Each retail holiday milestone day saw online traffic increases so far this season.

Amazon remained the top visited site among retailers for this past week ending Dec. 22, 2012 and was also the top visited site on Christmas Day. Walmart, Target, BestBuy and Macy’s round out the top 5 most visited sites. The chart below includes the top 10 results:

As tablets dominated our weekly top product search lists all holiday season it wasn’t surprising to see that the Apple iTunes site visits increased 193% and Apple.com visits increased 155% on Christmas Day 2012 vs. Christmas Eve 2012. The top product search terms sending traffic to the Apple.com site were iPod Nano, iPad Mini and iPad 4. Amazon.com visits increased 24% on Christmas Day 2012 vs. Christmas Eve 2012 as the top product search terms sending traffic to their site were Amazon Kindle, Kindle Fire and Kindle

Also seeing growth were gift card searches as the year-over-year total search volume for “gift card” variations increased 6.1% this year compared to 2011. The big spike in searches happened last week (as online shoppers passed shipping deadlines). Below are the top 10 gift card searches for last week.

We will continue to publish retail site data and insights through this holiday season.  Please leave us a comment below if you have any specific questions along the way.

UPDATE: The top 500 retail sites received more than 129 million total US visits on Dec. 26^th, an increase of 1% compared to 2011 and 12% compared to Christmas Day 2012. Amazon was the top site followed by Walmart, Target, BestBuy and Macy’s. JCPenney, QVC and The Home Depot all moved into the top 10 on the day after Christmas.

View the segment below to learn more about the importance of multi-channel marketing, and how we’re helping marketers connect with their customers in this dynamic and complex multi-channel environment.

Bill also shares details and data on the most visited retail Websites, as well as the most popular products this holiday season in comparison to years past.

View additional broadcast segments and videos featuring our thought leaders and subject matter experts.

This week’s key findings:

• More promotional mailings are being sent on weekends. The average weekend this holiday season had 43% promotional and 57% trigger campaigns. This past weekend, 47% were promotional campaigns, a 9% increase from the 43% average.
• Although still a small percentage of mailings, the number of campaigns offering gift cards in subject lines more than doubled compared to the same week in 2011.
• The top 5 ranked Websites, in the Hitwise retail 500 by visits share, for the week ending 12/8 were Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and J.C. Penney.
• “Shutterfly coupon codes free shipping” and “Harry and David free shipping” topped the free shipping search term list for the week ending 12/8.

Email highlights and trends:

Christmas day mailings:

Only one third of brands sent promotional mailings on Christmas day in 2011 and, of those, about half of the campaigns included an offer in the subject line. Christmas day offers for post holiday sales actually did quite well, receiving double the transaction rate compared to the mailings without offers (transaction rate of 0.17% with offer in subject line compared to 0.08% without an offer).

If you do plan to mail on Christmas, make sure that you mail early in the day:

Post-Christmas week:

Promotional mailings with offers also did well in the post-Christmas week (December 26th – 31st).

The transaction rate for mailings with offers in their subject lines was 0.09% compared to 0.08% for mailings without offers. Revenue per email was also higher for the campaigns with offers.

The 4:00 AM time slot received a much higher percentage of total revenue than its percentage of volume, making it the best time to mail.

Morning mailings also did well on post-Christmas days. The 4:00 AM time slot received a much higher percentage of total revenue than its percentage of volume, making it the best time to mail.

Online consumer insights:

While Peak Week last year, including Black Friday and Cyber Monday, saw big spikes in online retail traffic, there was another spike in traffic the day after Christmas. In 2011, there was a 3% increase in online retail traffic on Christmas and a 33% increase the day after Christmas.

^{Source: Experian Hitwise}

In 2011 we saw a spike on Christmas day occur in both social and search driving traffic to the Retail 500 sites.

As we noted last week, interest in gift cards peaks during the final weeks leading up to Christmas. While searches for gift cards last year reflect that pattern, it should also be noted that searches for gift cards during the week after Christmas were also at higher levels than those seen at the start of the season.

^{Source: Experian Hitwise}

We should not assume that the spirit of the holidays has lost its intensity, however. New means of communication might have replaced the old ones. Take Facebook, for example. American adults visiting Facebook went up from 6% in January 2008 to 35% in November 2010 and we notice a spike in traffic right around the 2009-2010 holiday season. It is a possibility that a share of this year’s holiday greetings might actually be delivered via Facebook instead of via mail or email, whether we “like” it or not!

For more information on Simmons DataStream weekly reporting of nearly 40,000 consumer variables, visit our website.

Store-branded gift cards are also a preferred Valentine’s present. In 2010, the percentage of adults who purchase retail-branded gift cards experienced a second spike around Valentine’s Day. However, as Valentine’s festivities taper off, so too do sales of retail-branded gift cards. In fact, between February 22 and October 18, 2010, the percent of adults purchasing retail-branded gift cards fell from 47% to 31%, a relative decline of 34%.

On average, American adults are almost 5 times more likely to purchase retail-branded gift cards than credit card-branded gift cards. Approximately 8% of adults have purchased credit card-branded gift cards in the past year compared with 39% who have bought retail-branded gift cards. However, purchases of credit card-branded gift cards fluctuate less. Last year, sales of credit card-branded gift cards rose steadily from 6% the week just before Thanksgiving to 10% just after Valentine’s Day.

If last year’s trends hold true this holiday season, we still have a few more weeks before consumers really start reaching for both retail- and credit card-branded gift cards.

For more information on Simmons DataStream weekly reporting of nearly 40,000 consumer variables, visit our website.

Looking at UK Internet visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites in the run up to last Christmas, Cyber Monday actually shared the pre-Christmas online shopping gold medal with Cyber Sunday. Sunday December 6th and Monday December 7th were the joint busiest days for online retailers in the run up to Christmas 2009, as the chart below illustrates.

Making the comparison to this year, that would mean that Cyber Sunday and Monday are likely to fall next week on December 5th and 6th. Last weekend was certainly the busiest of the pre-Christmas season so far this year, but the clue that we are not quite there yet is the comparison between traffic levels on Sunday (November 28th) and Monday (November 29th). For most of the year, UK Internet visits to retailers peak on the Sunday and drop off on the Monday, and only on Cyber Sunday / Monday do the traffic levels match. As the chart below illustrates, this didn’t happen this Sunday and Monday, implying that Cyber Monday is still to come – most likely next Monday.

Looking at the data on the most visited retail sectors on Sunday, department stores (which includes Amazon as well as the more traditional high street retailers such as John Lewis, Debenhams, etc.). After Auctions, which is dominated by eBay, the next biggest category is Apparel and Accessories, pointing towards the continuing popularity of online fashion retailers.

Stay tuned to the blog and our Twitter feed for the latest figures next week after the actual Cyber Monday.

As December approaches with alarming rapidity the start of the party season will be swinging into action quicker than you can say “Secret Santa”.

With office Christmas parties and large family gatherings on the way online searches will inevitably turn to alcohol and finding the best drink deals for the festive season. The chart below shows that visits to alcohol vendors always peak during November and December, making this the key time for vendors in the industry.

A look at last week’s data shows that visits to alcohol vendors are 49% up from the same week last year, indicating that this year will be a strong year for online retail in the food and drink sector.

Within the category the most popular alcohol vendor was Tesco Wine, with nearly 27% of visits to alcohol vendors in October.

Although Tesco Wine received the lion’s share of the traffic, in terms of spending time on the website, users spent much more time on competitors’ sites. Of particular interest is Naked Wines, which received 7.76% of all visits to the alcohol vendors in the category and had the second highest average visit time of 7 minutes 23 seconds.

Tesco Wine received quadruple the traffic that Naked Wines received during October, but visitors to the Naked Wines website stayed for two and a half minutes longer than on the Tesco Wines site on average.

Obviously with Christmas and New Year just around the corner, this is an important season for Champagne.

Search term variations would suggest that Lanson, Bollinger and Moet will be the top three Champagnes this Christmas.

In 2008, Simmons DataStream shows that Internet shopping reached a peak the week of December 22nd when 27% of U.S. adults bought something online. That same year, the seasonal upswing in online purchasing that resulted in that peak began the week of November 24th, the same week as Thanksgiving. However, in 2009, when online purchasing peaked the week of December 28th at 28%, the upswing began the week of September 28th, almost a full month before turkey day.

This year, it appears that the seasonal increase in online purchasing began almost three months ago, the week of August 9, 2010. Of course, we don’t believe that this is an indication that holiday shopping is seriously starting in August—at least for the vast majority of Americans. But it does suggest that, as far as online purchasing goes, the back-to-school and holiday shopping seasons have effectively merged with little to no break in between.

With consumer wallets still tight and online purchasing already on the rise, now may just be the time to begin seasonal deals.

For more information on Simmons DataStream weekly reporting of nearly 40,000 consumer variables, visit our website.