Top 50 US sites: Retail sites thrive

Google sites remained the most visited property online during November 2011, but retail sites thrived in the build up to the festive period, according to new data.

The study, from comScore, indicated that millions of Americans began their holiday shopping in November, driving most of the Web activity during the month.

Among the top-gaining retail categories were Toys, Consumer Electronics and Mall sites, each posting strong gains of more than 25 percent versus October. Coupon sites assisted shoppers in finding promotional codes, discounts and free shipping deals with ease.
“The holiday shopping season got off to a strong start in November as many Americans looked to cash in on early shopping promotions and discounts,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore. “Savings still appear to be a priority for consumers this season, as observed by the increase in visitors to Coupon sites, especially around the time of Black Friday and Cyber Monday.”

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in November 2011. Excludes entities whose growth was primarily due to tagging through unified digital audience measurement.

Toys and Gadgets for All
Toy sites posted the strongest gains in November, growing 34 percent to 28.9 million visitors. Toysrus Sites ranked first in the category with 15.6 million visitors, a 71-percent increase versus October, earning it a spot on the top-gaining properties list. The LEGO Group came in second with 4.4 million visitors (up 12 percent), followed by Disney Shopping with 2.2 million (up 37 percent), AmericanGirl.com with 2.1 million (up 89 percent) and Fisher Price with 1.9 million (up 32 percent).
Consumer Electronics sites also fared well in November, jumping 28 percent to 59.1 million visitors, as flat panel TVs, e-readers and tablets continue to be popular items this holiday season. BestBuy.com ranked #1 in the category with 35.3 million visitors (up 78 percent), followed by eBay Electronics U.S. with 7.7 million (up 19 percent), RadioShack Corporation with 5 million (up 69 percent) and Buy.com with 4.2 million (up 26 percent). Showing exceptional growth was hhgregg.com, which surged 107 percent to 2 million visitors.
Luxury Items Dazzle Shoppers
24 million Americans browsed Jewelry, Luxury Goods and Accessories sites, up 23 percent, as many consumers decided to indulge in more extravagant gifts this season. 6pm.com secured the #1 position with 2.4 million visitors (up 40 percent), followed by Zale Corporation with 2 million (up 58 percent), BradfordExchange.com with 2 million (up 51 percent) and Coach.com with 1.9 million (up 22 percent). Kay Jewelers rounded out the top five with 1.5 million, doubling versus October.
1 in 4 Visitors to Retail Sites also visited Coupon Sites
Browsing Coupon sites was an essential part of the online shopping experience for many holiday shoppers in November, with the category growing 12 percent to 49 million visitors. Category leader Groupon attracted 11.8 million visitors (up 2 percent), followed by Coupons, Inc. with 8.3 million, RetailMeNot.com with 7.4 million (up 24 percent) and LivingSocial with 4.2 million (up 1 percent). BlackFriday.info was a big gainer in the category, jumping 756 percent to more than 4 million visitors. CouponAlert.com drew 2.7 million visitors (up 1 percent), followed by DealsPL.us with 2.5 million (up 41 percent) and CouponCabin.com with 2.1 million (up 46 percent).
Top 50 Properties
Google Sites ranked as the #1 property in November with 186.7 million visitors, followed by Microsoft Sites with 175.5 million and Yahoo! Sites with 174.5 million. Amazon Sites jumped to fifth place with 112.9 million visitors. Target Corporation leaped 20 positions in the ranking to secure the #26 ranking with 40.2 million visitors. Best Buy Sites and Sears Sites were new to the list at #29 and #38, respectively.
Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking
Google Ad Network led the November Ad Focus ranking with a reach of 92.8 percent of Americans online, followed by Yahoo! Network Plus (86.3 percent) and AOL Advertising (84.9 percent), AT&T AdWorks (83.0 percent) and ValueClick Networks (81.8 percent).

Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that viewed a particular entity at least once in November. For instance, Yahoo! Sites was seen by 79.0 percent of the 221 million Internet users in November. * Entity has assigned some portion of traffic to other syndicated entities. ** Denotes an advertising network.
www.comscore.com/