Amazon.com and American Online maintained their positions as the top two spots for online commerce in September, but jockeying among the next 28 was fierce, according to the NextCard eCommerce Index for September.
The Index, which ranks Internet shopping sites by the number of purchase transactions made by 500,000 NextCard cardholders. The top two sites were followed by Priceline Gas, which moved up two spots to land at number three, Earthlink, which fell one place to number four, and Buy.com, which continued its upward movement, edging up one spot to number five.
Ranked by purchase volume increase, the month's biggest gainers included At Home Network, (up 424%); Thanksmuch.com (226%); RadioShack.com (152%); FirstAuction (138%); SmarterKids.com (128%); Yahoo! Simplenet (117%); SharperImage.com (76%); OurHouse.com (63%); and Active.com and Garden.com (both with 61%).
"Traditional retailers made a strong showing last month, as evidenced by the 152% and 76% growth by RadioSheck.com and SharperImage.com, respectively," said NextCard vice president, e-commerce Lisa Subramnian.
"Consumers gravitated online to buy popular Sharper Image products, such as the Razor scooter. SmarterKids.com, which recently made adjustments to its retail site and is now selling toys and games, might be taking market share away from ToysRUs.com."
NextCard will announce its own earning at the close of market on Oct. 25. A conference call announcing the results will be broadcast at 2:00 PDT on the investor relations page of the company's Web site (http://www.nextcard.com).
