Nielsen Wire » Sears

Cyber Monday Web Traffic Up 10% Over 2007

admin — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:33:03 +0000

Web traffic from home and work to sites included in Nielsen Online’s Holiday eShopping Index increased 10% year over year on Cyber Monday, Nielsen Online reported Tuesday.

Unique visitors to the sites included in the Index reached 35.9 million, a 13% increase over this year’s Black Friday Web traffic.

Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same as those on Black Friday. eBay drew the largest unique audience (10.6 million), while Amazon and Wal-Mart claimed second and third places, with 9 million and 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively.

Among the top 10 online retailers, Sears’ site saw the fastest growth (+58%, year over year).

Rank (by UA, Cyber Monday 2008)	Cyber Monday Top 10 Online Retail Destinations	Unique Audience: Cyber Monday 2007 (in 000s)	Unique Audience: Cyber Monday 2008 (in 000s)	% Change
1	eBay	10,799	10,564	-2%
2	Amazon	7,225	8,998	25%
3	Wal-Mart Stores	5,165	5,189	0%
4	Target	3,393	3,646	7%
5	Best Buy	2,363	3,558	51%
6	Sears	1,698	2,680	58%
7	Dell	2,673	2,369	-11%
8	Overstock.com	2,154	2,070	-4%
9	Netflix	1,442	2,046	42%
10	ToysRUs	1,386	1,652	19%
Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis (November 26, 2007 and December 1, 2008).

Beauty was the fastest growing product category on Monday, increasing 151% over the previous Monday, November 24, 2008.

Toys/Videogames ranked second, growing 112% Monday over Monday, while Apparel rounded out the top three with an increase of 58%.

Rank (by UA growth, Cyber Monday 2008)	Product Categories	Unique Audience Growth (Nov. 24, 2008 – Dec. 1, 2008)
1	Beauty	151%
2	Toys/Videogames	112%
3	Apparel	58%
4	Consumer Electronics	49%
5	Computer Hardware/Software	44%
6	Home and Garden	40%
7	Books/Music/Video	22%
8	Flowers and Gifts	21%
9	Shoes	13%
10	Retail	11%
11	Shopping Comparison/Portals	-12%
12	Jewelry	N/A
	TOTAL	14%
Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis (November 24, 2008 and December 1, 2008 ).

“The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was better than many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth will carry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales,” Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online, noted. “It remains to be seen if people have done the majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time, or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If history is any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15th will be the peak day for online shopping traffic.”

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings by the Associated Press and Bloomberg, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, Investor’s Business Daily, Ad Age, PC World, the Orlando Sentinel, ClickZ.com, and InternetRetailer.com.

Most-Recalled Reality In-Program Placements: Oct./Nov. 2008

Nielsen Wire — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 13:13:09 +0000

According to data from Nielsen IAG, a McDonald’s tie-in featured during CBS’s “The Amazing Race” was the most recalled product placements during the four weeks between October 20 and November 16, 2008. The reality show featured four of the top 10 placements during that time period.

Recall refers to the percentage of television viewers who can recall, within 24 hours, an ad’s sponsor.

Rank	Brand	In-Program Placement Description	Program Airing Info	Recall Index
1	McDonald’s	Pedicab driver points out restaurant to Christy and Kelly as they race to next location	The Amazing Race 13 (CBS, Nov. 9)	175
2	Travelocity	Nick and Star win a trip to Hawaii from online travel service for arriving in first place	The Amazing Race 13 (CBS, Nov. 9)	172
3	Travelocity	Ken and Tina review information from online travel service about the trip they won to Rio de Janeiro	The Amazing Race 13 (CBS, Oct. 26)	169
4	Travelocity	Nick and Star win a trip to St. John from online travel service for arriving in first place	The Amazing Race 13 (CBS, Oct. 26)	157
5	Sears	Paul and Eduardo visit department store to purchase camping supplies	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC, Oct. 26)	148
6	Ziploc	Cynthia Sass tells Michelle to use plastic bags to wrap up pre-portioned amounts of treats	The Biggest Loser: Families (NBC, Nov. 11)	135
7	CVS Pharmacy	Company donates elevator to family and helps renovate coffee shop that will employ people with disabilities	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (ABC, Nov. 9)	134
8	24 Hour Fitness	Branded signs are visible inside the gym itself throughout the episode	The Biggest Loser: Families (NBC, Oct. 28)	133
9	Macy’s	Department store is sponsor of the “Stars of Dance” segment	Dancing with the Stars (ABC, Nov. 5)	133
10	Brita	Branded sign is visible in the kitchen when Heba talks to Phillip	The Biggest Loser: Families (NBC, Oct. 28)	133
Source: Nielsen IAG In-Program Performance Data (www.nielseniag.com) The Nielsen IAG Top 10 Most Recalled In-Program Placements focuses on brand/product placements occurring in Reality programs on the broadcast networks during the Oct. 20 to Nov. 16 period. The Recall Score is the percentage of television viewers who can recall within 24 hours the brand/product of an In-Program placement they were exposed to during the normal course of viewing Network Reality shows. These scores are then indexed against the mean score for all placements occurring in this genre during the time period (Recall Index). 100 equals average. Note: For this analysis, only first-run episodes were considered. Both planned and incidental exposures were included.

78% Of U.S. Adults Shopped Online In Previous 6 Months

admin — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 20:38:01 +0000

With the holiday season about to begin, Americans are already flocking online to do their shopping.

According to Nielsen Online, 78% of adult online consumers in the U.S. made a purchase via the Web within the previous six months.

Travel-related transactions were most common, with 38% of adult online consumers making at least one travel purchase on the Web in the previous six months.

Large percentages of online consumers also went online to manage their credit card accounts (36%) and conduct personal banking transactions (35%).

Rank	Top Online Transaction Categories (U.S. Adults)	Composition Percentage	Reach (in 000s)
1	Online Travel – Any (p/online 6 mo.)	38%	54,417
2	Credit Cards – Manage Account (t/online/6 mo.)	36%	51,731
3	Home Banking (t/online/6 mo.)	35%	49,899
4	Clothes/Shoes/Acc. – Any (p/online/6 mo.)	28%	40,075
5	Books (p/online/6 mo.)	26%	37,001
6	Hotel/Motel Reservations (p/online/6 mo.)	18%	26,055
7	Auctions (p/online/6 mo.)	16%	23,449
8	Event Tickets (p/online/6 mo.)	14%	20,820
9	Insurance – Any (t/online/6 mo.)	11%	16,385
10	Computer Software – Any (p/online/6 mo.)	11%	15,580
Source: The Nielsen Company, Nielsen Online, @Plan, Winter 2008/2009 Release.
Note: “p” = “purchase” and “t” = “transaction”

Nielsen’s findings are based on data from @Plan, a quarterly survey of approximately 36,000 U.S. Internet users age 18 and older.

In October, eBay and Amazon were the top two online retailers, drawing 49.2 million and 48.3 million unique visitors, respectively. Wal-Mart, Target, and Netflix rounded out the top five.

Rank (by U.A.)	Top Online Retailers: October 2008	Unique Audience (in 000s)	Time Per Person (hh:mm:ss)
1	eBay	49,213	1:47:26
2	Amazon	48,261	0:22:45
3	Wal-Mart Stores	25,312	0:13:55
4	Target	23,827	0:09:36
5	Netflix	14,284	0:34:58
6	Dell	14,272	0:14:13
7	Best Buy	12,446	0:10:57
8	Sears	11,752	0:07:33
9	The Home Depot	11,053	0:09:52
10	JCPenney	10,703	0:16:09
Source: The Nielsen Company, Nielsen Online, Custom Analysis (October 2008).

“The challenge for retailers is no longer how to lure shoppers online, but how to differentiate their brand among all others,” Nachi Lolla, research director, commerce, Nielsen Online, noted. “Heading into this competitive holiday shopping season, selection, price, and customer service are the key areas in which retailers can shine.”

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings on Digital Media Wire and in Brandweek and BizReport.com.