• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, December 19, 2002

Bargain Hunters Boost Web Shopping

According to the eSpending Report from Goldman Sachs & Company, Harris Interactive, and Nielsen//NetRatings, the 2002 online holiday shopping season saw strong results in November with American consumers spending nearly $6.2 billion for the entire month. Growing 22 percent, online spending last month surpassed last year's $5.1 billion total for November.

Bargain-hunters have found the Web to be a solid resource for deals. Forty percent of the shoppers surveyed in November said that item price was a key reason in choosing to shop online versus a physical store. Wider selection and product comparison were also contributing factors.

According to the eSpending report, books, music and video/DVD is a hot category again this year. Amazon continues to dominate the category, claiming a 35.2 percent share of purchases made. eBay captured an increase in share of shopper's wallets for the category, more than doubling since 2001. Barnes & Noble drew nearly 9 percent of the market share, while Walmart.com increased its share to nearly 3 percent this season.

"Books, music and video/DVD has traditionally been a go-to category for consumers watching their budgets, with most items falling within inexpensive price points," said Lori Iventosch-James, director of ecommerce research, Harris Interactive. "Sites such as eBay, are appealing to price-conscious shoppers and avid bargain-hunters looking for new and used deals on books, music and video."

Top 10 Home & Fashion Sites (week ending Dec. 1)
	Unique Audience (000)	Active Reach (%)
JC Penney	1,327	1.61
AOL House & Home	1,272	1.55
Food Network	1,125	1.37
Kraft Foods	1,118	1.36
Allrecipes	919	1.12
Better Homes and Gardens	739	0.9
MSN House & Home	644	0.78
kohls.com	641	0.78
The Gap	638	0.77
Realtor.com	592	0.72
Top 10 Multi-category Commerce Sites (week ending Dec. 1)
Shopping Destination	Unique Audience (000)	Active Reach (%)
EBay	11,984
Amazon	10,242	12.44
Yahoo! Shopping	7,391	8.98
MSN Shopping	3,128	3.8
Wal-Mart Stores	2,786	3.38
BestBuy.com	2,158
AOL Shopping	1,976	2.4
Columbiahouse.com	1,836
ToysRUs	1,792
DealTime	1,783	2.17
Dell Computer	1,747
Hallmark	1,723
Target	1,670	2.03
Sears	1,565	1.9
Barnes&Noble.com	1,480
BizRate Shopping	1,323	1.61
QVC	1,109	1.35

(some “reach” not available) *This data cannot be trended against weekly data prior to w/e 11/10/02 data.

Note: A shopping destination is a Brand or Channel (site or collection of sites) providing Web users the ability to look for products to buy or sell, regardless of whether the product is offered by a store, through an auction, or by an individual. The top shopping destinations list excludes travel. Traffic figures now incorporate proprietary "Browser Channels", such as AOL Proprietary Channels, and Internet Applications Tracking with regular Web traffic data.

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings
Audience Measurement Data
Week ending Dec. 1, 2002
US, Home