Amid the trying financial climate, consumers are still doing some holiday shopping, although in more moderation than last year. For the week ending Dec. 13, 2008, the market share of visits to the Retail 500 represented 4.28% of all internet visits, down 6% from the same week last year (week ending Dec. 15, 2007). The websites of the brick & mortar retailers were impacted the most again last week, with visits declining 8%, while visits to the web-only retail category were flat year-over-year. The real surprise is that the visits to comparison shopping tools have been down throughout the holiday season as compared to last year, a category that should be well-positioned to help shoppers save money. Instead, many are opting to seek out deals directly from the retailers on coupon websites, driving up the market share of visits 25% as compared to last year, while comparison shopping tools dropped 15% during the same time frame.

Consumers are increasingly aware of the coupon and promotion codes that are available online, causing searches for coupons to surge. Last week, searches for generic coupons (no inclusion of brand) jumped 172% from the same week last year and searches for retailer-specific coupons increased 34%. During the busy weeks of Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, searches for retailer-specific reached their highest share of searches in the past 3 years. Another driver of growth is likely to be the disparaging news in the media about declines in retail sales and plenty of coverage about the need for heavy promotional activity to drive sales. Shoppers may be pulling back spending, but they still love a bargain.

The growth of the coupon websites is significant due to their role as an effective driver of traffic to online retailers. Last week, 24% of the traffic from the coupon websites visited the Retail 500 and 13% visited the Retail Chain 100 (a subset of the Retail 500 which includes the websites of brick & mortar retailers). Much of this traffic can be attributed to the fact that consumers have a few retailers in mind where they would like to make a purchase and then search to find any promotion codes that may be available.