A more archaic
manner of shopping

December 10 was the biggest online holiday shopping day so far (as of Dec. 15), with 34.9 million unique visitors to the Nielsen Online Holiday eShopping Index, outpacing Cyber Monday by 7 percent, according to Nielsen Online, reports MarketingCharts.

According to Nielsen data for the week ended December 9:

• Visits to the Index increased 10 percent year over year for the week.
• The fastest-growing product categories for the week:
  • Flowers & gifts - 29 percent
  • Beauty - 11 percent
  • Shoes - 10 percent
• Top online retailers for the week:

• The fastest-growing online retailers for the week:

• Retail goods & services advertising in the week (Nielsen Online, AdRelevance, U.S.):
  • eBay was No. 1 advertiser in the retail goods & services industry with 1.4 billion image-based impressions
  • Auctions was the largest retail goods & services industry segment, driven primarily by eBay

(See related story: 'Green Monday' Sets New Record with $881MM in Holiday Online Sales)

About the Nielsen Online Holiday eShopping Index: The Index is composed of over 120 representative online retailers across 12 categories and acts as a barometer to gauge the level of activity at online shopping destinations during the holiday season.

The Index illustrates increased shopping activity through category growth.