Black Friday Ad Site Traffic Up 52 Percent, Wal-Mart Benefiting Most

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Traffic to Black Friday advertising websites is increasing earlier in 2007 than it did in 2006, with traffic up 52 percent for the week ended Nov. 10 compared with the year-earlier period, according to Hitwise, reports MarketingCharts.

Among the data released:

• Searches on the term “black friday ads” are up 91 percent from last year and have increased 954 percent since 2005. In 2006, searches for the same term were up 452 percent compared with 2005.

(See chart of average percentage of weekly searches for “black friday” & “black friday ads.”)

• Wal-Mart received the most U.S. traffic from Black Friday advertising websites for the week ended Nov. 10 among a select group of brick and mortar stores. Sears and Best Buy were second and third, respectively.
• In 2006, Best Buy, Circuit City and Sears were among offline brands to receive the most traffic from Black Friday websites.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly more knowledgeable about the availability of Black Friday promotions online and are actively seeking out the websites which offer the advertisements before public release,” said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise

“Much to the chagrin of some retailers, shoppers are well aware of the leaked promotions and are able to plan their Black Friday purchases before Thanksgiving arrives. While some retailers resist having their sales announced prematurely, others are embracing these sites as a customer acquisition opportunity.”

Online Holiday Shopping Update:

• The Hitwise U.S. Retail 100 Index* chart shows that visits to the websites within the Index were up 7 percent for the week ended Nov. 10 versus the previous week’s (w/e Nov. 3) visits. U.S. traffic is up 13 percent compared with the year-earlier period’s (Nov. 11, 2006).

(See chart of daily visits to Hitwise Online Retail Index websites, 2005-2007.)

• Amazon.com remained the most-visited website last week, receiving 11 percent of visits among the Retail 100 Index. Wal-Mart received the second-most visits with 6 percent. Overstock.com was the biggest gainer for the week; its traffic increased 18 percent compared with the previous week’s.

(See table of retail websites benefiting most from Black Friday search traffic.)

• iPods and Uggs were the most popular search terms, sending visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites for the week ended Nov. 10. The terms “ipod,” “wii” and “uggs” were the top three product searches. The term “playstation 3″ cracked the top 10 product searches for the first time this holiday season.

(See lists of top 10 brand and product searches for the week ended Nov. 10.)

* The Hitwise Retail 100 Index does not include websites from the following categories: auctions, classifieds, computer manufacturers, relationship sales, reward-point collecting and home entertainment – music download, DVD and videogame rental.