Major Search Engines Send 25% More Shopping Traffic to Comparison Shoppers Than Last Year

“Comparison shopping sites are taking a bigger share of shopping-related searches on the major search engines leading up to the 2005 holiday shopping season,” said Bill Tancer, general manager of research at Hitwise. “The increased user familiarity with these sites, combined with aggressive search marketing engines creates a funnel through which online shoppers are more likely to pass in their search for the best price. Competition for the online shopper’s dollar will be very fierce this holiday season.”

Of the 200 leading search terms sending visits to the top ten comparison shopping sites, 32 percent were for electronic items such as iPod and digital cameras (the four weeks ending November 19, 2005). House & Garden items comprised 20 percent of the 200 leading terms, with money-saving home heating items like “pellet stoves” and “wood stoves” topping the list.

Controversial Black Friday Websites Experience Explosive Growth

In recent weeks, a group of controversial websites that provide unreleased Black Friday holiday sales flyers saw massive increases in visits. For the week ending November 19, 2005, BF2005 (bfads.com), Blackfridayads.com and Gottadeal.com saw increases of 519 percent, 437 percent and 138 percent respectively.

BF2005.com which has received extensive media coverage over the last week has seen 9.5 percent of its traffic coming from the News & Media category for the week ending November 19, 2005. Major retailers are the most significant sites visited after BF2005 with Walmart.com 12.9 percent respectively of BF2005.com’s downstream traffic during the same week.

“Black Friday advertisement sites are another example of the leveling of the playing field between consumers and retailers,” said Tancer. “The combination of increased use of comparison shopping sites and sites like BF2005.com will lead to continued downward price pressure for online and offline retailers alike.”