9 in 10 American internet users (or 194 million Americans) visited a retail site in December, according to [download page] the latest data from the comScore Media Metrix. Retail sites represented 5 of the top 10 fastest-growing site categories in December, led by flowers, gifts, and greetings sites (+24% to 32.2 million unique visitors) and jewelry, luxury goods, and accessories sites (+18% to 29.1 million unique visitors).
The other retail site categories making the top-10 fastest-growing list were:
- Music sites, up 17% to 11.6 million total unique visitors;
- Fragrances/cosmetics sites, up 17% to 19.7 million; and
- Sports/outdoor sites, up 10% to 41.6 million.
Shipping sites also saw marked growth, with 22% more unique visitors from the previous month, up to 39.6 million. Interestingly, despite all the increased traffic to retail and shipping sites associated with the rise in holiday e-commerce, tax sites actually saw the fastest month-over-month growth, of 31%. Still, those sites pulled in just 6.7 million visitors, a fraction of the number who visited retail sites.
Other Findings:
- Google Sites, as per usual, ranked #1 among the leading web properties in December with 191.4 million unique visitors, up from 190.8 million in November. The rest of the top 5 properties – Yahoo! Sites, Microsoft Sites, Facebook, and Amazon – each also retained their rankings from November.
- ShareThis kept its top ranking among Ad Focus entities, reaching 95.2% of Americans online, relatively unchanged from November.
- Among ad networks and buy-side networks, Google Ad Network was first again with 93.9% reach, while among DSPs, SSPs and ad exchanges, Rubicon Project REVV Platform reached 96.7% of Americans online, virtually unchanged from the previous month.
