Online shopping destinations are rising as stars of the holiday season.
If shopping the Internet is a process of hunting and gathering, consumers have shifted from search mode into holiday purchasing, during the first two weeks of December, prompted partly by early season promotions and promises of free shipping. Shoppers spent about $667 million online last Wednesday, up 29 percent from the corresponding week a year ago — and the biggest single day in consumer e-commerce, according to statistics from comScore Networks, which excludes travel and auction purchases.
Even as brick-and-mortar retail sales were sluggish, the Internet growth rate continued to accelerate last week, with consumer spending increases of 33 percent on Thursday, to $634 million, and 38 percent on Friday, to $624 million.
“Later shipping deadlines this season and the fact that many consumers received a paycheck on Dec. 15 could keep online sales in full swing [this week],” said Gian Fulgoni, chairman of comScore Networks. Thirty-eight percent of cyberstores — twice as many as last year — guaranteed on-time deliveries for items bought as late as Monday, aided by the fact Christmas is falling on a Monday, he added, and people have become more confident of receiving their online purchases on time over the past several years.
More than half of fashion cybershoppers this season — 61 percent — are women, and the predominant age group is 25-34, noted Bill Tancer, general manager of global research at Hitwise, patterns that played out in the top 10 apparel brands searched for from Dec. 1 to 16. (Search terms are given as they have been used by Web surfers.)
The five most popular searches for apparel brands, in each of the first two weeks this month, were led by hollister, followed by old navy, victoria secret, american eagle, and victoria’s secret. Those ranking as 6th though 10th most popular for the week ended Dec. 16 were Abercrombie, gap, llbean, aeropostale and lands end.
“Advertising and brand strength are probably the primary drivers,” Heather Dougherty, senior commerce analyst at Nielsen/Net Ratings said of the catalysts sparking specific searches for apparel brands and items. “For the branded sites, people know to some extent what the big names would be offering.”
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In addition, as consumers have grown more comfortable with online shopping and more apt to find it convenient, they’re more likely to branch out to new cyberstores via search-engine listings.
“For smaller brands and retailers [search activity] is particularly important, because if [people] don’t use a search engine, they aren’t going to get there,” Dougherty noted.
There’s an element of randomness as well: Niche players, such as Trashy.com (lingerie) and Dresses.com, are increasingly bidding for better positions in search engine listings in an attempt to lure new visitors, as are larger e-tailers of branded goods, which are aiming to build traffic (and potential business) on the success of hot items like the iPod, among other Mp3 players, and the Nintendo Wii.
Five of Web surfers’ top 10 shopping searches last week were for consumer electronics, edging out apparel and accessories by one query, and led by iPod. Also commanding numerous searches were Nintendo wii (the top shopping query online during the first week of December), Wii, Nintendo ds, and Ipods.
Apparel and accessories drew four of the top 10 shopping searches in the first half of December among the roughly 20,000 Web sites monitored by Hitwise, which include about 3,100 apparel and accessories destinations. Those fashion searches were made for Lingerie, Ugg boots, Heelys, and Uggs, during the week ended Dec. 16, and for ugg boots, lingerie, uggs, and Uggs during the week ended Dec. 9.
“The Uggs phenomenon seems to be growing as we get closer to Christmas,” Tancer observed. “The searches are now double what they were last year.”
Three kinds of apparel were among the top 10 searches for apparel and accessories last week: Prom Dresses, ranking second; Lingerie, third, and Wedding Dresses, ninth. Searches for Jewelry placed sixth and Engagement Rings, 10th. Footwear queries accounted for the balance of the category leaders, with ugg boots the most popular search; Uggs, fourth; Shoes, fifth; Heelys, seventh, and Ugg, eighth.
Social network sites MySpace and YouTube were destinations visited by cybershoppers seeking prom dresses, shoes, iPods and flowers — venues that also afforded those shoppers a means by which to compare the things they were considering for purchase or had actually bought. Dougherty of Nielsen/Net Ratings likened the phenomenon to shopping with friends. “A lot of cell phones can be used to make a photograph or video of someone trying on a dress in a store,” Dougherty noted. “Even if a friend or family member lives across the country, you can show them what’s going on.”
A lull in visits to comparison shopping sites as the holiday season has progressed may herald more heavy purchasing activity to come, Dougherty explained, as consumers appear to have completed their research and are ready to open their wallets. For example, during Thanksgiving week, visits to comparison shopping sites like BizRate, ShopLocal, and NexTag were up 25 percent versus a year ago, a growth pace that fell to 17 percent for the period from Nov. 1 through Dec. 10, according to Nielsen/NetRatings.
Such a slowdown, Dougherty said, tends to signal an intent to purchase or to wait until prices improve.