• by January 2, 2001

Nielsen//NetRatings has announces the top e-tailers of the 2000 holiday shopping season, with Amazon.com and Toys R Us leading all e-tailers at a record-breaking 123 million shopping visits since the start of the season.

At its peak, the Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday E-Commerce Index, which measures home and work shopping trips to representative e-commerce sites in eight product categories, grew 78% during the season. In the week ending December 24, the index declined 31% as shoppers moved their purchases offline.

"The 2000 holiday season will best be remembered for the onslaught of brick and mortar stores. In total, established offline brands account for 11 of the top 15 holiday e-tailers," said Sean Kaldor, VP of eCommerce at NetRatings. "Strong brand awareness, millions of loyal customers, and proven retailing savvy led to the success of brick and mortars this year."

Amazon.com and Toys R Us, together through their alliance, dominated Nielsen//NetRatings' Top 15 Holiday Season E-tailers, with more than five times as many shopping trips as their next closest competitor. The largest brick and mortar retailer is Dell, followed very closely by Barnes & Noble at No. 4.

Recovering from a slow start after the launch of its revamped website, Walmart.com secured the No. 6 spot with 18 million shopping trips.

As in the offline world, department stores led shopping activity online as well. More than half of the top 15 e-tailers are virtual department stores, meaning they sell products from a wide range of categories.

"Online shopping this season mirrored the trend for traditional retailers as the popularity of virtual department stores dominated other product categories," adds Kaldor. "Web consumers favored the huge selections and the time-savings offered by virtual department stores, as they flocked to sites such as Amazon.com, Bluelight.com, Buy.com, JCPenney.com, Sears.com, Target.com, Ubid.com, and Walmart.com throughout the season."

Although small in traffic by comparison, the fastest growing product category is specialty gifts, which rocketed 264% at the peak of the holidays. Toys & games, an annual favorite of the holiday season, jumped 138% while the apparel category followed closely behind at a growth rate of 130%.