Week on the Web: Cards, Flowers and Nascar

  • by February 16, 2003
Nielsen//NetRatings reports that last minute shoppers flocked to the Web to fulfill their Valentine's Day shopping needs. Surfers from home sent online greeting cards, ordered flowers and purchased romantic gifts during the week ending February 9.

Traffic to 1800flowers.com surged 84%, making it the fastest growing brand during the latest week. Lingerie site Victoriassecret.com jumped 37% to 553,000 unique visitors, while Fredericks.com spiked 17% to 323,00 surfers. Specialty gift site Redenvelope.com surged 26% with more than 200,000 unique visitors surfing for gift items.

Surfers looked to the Web to send special greetings to loved ones. RiverSongs.com jumped 51% with 256,000 surfers from home. RiverSongs' most visited page was a flash animated Valentine's greeting, comprising of 53 percent of audience traffic. Traffic to Americangreetings.com, jumped 23% with over 1.3 million surfers, compared to 1.1 million surfers the previous week. Blue Mountain drew 645,000 unique visitors, rising seven percent week-over-week, while 123greetings.com attracted 307,000 surfers, jumping 6% as compared to the previous week. Rounding out the top five, Egreetings.com recorded 5% more traffic with 352,000 unique visitors.

"With etailers allowing shoppers to purchase until February 13, the Web is a great one-stop spot for last minute shoppers," said Lisa Strand, director and chief analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Special occasions, such as Valentine's Day, provide unique selling opportunities for online merchants to offer promotions and deals for shoppers looking for a gift."

As for elsewhere online, NetRatings also revealed that race fans drove traffic to Nascar.com 44% higher at home for the week ending February 9th, according to Nielsen//NetRatings. The site attracted more than 1.2 million unique visitors with surfers logging on to view the Winston Cup schedule. Thirteen percent of the site's audience studied the Budweiser Shootout race line-up.

Additionally, traffic to Discovery.com jumped 38% at work, drawing 656,000 unique visitors, for the week ending February 9th. Sixteen percent of office workers logged on to the "Monster Garage" fan site where fans can get access additional photos, vehicle specs, various Jesse James wallpaper, and more.

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