Top 50 Website Rankings Issued for Nov., Toy & Coupon Sites Fastest Gainers

The beginning of the holiday shopping season resulted in retail sites dominating the top-gaining site and category rankings in November, while Yahoo Sites maintained its rank as the top web property, according to a monthly analysis by comScore’s Media Metrix service, writes MarketingCharts.

Yahoo Sites had 136 million visitors in Nov., while Microsoft Sites inched past the Time Warner Network to capture the third spot with 119.2 million visitors.

Among the November data released by comScore:

Top 50 Properties (Unique Visitors)

(See table of the top 50 online properties, Nov.)

Among the highlights:

• Wal-Mart moved up seven spots to number 13 with 42.5 million visitors.
• Target Corporation grabbed the 14th spot with nearly 42 million visitors.
• Circuit City Stores, Inc. and JCPenney Sites entered the ranking this month in positions 43 and 45, respectively, after receiving a boost from online holiday shopping.
• Superpages.com Network jumped 16 spots to place 24th.

Top 50 Ad Focus Ranking (Advertising Reach)

(See table of the Ad Focus top 50, Nov.)

Among the highlights:

• Advertising.com remained atop the Ad Focus ranking in November, reaching 86 percent of Americans online.
• The newly created Yahoo Advertising Network entered the ranking at position two, reaching 85 percent of the online population.
• Blue Lithium moved up three positions to capture the fourth spot, reaching 74 percent.
• The Nabbr Network, Vizi Media and the Superpages.com Network all entered the ranking at positions 44, 46 and 48, respectively.

High-Growth Sites & Categories

Toy category posts strong growth despite recall worries

(See table of the top 10 gaining categories, Oct.-Nov.)

• Despite recent toy-safety concerns, the toy category surged 32 percent to 31.1 million visitors in November, making it the top-gaining category for the month.
• Toysrus Sites led the category with 16.2 million visitors (87 percent), followed by KB Toys with 4 million visitors (up 119 percent) and Barbie with 3.6 million visitors (up 8 percent).

Coupon sites surge, propelled by Black Friday and Cyber Monday

(See table of top-gaining websites, Oct.-Nov.)

• With many consumers looking for hot holiday deals this season, the coupons category climbed 27 percent to 25.8 million visitors.
• Sites offering Black Friday promotions proved particularly popular, with both BlackFriday.info and BFads.net jumping more than 1,000 percent to 3.3 million visitors and 5 million visitors, respectively.
• Cyber Monday promotions were also a hit this year, as CyberMonday.com shot up nearly 3,000 percent to 809,000 visitors.

Target and Wal-Mart lead department store sites

• As multichannel retailers continue to develop their online strategies, increasing numbers of consumers are frequenting department store sites.
• Target Corporation led the category with nearly 42 million visitors (up 35 percent), followed by Walmart.com with nearly 40 million visitors (up 54 percent) and JCPenney Sites with 18 million visitors (up 37 percent).
• Traffic also increased at Sears.com (up 66 percent to 15.4 million visitors), Kohl’s Corporation (up 58 percent to 12 million visitors) and Kmart.com (up 83 percent to 9.3 million visitors).