About Hitwise
Hitwise is the leader in online competitive intelligence. Contact Hitwise to maximize your online marketing programs.
Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Dougherty - North America
Analyst Weblog
Category Archives: Holiday
Black Friday and Cyber Monday Predictions
November 02, 2009
Holiday projections are out and many are predicting a gloomy holiday season for retailers. The NRF forecasts a 1% decline growth in total retail sales for the 2009 holiday season, totaling $437.6 billion. The online channel is poised to fare... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:11 PM
| 
(0)
| 
(0)
In Categories Black Friday | Email | Holiday | Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
Resurgence of layaway programs continues
August 20, 2009
With many consumers remaining cautious with spending, retailers are turning to layaway programs again this holiday season to offer shoppers a payment plan to buy gifts. In 2008, layaway programs made a comeback as retailers hoped to encourage shoppers to... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:33 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Snuggie slays the Slanket online
January 28, 2009
An article about the success of the Snuggie in AdAge on Monday prompted me to compare the popularity of the two competing 'blankets with arms' - the Snuggie and the Slanket. I’m sure everyone has been plagued with the problem... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:57 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Holiday | Hot Products | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Circuit City to close all operations
January 19, 2009
On Friday, Circuit City announced that the company is closing 567 stores and will be laying off more than 30,000 workers. During the holiday season, despite being one the top visited websites among the Retail 500 on Thanksgiving (#5), Black... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:56 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Holiday Search Referral Growth
January 16, 2009
Search engines accounted for the largest share of upstream traffic to the Retail 500 ahead of cross-shopping on other retail websites and email during the holiday months of November and December. An integral part of every retailer’s marketing strategy; the... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:56 PM
| (2)
| (0)
In Categories Google | Holiday | Retail | Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds
The Season of Online Coupons
January 15, 2009
We all knew heading into the holiday season that consumers were going to be highly sensitive to price due to the economic conditions, paving the way for an increase in online deal seeking. Coupon websites experienced growth in visits throughout... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:40 PM
| (3)
| (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Economy | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Retailers still keen on search
December 23, 2008
Search remains king for retailers during this holiday season, with referrals from search engines responsible for driving the largest share of visits to the Retail 500. Last week, 30% of the upstream traffic to the Retail 500 was from search... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:44 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Google | Holiday | Retail | Search Engines
Hot Products - Toys and Electronics Categories
December 19, 2008
The short holiday season is rapidly coming to an end, but shoppers have not given up on looking for the hot products online. The Wii Fit continues to dominate the fast moving search terms list, when comparing the top searches... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:55 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Fast Moving Search Terms | Holiday | Hot Products | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Free shipping searches abound
December 18, 2008
Yesterday I posted about the uptick in traffic and searches related to coupons during this holiday season, but I would be remiss not to give special attention to one of the most popular online promotions of all – free shipping.... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:05 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Coupon traffic and searches continue to grow
December 17, 2008
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... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:52 PM
| (1)
| (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Holiday comparison - Brick & mortar vs. online-only retailers
December 12, 2008
One popular topic that comes up each year during the holiday season is comparing the amount of traffic to the websites of brick & mortar retailers to the online-only players. In order to perform the analysis, we created 2 custom... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:22 PM
| (0)
| (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Race is on for hot holiday products
December 05, 2008
Every holiday season we comb through our search data to find the season’s most popular products. Some are recurring favorites – like Ugg boots (much to my chagrin) and the Wii, but to help mix up the wish lists some... Continue reading...
Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:41 PM
| (1)
| (0)
In Categories Holiday | Hot Products | Retail
