetRatings concluded that the online holiday shopping season is over, having peaked during the second week of December. Today, Media Metrix concurred, saying that according to their data, 33.8 million unique visitors went to online retail sites last week, which is down by 5.2% from its peak of 35.6 million during week two.

Last year, according to the Media Metrix Online Shopping Index, traffic peaked a week later in the season. Anne Rickert, measurement analyst with Media Metrix, said, "This year online shopping is up, but many who might have been disappointed with or fearful of late-arriving goods last year appear to have shopped earlier."

This year, advertisers were off to an even slower start than they were last year, yet consumers were online earlier, looking for gift ideas, ready to spend. Preliminary data from The Boston Consulting Group and Harris Interactive show that this holiday season, the number of online purchasers is up, with 49 million consumers spending, on average, 38% more on holiday gifts than last year's online purchasers.

Moral of the story? Next year, start your holiday online ad campaigns early.

On that note, I'm taking a break next week to return in the New Year ready for whatever trials and tribulations await this industry, so on behalf of all of us at MediaPost, I wish you a very happy holiday season and the best of the everything for 2001!