Jewelry, Luxury Goods Turn to Gold for Online Retailers This Holiday Season

Big-Ticket Items Drive Fast-Growing Retail Categories in Comscore MMX November Data

RESTON, VA, December 19, 2005 –Retail Jewelry and Luxury Goods sites grew faster than any Internet category in November 2005, according to the latest monthly analysis from Comscore MMX. While many retail subcategories saw significant growth thanks to the start of the holiday shopping season, Jewelry and Luxury Goods led the list of top gaining categories with 39-percent growth over October 2005, yielding 16.4 million visitors in November.

“Consumers are investing an increasing amount of trust and discretionary dollars in the Web, as evidenced by the growth of sites where big ticket items are sold,” said Peter Daboll, president and CEO of Comscore MMX. “While sales on luxury goods sites are significant, most visitors use these sites to research a potential offline purchase, making it critically important for retailers to showcase their offerings online for current and future customers.”

Major winners within the Retail – Jewelry/Luxury Goods/Accessories category were Coach.com, which topped the category with 2.71 million unique visitors, and Zales.com (1.72 million unique visitors), which used a heavy holiday advertising push to entice consumers.

November is traditionally a strong month for retail sites and 2005 was no different. Nine of the Top Ten Gaining Categories and seven of the Top Ten Gaining Properties were related to retail.

AROUND THE WEB
Seasons Greetings Sent Online – The Services – eCards category was the second-highest gaining category in November 2005, rising 26 percent to 50.2 million unique visitors. This follows a peak performance by electronic greeting cards in October when the category ranked as the Web’s highest-gaining category. Once again, American Greetings Property was the star of the category with 28.3 million unique visitors on a 64-percent increase over the previous month. The site’s success can largely be credited to a “disco-dancing turkey” e-card that was widely distributed via e-mail (see Movers & Shakers).

Food Sites Meet Multitude of Consumer Holiday Demands – The Retail – Food category landed among the top ten gaining categories in November with 15.8 million unique visitors, a 22-percent increase over October, as a variety of sites drove the category’s success. Consumers sought edible gifts at Williams-Sonoma.com (1.9 million visitors, up 64 percent) and OmahaSteaks.com (1.5 million visitors, up 152 percent), which finished first and second in the category respectively. Other sites featuring food-related gift arrangements saw extraordinary success, including HickoryFarms.com (493,000 visitors, up 192 percent) and SwissColony.com (469,000 visitors, up 142 percent). Meanwhile, Cooking.com was the category’s third-ranked site with 1.5 million visitors on 68 percent growth, as consumers sought Thanksgiving recipes. Conversely, for those seeking a break from turkey, PapaJohnsOnline.com followed at number four with 1.1 million visitors, up 15 percent from October.

Multi-Channel Retailers Make Early Push For Holiday Shoppers – Retailers featuring a presence online and offline helped the Retail – Department Stores category reach 62.1 million visitors in November on 21-percent growth. The category was carried by Wal-Mart.com, which gained steam from an early holiday advertising push. The mega-retailer received 32.1 million unique visitors in November, up 54 percent from October. The site’s strong performance was boosted by Wal-Mart Movies (6.6 million visitors, up 435 percent) and Wal-Mart Electronics (7.8 million visitors, up 197 percent). Following Wal-Mart in the top position, the Department Store category was carried in November by Target Corporation (27.3 million visitors, up 25 percent), JCPenney Sites (14.8 million visitors, up 35 percent), and Sears.com (12.1 million visitors, up 42 percent).

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

• Local.com – This local business search and shopping engine saw an astounding 251 percent increase in unique visitors to 4.4 million in November. The site boasts over 16 million business listings with enhanced content, including directions to and from the location, contact information, reviews, and business Web sites.
• World Wrestling Entertainment – Traffic swarmed to the site over the somber news of wrestler Eddie Guerrero’s untimely death on November 13 at the age of 38. The WWE site featured up-to-date news and commentary regarding his death, as well as a variety of interactive tributes including screensavers, wallpapers, personal interviews, and fan remembrances.
• American Greetings – The leading e-card destination drew people to the site in November with its popular Thanksgiving greeting featuring a disco-dancing turkey dubbed “Gloria Gobbler” singing a Thanksgiving-themed version of “I Will Survive.” The e-card, which American Greetings said was its most popular in company history, played a large role in attracting more than 28 million people to the site in November.

TABLE 1

*Ranking based on the top 250 properties in November 2005

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Reach % denotes the percentage of the total Internet population that views a particular entity at least once in November. For instance, Yahoo! was seen by 72 percent of the over 169 million Internet users in November. The notation “**” indicates that the entity is an advertising network.

About Comscore MMX
Comscore MMX, a division of Comscore Networks, provides industry-leading Internet audience measurement services that report – with unmatched accuracy – details of online media usage, visitor demographics and online buying power for the home, work and university audiences across local U.S. markets and across the globe. Comscore MMX continues the tradition of quality and innovation established by its MMX syndicated Internet ratings – long recognized as the currency in online media measurement among financial analysts, advertising agencies, publishers and marketers – while drawing upon Comscore's advanced technologies to address important new industry requirements. All Comscore MMX syndicated ratings are based on industry-sanctioned sampling methodologies.

About Comscore Networks
Comscore Networks provides unparalleled insight into consumer behavior and attitudes. This capability is based on a massive, global cross-section of more than 2 million consumers who have given Comscore explicit permission to confidentially capture their browsing and transaction behavior, including online and offline purchasing. Comscore panelists also participate in survey research that captures and integrates their attitudes and intentions. Through its proprietary technology, Comscore measures what matters across a broad spectrum of behavior and attitudes. Comscore consultants apply this deep knowledge of customers and competitors to help clients design powerful marketing strategies and tactics that deliver superior ROI. Comscore services are used by global leaders such as AOL, Yahoo!, Verizon, Best Buy, The Newspaper Association of America, Tribune Interactive, ESPN, Nestlé, MBNA, Universal McCann, the United States Postal Service, Merck and Orbitz. For more information, please visit www.comscore.com.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com