eShopping Index Shows Growth All Around

Tis the season for metrics. The companies that keep tabs on the Internet have released a flurry of statistics over the past couple of weeks, all of them with the same conclusion: e-commerce is growing still. Nielsen//NetRatings' Holiday eShopping index put on a few pounds, expanding by 20 percent year-over-year. eShopping visits have gone from 469 million for the week ending December 10, 2005, to 563 million in 2006. Cool stuff again rules the register: Toys/Video Games top the product category gainers list, growing by 49 percent with the help of Sony and Nintendo; Books/Music/Videos are close behind, increasing by 46 percent; and Consumer Electronics shoots up by 27 percent. The online holiday marketing parade is led by eBay, pulling 34.2 million unique visitors for the week. Amazon follows with 25 million visitors, and Wal-Mart hits third place with 13.9 million. Target (9.8 million) and Overstock.com (7.6 million) round out the top five. But it's not only the heavy hitters that are growing. Shopping comparison site Schwan's Home Service, a service that delivers frozen prepared meals to homes, also grew by 76 percent, upping its visitors from 224,000 to 390,000. Tag: Add to Del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit | Furl Bookmark Murdok: