If the crowds at the mall seemed lighter over the weekend, you can thank the Internet. A lot of folks chose to sleep in and shop the virtual storefronts from the comfort of their homes. Monday morning, online tracker Nielsen//NetRatings revealed that 17.2 million holiday shoppers took their gift-giving lists to the World Wide Mall -- cyberspace. That's a 29% improvement from the 13.3 million buyers who scoured the Internet for deals during last year's Black Friday.
What may come as a surprise to some -- though clearly not all -- is that the most popular online shop was none other than eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). With the Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Xbox 360 in short supply, the site was flooded with anxious parents who may not have been too happy to see Xbox 360s being flipped for twice their retail cost.
Then again, let's not crown eBay as the definitive holiday champ, because a lot of that traffic is inherent. Unlike most seasonally slanted retailers, eBay's growth is quarter to quarter. The 2004 holiday quarter may have been a winner for eBay, but the company went on to produce even healthier top-line growth in each of the three quarters that followed. More to the point, Nielsen//NetRatings claims that eBay's traffic was actually off by 8% from the previous week, whereas an online retailer like Overstock.com's (Nasdaq: OSTK) traffic spiked by 71% over the previous week.
Still, who has the time to ask a bidder if he's gunning for a Popeye Pez dispenser or a Munsters lunchbox as a holiday gift or for personal consumption? As far as online transactions go, eBay is clearly doing something right.
Rounding out the list of the most popular destinations, in order, are Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Target (NYSE: TGT), and Best Buy (NYSE: BBY). Yes, traditional retailers continue to make their online presence felt.
| Top 10 Online Shopping Destinations |
| 1. eBay |
| 2. Amazon.com |
| 3. Wal-Mart |
| 4. Target |
| 5. Best Buy |
| 6. Overstock.com |
| 7. Circuit City |
| 8. Dell |
| 9. Shopping.com |
| 10. Shopzilla.com |
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings Daily Overnight Analysis, November 2005
Another eBay caveat on that list is Dell (Nasdaq: DELL), whose traffic was off by 8% compared with the previous Friday. That's understandable because a lot of the online orders at Dell.com are placed by companies, and many were closed on Black Friday.
Still, the numbers in sum cannot be ignored. Online shopping is an Internet staple, so here's a tip for shopping mall Santas: Get ready to make house calls in the not too distant future.
Yes, the Fool has been known to heart an online retailer or two. eBay, Amazon, Best Buy, and Dell are active recommendations in theStock Advisornewsletter service, and Overstock.com was singled out last year toRule Breakerssubscribers. Microsoft is anInside Valueselection.
Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz has been shopping online over the holidays for about as long as Amazon.com has been in business. He does not own shares in any of the companies mentioned in this story. The Fool has a disclosure policy. He is also part of theRule Breakersnewsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early.
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