That darkest of shopping days

At-home web traffic to more than 120 representative online retailers grew 10 percent year over year on Black Friday, garnering 21.2 million unique visitors compared with 19.2 million last year, Nielsen Online reported today (pdf), reports MarketingCharts.

The growth in Nielsen Online Holiday eShopping Index was similar to last year's, when it increased 12 percent year over year on the day after Thanksgiving, Nielsen said.

Category Growth

Consumer Electronics was the fastest growing product category week over week on Friday, increasing 235 percent from November 16 to November 23:

Computer Hardware/Software took the No. 2 spot with 121 percent traffic growth, followed by Shopping Comparison/Portals with 95 percent growth.

Black Friday Top Online Retail Destinations

InterActiveCorp led the top online retail destinations on Black Friday with 5.3 million unique visitors, followed by Amazon and Wal-Mart.com with 5.1 million and 3.6 million unique visitors, respectively.

When the top 10 online retail destinations are ranked by week-over-week growth, the consumer electronics retailers take the lead with Best Buy and Circuit City increasing 292 percent and 257 percent, respectively. Sears rounds out the top three, increasing 211 percent from one Friday to the next.

Black Friday Online Conversations and Consumer Perceptions

To gauge and define consumer perceptions about Black Friday, Nielsen Online created a Brand Association Map (BAM), based on online discussions in blogs and online forums between October 1st and November 20, 2007.

Key findings:

• Shopping incentives were a key part of Black Friday discussion: consumers avidly discussed advertisements, specials, and discounts as they anticipated deals and hoped to benefit from early holiday shopping.
• Consumers discussed tactical issues (what to buy and where) as well as the overall shopping experience (crowds).
• Specific retailers, such as Macy's, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target, and Sears, as well as products such as consumer electronics, were discussed. Plasma TV's and to a lesser extent Nintendo Wii's were associated with Black Friday, as consumers hoped to benefit from sales and promotions. Elmo was the only specific toy to emerge with any frequency in Black Friday discussion.

About the Nielsen Online Holiday eShopping Index: The Index comprises 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.