Christmas ITunes Visits Soar 413%: Hitwise

Everything apparently came up apples this Christmas.

Visits to online music site ITunes.com skyrocketed 413% on Christmas Day 2006, compared to Dec. 25, 2005, according to Hitwise.

Also, visits to the Apple Store at Apple.com were up 110% on Christmas Day 2006 over Dec. 25 2005, according to the online market research firm.

Moreover, the Apple Store was the fourth most visited Web site in the Hitwise Retail Index on Christmas Day 2006, the company reported.

However, the most visited of the top 100 retail Web sites for the week ending Dec. 23 was Amazon.com, which accounted for 13.18% of the sites’ collective visits, according to Hitwise.

The second and third most visited Web sites in the company’s index were Walmart.com and Target.com with 9.13% and 5.1% of visits among the top 100 retailers, according to Hitwise.

The news of Amazon.com’s high traffic share comes on the heels of a report by ForeSee Results in which Amazon.com came in at No.2 just behind Netflix in terms of customer satisfaction.

In data from a panel of 1.6 million households, Amazon.com scored 84 out of a possible 100 points for its site experience, merchandising, brand and pricing, according to ForeSee Results’ Top 40 Online Retail Satisfaction Index.

Meanwhile, visits to stores in the Hitwise Retail Index were up 6.2% for the week ending Dec. 23 2006, compared to the same week last year, the company reported.

Electronics merchants CircuitCity.com and BestBuy.com received the biggest increases in traffic week to week, with respective increases of 20.7% and 17.1%, Hitwise reported.

Also, the top search term for the week ending Dec. 23 was Nintendo DS, according to Hitwise. Nos. 2,3,4 and 5 as were IPod, Nintendo wii, wii and Heelys, respectively.

The top five brand search terms for the week ending Dec. 23 in descending order were: EBay, Wal-Mart, Craigslist, Best Buy and Target, according to Hitwise.