Nielsen Wire » e-retailers

‘Tis The Season…For Online Shopping

admin — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:53:24 +0000

Nearly one-fourth (24%) of online shoppers have spent more than $500 so far this holiday season, with 22% spending between $100-199 online, Nielsen reported Thursday.

Most online shoppers surveyed by Nielsen (78%) cited the Web’s round-the-clock convenience as their primary reason for shopping online.

A majority of consumers made purchases from online retailers they already knew and trusted — 62% told Nielsen they ordered products from retailers they had shopped with in the past. Search engines were also a popular way to find online retailers (38% of respondents), followed by offline catalogs (31% of respondents).

In addition, most of the consumers in Nielsen’s survey (81%) reported that they sought out product or retailer reviews written by other customers when doing their holiday shopping this year. Seventy-one percent noted that consumer reviews helped them find the right product to buy.

“Consumer reviews are a must-have for online retailers, especially during the holiday season when shoppers are buying for others in categories they’re less familiar with,” Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online, noted. “Perhaps more than any other time of year, consumers are looking for outside feedback for guidance.”

Nielsen’s survey was fielded online from December 8 to 15 among approximately 1,000 online shoppers in the U.S. who did holiday shopping online last year and/or planned to do so this year.

View the press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in Internet Retailer and BizReport.com.

Top Computers, Consumer Electronics Online Destinations: November 2008

admin — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 18:04:48 +0000

Among the top computer and consumer electronics websites for November, computer giants Microsoft and Apple easily drew the largest unique audiences, according to Nielsen Online.

Visitors to Apple’s site logged the longest average stay-times.

Rank (by UA, Nov. 2008)	Top 10 Computer & Consumer Electronics Web Brands: Nov. 2008	Unique Audience: Nov. 2008 (in 000s)	Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1	Microsoft	95,543	0:45:44
2	Apple	52,909	1:12:27
3	Adobe	29,472	0:05:19
4	Hewlett Packard	23,435	0:09:58
5	Best Buy	22,138	0:11:28
6	Flickr	19,304	0:09:06
7	CNET	17,935	0:06:23
8	Dell	17,058	0:18:38
9	Circuit City	16,609	0:08:18
10	Mozilla	14,400	0:02:23
Source: Nielsen Online (November 2008 ).
Note: Web properties reported at either the brand or channel market level and can include multiple URL’s.

Holiday Blog Buzz Battle: Xbox Bests Wii, Playstation

admin — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 21:54:53 +0000

Microsoft’s Xbox is the most buzzed about game console so far this holiday season, Nielsen Online reported Thursday.

The Xbox 360 garnered the largest share of online buzz between November 1 and December 9, with 41.6% of blog messages mentioning Xbox, Wii or Playstation.

In comparison, Nintendo’s Wii was mentioned in 29.8% of game console blog messages, while Sony’s Playstation ranked third with mentions in 28.6% of gaming-related blog posts.

Among gift-related online buzz, TV-related terms, mentioned in 52.5% of gift-related messages, dominated blogosphere chatter.

DVDs (24.4% share), toys (11.3% share), laptops (8.4% share), and GPS (3.4% share) rounded out the select five gift ideas.

View the press release.