Jupiter Media Metrix today released the fifth installment of its weekly Holiday 2001 E-Commerce Series, revealing the most comprehensive online shopping results for the week ending December 23, 2001.
During the last week before Christmas, the Jupiter Media Metrix Online Shopping Index, which aggregates Web visitors from both home and work to nearly 500 shopping sites and 19 subcategories,
increased 57% versus the same week last year, climbing from 31.8 million to 49.9 million unique visitors.
"In 1999 and 2000, the world was wondering if online shopping would contribute anything
significant to holiday spending, and expectations were exceeded each year," said Charles Buchwalter, VP of media research at Jupiter Media Metrix. "This year, holiday shopping traffic stayed strong
through the days just before Christmas. The consistent increases in holiday shopping traffic since Thanksgiving should silence any remaining skeptics."
Jupiter analyst Jared Blank added that
based on the continuing strong growth in visitors to retail sites, consumers waited until the last minute to purchase their holiday gifts online this year. He said that with the recent surge of
holiday shopping promotions available on the Internet and in stores, consumers were "hoping that desperate retailers would offer up last minute sales. Most of those consumers that did just ended up
with higher shipping bills."
The week's top-gaining shopping sites, ranked according to their percent-growth in average daily visitors versus the previous week, included 1-800-Flowers.com, which
increased 142% to 155,000 average daily visitors; Vistaprint.com, which increased 82% to 122,000 average daily visitors; and Movietickets.com, which increased 69% to 86,000 average daily visitors.
The week's top-gaining shopping sites, ranked according to their total increase in number of average daily visitors versus the previous week, were americangreetings.com, which increased by
184,000 average daily visitors to 657,000 million; Hallmark.com, which increased by 176,000 average daily visitors to 591,000; and 1-800-Flowers.com, which increased by 91,000 average daily visitors
to 155,000.
Notable gaining shopping categories, ranked according to their percent-change in number of average daily visitors versus the previous week, included flowers/gifts/greetings, which
increased 21% to 2.4 million average daily visitors, and computers, which increased 1% to 3.6 million average daily visitors.
Top gaining categories, ranked according to their change in total
number of visitors versus the previous week, included flowers/gifts/greetings, which increased by 416,000 average daily visitors to 2.4 million, and computers, which increased by 24,000 average daily
visitors to 3.6 million.