• by Masha Geller , November 14, 2002

I promised I wouldn’t talk about online holiday shopping unless something significant happened, and it looks like the silence ends today. I’m happy to report that the online advertising industry is learning from its mistakes. Last year, many thought that advertisers were a little late with launching their online holiday shopping campaigns. Well, this year, they started in October!

Nielsen//NetRatings AdRelevance data shows that holiday-specific advertising surged during the end of October, with the number of unique holiday ads soaring 53%, while overall advertising only grew 13%.

"In the past, online holiday shopping kicked off much later, but we're seeing indications that seasonal sales and fall clearance promotions are helping boost an early start," said Lisa Strand, director and chief analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "We expect the next couple of weeks to be critical, as the holiday advertising push from online stores heats up."

Additionally, Nielsen//NetRatings today launched the early results of its fourth annual Holiday eCommerce Index, which suggests that shoppers taking advantage of late fall deals are helping jumpstart the upcoming holiday season, as early shopping activity increased 12% during the week ending November 3, with online shopping rising around Halloween.

As always, toys and games led all categories, posting a 34% growth during the week ending November 3. Consumer electronics followed, rising 26%, while shopping visits to the books, music and video category jumped 25%. Overall, more than 109.7 million shopping trips were conducted during the week.

Not surprisingly, well-known dot-com brands led the list of Nielsen//NetRatings' top shopping destinations for September 2002. Amazon reported more than 30.5 million unique visitors for the month, reaching more than a quarter of the entire active online population at home and at work. eBay followed closely at second with nearly 30.2 million visitors, while Yahoo! Shopping posted more than 28.9 million visitors for the month. Rounding out the top five, MSN Eshop drew 10.2 million visitors, while Barnes & Noble attracted nearly 7.3 million surfers.