Visits to the commercial Web sites on the Holiday eShopping Index grew 20%, from 459.5 million to 551.6 million, during the week ended Dec. 17. Jewelry led the growth among the categories tracked during the past eight weeks of the holiday season, increasing by 221%, followed by flowers and gifts, which grew at a 143% rate above last year’s levels. Consumer electronics were up 107% over last year’s level.
The top online shopping days included Wednesday, Nov. 29, which was the first this year to record 30 million unique visitors among the Index. Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 11 and 12, and Thursday, Dec 14 also hit this level, likely due to consumers placing orders before Christmas shipping deadlines, which often fell on Dec.15.
The Holiday eShopping Index, which is sponsored by Nielsen/NetRatings, tracks 120 online representative retailers across 12 categories.
