The index, which measures home and work Internet user visits to representative e-commerce sites in ten categories, revealed that the holiday shopping season has yet to begin with zero percent growth the week ending November 5 over the prior week.
By comparison, in the same first week of November 1999, there was explosive growth when people first began shopping online for the holidays. Many individual e-tailers, who experienced soaring traffic during the beginning of last year's holiday season, did not enjoy the same meteoric rise during the same time period this year. For example, last year's holiday shopping season began the week ending November 7, 1999, when traffic to many e-commerce sites spiked in unique visitors, according to the Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday E-Commerce Index (see Table 1). This year, the same week ending November 5, 2000, saw many e-tailing sites making flat or modest gains.
"Last year's holiday shopping season began with a big bang right after people put away their Halloween costumes," said Sean Kaldor, vice president of eCommerce at NetRatings. "This year we are not seeing the same trends, suggesting that other factors took the focus off the impending holidays, such as less dot com advertising or interest in the Presidential election." According to Table 1, the consumer electronics category led last year's growth with a 56 percent boost in unique visitors at home. This year the category rose a much more modest 16 percent. Toys and games, one of the categories slated for hot growth this holiday season, leapt 47 percent last year while remaining flat this season. Computer hardware sites attracted 19 percent more traffic last year while dipping nearly seven percent this year.
Apparel sites drew 13 percent more shoppers in 1999 while engaging only nine percent more visitors in 2000. The books/music/video category grew nearly 13 percent last year, but increased five percent this year. The specialty gifts category was the only one to reverse the trend with one percent growth last year and more than 12 percent rise this year.
Table 1. Nielsen//NetRatings Holiday E-Commerce Index, 1999 vs. 2000 (U.S., Unique Audience at Home)
% Change in % Change in
Unique Audience Unique Audience
Category Weeks 10/31/99-11/7/99 Weeks 10/29/00-11/5/00
CONSUMER ELECTRONICS 55.9% 16.2%
TOYS & GAMES 46.9% -0.5%
COMPUTER HARDWARE 18.5% -6.5%
APPAREL 13.4% 9.2%
BOOKS/MUSIC/VIDEO 12.5% 4.9%
SPECIALTY GIFTS 1.0% 12.5%
Note: The index is comprised of five representative sites in each category, and is meant to act as a barometer to gauge the level of interest at e-commerce sites during the holiday season. Sites in each category may or may not be the same in years 1999 and 2000.
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, November 2000
Table 2 shows a comparison of home traffic at selected e-commerce sites from last year's holiday shopping beginning to the same time period this year. BestBuy.com soared 128 percent during the start of the holiday season last year, but rose 21 percent this year. Etoys.com jumped 55 percent in 1999, but increased seven percent in 2000. Gap.com grew 34 percent last year but fell nearly ten percent this year.
"Last year was the first consumer holiday shopping season on the Web where many e-commerce sites skyrocketed in traffic as they established themselves online for the first time," said Kaldor. "As we've seen, many were weeded out. This year proves to be a tougher environment with an Internet matured. The next two weeks will be crucial for e-tailers to drive up traffic if they are banking on a big holiday season and they want to hit their revenue marks."
Table 2. Nielsen//NetRatings Unique Audience for E-Tailers in 1999 vs. 2000 (U.S., Home only)
Site UA, Week UA, Week UA, Week UA, Week % %
ending ending ending ending Change Change
10/31/99 11/7/99 10/29/00 11/5/00 for 1999 for 2000
Bestbuy.com 89,040 202,716 450,319 545,356 127.7% 21.1%
Etoys.com 522,934 810,589 580,411 619,790 55.0% 6.8%
Buy.com 287,656 438,572 495,554 490,609 52.5% -1.0%
Gap.com 217,331 291,881 290,542 262,434 34.3% -9.7%
Jcrew.com 135,674 171,884 204,883 134,678 26.7% -34.3%
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, November 2000
About Nielsen//NetRatings
Nielsen//NetRatings, the audience measurement service from Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc., collects real-time data from more than 70,000 panel members in the United States. The U.S. panel sample consists of 62,000 at-home users and 8,000 at-work users. These panels collectively represent the largest representative media research sample of Internet users in the industry. Internationally, Nielsen//NetRatings services are provided via ACNielsen eRatings.com, a venture between ACNielsen (NYSE:ART) and NetRatings, Inc. Globally, Nielsen//NetRatings services measure the Internet experiences of nearly 200,000 global Internet users.
Nielsen//NetRatings services use unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the global marketplace. Nielsen//NetRatings services leverage proprietary data-collection technology from NetRatings, Nielsen Media Research's 50 years of expertise in research and audience measurement, and ACNielsen's international leadership in supplying market research information covering more than 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.
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