Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service providing daily insights, reports that U.S. user traffic to online retailers jumped in April, mirroring the recent rise in the
Consumer Confidence Index, and providing another encouraging sign for the U.S. economy. Traffic to online retailers sunk to its low for the year at the same time that Coalition Forces hit their low
point in the war with Iraq-the weekend of March 22nd, when Arab TV station Al Jazeera aired footage of American bodies and prisoners of war. Since then, however, as U.S. fortunes in the war have
risen, traffic to retailer sites has also risen, from 4.8% of U.S. "U.S. online consumers appear to be in sync with U.S. consumers on the whole," said Chris Maher, General Manager of Hitwise, North
America. "Once the worst of the war was over, their interest in spending improved." Since the weekend of March 22nd, the retail sectors which have seen the biggest increases in relative share of
visits as a proportion of all U.S. traffic are; Computers (+ 33%), Appliances & Electronics (+32%), Video & Games (+24%), House & Garden (+23%), and Wholesale & Relationship Sales (+23%).
