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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Dougherty - North America

Analyst Weblog

Category Archives: Retail

Jason Wu Collection Drives Visitors to Target.com

February 08, 2012

Following mysterious tweets from @TargetStyle in early October, Target announced a partnership with fashion designer Jason Wu who became well-known after designing the 2009 Inaugural Ball gown for First Lady Michelle Obama. The official look book for was released online... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:39 PM | (0)
In Categories Retail

Post Holiday Traffic Boom

December 29, 2011

After a strong start over the Thanksgiving weekend, the traffic to the top 500 retail websites continue to increase every week throughout the 2011 holiday season as compared to last year. The highest increases year-over-year for daily traffic took place... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:02 PM | (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Cyber Monday | Holiday | Retail

Luxury Brand Report Studies New Online Trends

December 09, 2011

Every day, Experian Hitwise clients discover new trends and opportunities from our timely, insightful online consumer behavior database. We are happy to share these insights by having clients post their findings on this blog and today present analysis on the... Continue reading...

Layaway on Online Users’ Holiday Wishlist

December 06, 2011

The holiday season is fast approaching and there are numerous commercials heavily promoting layaway as an option for consumers. The share of searches for the portfolio of retail-related layaway terms peaked much earlier, the week ending October 22, 2011 and... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:24 PM | (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail

Retail traffic on Cyber Monday up 29%

November 30, 2011

On the heels of a very successful Black Friday, holiday shopping trends continue on an upward trajectory. On Cyber Monday, November 28th, total US visits to the Top 500 Retail websites increased 29% on Cyber Monday as compared to 2010... Continue reading...

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Retail traffic on Black Friday up 2%

November 26, 2011

Total US visits to the top 500 Retail websites increased 2% on Black Friday as compared to 2010 and received more than 173 million US visits. Traffic has increased each day leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday and the total... Continue reading...

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Retail traffic on Thanksgiving Day up 9%

November 26, 2011

Total US visits to the top 500 Retail websites increased 9% on Thanksgiving as compared to 2010 and received more than 176 million US visits. Traffic increased each day leading up to the Thanksgiving holiday and the total visits jumped... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Hitwise Research at 11:40 AM | (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Holiday | Retail | Thanksgiving

Pre-Black Friday retail traffic up 6%

November 23, 2011

Total US online visits to the top 500 retail sites are up 6% last week compared to same time last year. The custom category of 500 retail sites received 607 million total US visits last week and recorded its’ 3rd... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Hitwise Research at 02:17 PM | (0)
In Categories Retail

Huge Growth Continues for Flash Sales

August 09, 2011

The popularity of flash sale websites with limited time & inventory offerings have grown exponentially over the two years. Online shoppers’ love for the thrill of snagging designer clothing, home décor, travel and even wine have caused visits to the... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:13 PM | (0)
In Categories Flash Sales | Retail

Valentines eating their hearts … and fruit out

February 18, 2011

What were the popular Valentine’s Day gifts this year? To identify new trends, we’ve taken a look at the top gift related terms that sent traffic to the Experian Hitwise category of Flowers and Gifts leading up to the much... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 10:58 AM | (0)
In Categories Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds | Valentine's Day

Reaching affluent post holiday shoppers via email

February 03, 2011

Throughout the holiday season, email is always a key driver of traffic to retail websites used to communicate products and promotions both online and in-stores. The daily downstream traffic from web-based email to the Retail 500 throughout the holiday season... Continue reading...

Affluent shoppers love coupons too

January 20, 2011

Everyone loves a bargain and during the holiday season, searches for coupons and discount codes are always commonplace as shoppers quickly check for promotions from specific retailers before making a purchase (e.g. jcpenney coupons, proflowers coupon free shipping). Searches increased... Continue reading...

Retail traffic up throughout holidays

December 28, 2010

Despite fears after two previous lackluster seasons, initial holiday shopping reports are positive and consumers were back to spending again in 2010. One indicator of consumers’ intent to buy was increased traffic to the Retail 500 throughout the holiday season.... Continue reading...

Growing excitement online for Black Friday

November 24, 2010

Time to set the alarm clocks for 4am – Black Friday is almost here! Holiday shoppers are already researching the Black Friday promotions with searches around Black Friday up 31% and the share of visits to Black Friday websites up... Continue reading...

Retailers Captured Increased Black Friday Search Traffic

November 04, 2010

Websites that aggregate Black Friday deals from retailers always start to garner more attention in the weeks building up to the Thanksgiving weekend as consumers start to research upcoming holiday purchases. Early shoppers have already started seeking information around Black... Continue reading...

Black Friday Search Activity

October 27, 2010

It’s only almost Halloween, but holiday shopping season will soon be upon us. Every year the weekend that includes both Thanksgiving and Black Friday acts as the official kick-off for holiday shopping - even though some shoppers start as early... Continue reading...

Successful promotion from Groupon.com and The Gap

August 27, 2010

Over the past year, group buying websites have surged in both popularity and number. The weekly market share of visits to a custom category of 81 group buying websites & aggregators has increased 416% for the week ending August 21,... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:41 AM | (0)
In Categories Group Buying | Retail

Strength in numbers for group buying deals

April 23, 2010

Social commerce and group buying has become increasingly popular these days, on Tuesday, The New York Times reported that Groupon received an investment of $135 million dollars from Digital Sky Technologies. Additionally, last month, another group buying website, LivingSocial, received... Continue reading...

Luxury retailers rebounding online

April 14, 2010

The economic downturn in the US had a strong impact upon consumers and resulted in a decline in discretionary spending for nearly two years. However in March, retailers started to report increased sales, signaling that consumer confidence may be increasing... Continue reading...

Social network impact for retailers

January 29, 2010

Social networking has become the most popular activity online and visits to the category represented 13% of all US Internet visits in December. As the social networking audience continues to grow, the category has become a major source of traffic... Continue reading...

Affluent shoppers increase during holidays

January 28, 2010

Last week, during our Holiday Recap webinar, we examined how the demographic profiles of the visitors to the Retail 500 shifted in 2009 as compared to the previous year. When looking at the household income of visitors during the peak... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:40 PM | (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail | fashion

Searches aid offline purchases

December 16, 2009

Shoppers have plenty of gift buying left to do this season according to a survey released by the NRF which found that the average shopper had completed 46.7 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December, down... Continue reading...

Hot Products for 2009

December 10, 2009

Everyone is aware by now about the season’s hottest toy, Zhu Zhu Pets, especially after the brief scare regarding Mr. Squiggles toxicity (he has been fully exonerated). This year's other runaway hit and hard to find item is the Mindflex... Continue reading...

Online holiday shopping season underway

December 02, 2009

Holiday shopping is in full swing now that Black Friday and Cyber Monday are behind us… sort of. Overall, visits to the Retail 500 were down on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday as compared to last year. Visits declined... Continue reading...

Thanksgiving and Black Friday Seasonal Traffic Patterns

November 24, 2009

When you start hearing about doorbuster sales and stores opening at 5 am, it can mean only one thing – Thanksgiving and Black Friday are almost upon us again! Retailers started to promote pre-Black Friday sales as early as late... Continue reading...

Hunt is on for Retailer Promo Codes

November 11, 2009

Almost everyone loves a bargain and during the cost conscious holiday shopping season last year, discounts were more popular than ever. This year looks to be no exception for the discount hungry consumer with searches up 19% last week as... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:35 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Coupons | Cyber Monday | Retail

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...

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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:33 PM | (0)
In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Bing Shopping takes off

August 14, 2009

Microsoft recently announced a promotion to receive Double Cashback when consumers use Bing Shopping for searches and online purchases. Back in October of last year, I wrote about the initial success of the Cashback program to capture visits, so this... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:37 AM | (4) | (2)
In Categories Bing | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Amazon acquires Zappos.com

July 22, 2009

Amazon announced a deal today to acquire apparel and footwear retailer Zappos.com. The popular online retailer ranked 3rd last week among online retailers within the Apparel and Accessories category behind Victoria’s Secret and Old Navy. Both Amazon and Zappos.com are... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:51 PM | (0)
In Categories Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Online Sample Sales

June 12, 2009

Far safer than in the physical world where one can be easily bludgeoned by an elbow or shoe, online sample sales have continued to grow in popularity over the past year. Despite the poor economy, shoppers are flocking to the... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:43 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | fashion

CircuitCity.com Returns

June 03, 2009

After shutting down operations in January, CircuitCity.com is back after Systemax purchased the brand and domain at bankruptcy auction for $14 million. Systemax also owns TigerDirect.com and acquired CompUSA last year. CircuitCity.com was quickly relaunched last week to capitalize on... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 10:41 AM | (0)
In Categories Email | Retail

Michelle Obama’s Impact on Fashion

May 07, 2009

Ever since First Lady Michelle Obama hit the press circuit, there has been a fascination with her clothing choices. Mrs. Obama’s selections from retailers like J Crew, White House Black Market and Talbots, that are affordable and obtainable by many... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 01:04 PM | (0)
In Categories Fashion | Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds

Last Minute Mother’s Day Planning

April 30, 2009

The countdown is on for retailers looking to capture Mother’s Day spending with 10 shopping days left (11 if you are the same-day delivery type, if so – buy online, pick-up in-store is for you). According to the National Retail... Continue reading...

Who Benefits from Circuit City Closure Online

April 09, 2009

Back in January, Circuit City announced ceasing all operations, so we thought it would be interesting to analyze which retailers have benefited from their exit in the market. The brand Circuit City is very well known and drove a significant... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:40 PM | (2) | (1)
In Categories Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds

Retail traffic still down

February 26, 2009

Not much good news is comes out of the retail industry lately, consumer confidence is at an all-time low and retailers have reported steep declines in revenue. The economic downturn also continues to impact overall visits to online retailers, which... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:03 PM | (0)
In Categories Economy | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Guest Post - Opportunities with Coupon Promotional Terms

February 17, 2009

At Hitwise our clients are always discovering new trends within our data and then applying them to their own businesses. From those findings we frequently get asked by clients to let them post their findings to our research blog to... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 10:32 AM | (2) | (0)
In Categories 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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:57 PM | (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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:56 PM | (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...

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...

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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:44 PM | (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...

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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:05 PM | (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...

Tweet 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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:22 PM | (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...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:41 PM | (2) | (0)
In Categories Holiday | Hot Products | Retail

Traffic to Web-only retailers increases on Thanksgiving and Black Friday

December 01, 2008

The holiday shopping season is officially upon us and for some online retailers, prospects may be rosier than expected thanks to heavy promotional activity to encourage spending (and unfortunately also erode profit margins). On Thanksgiving, which has been the heaviest... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:51 PM | (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Retail traffic flat from 2007

November 25, 2008

Thanksgiving is almost here, time for turkey, pumpkin pie – and online shopping. Each year Thanksgiving is the peak traffic day to the Retail 500, particularly among many of the brick & mortar players, who use the online channel to... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:34 PM | (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Economy | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Black Friday countdown is on

November 21, 2008

With one week left to go, Black Friday (aka the day after Thanksgiving) is almost upon us. Historically, Black Friday sales were typically called After-Thanksgiving sales, but thanks to a growing number of websites leaking retailer promotions, Black Friday has... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:55 PM | (1) | (0)
In Categories Black Friday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds

Which product categories can weather the economic storm

October 23, 2008

Last week I wrote about the decline in visits to the websites of the top 500 retailers (ranked by traffic), a trend that continued for the week ending October 18, 2008 with a 5% year-over-year decline. This was the seventh... Continue reading...

Tweet Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:48 PM | (0)
In Categories Economy | Retail

Heather Dougherty

Director, Research at Hitwise.

About Hitwise

Category Archives: Retail

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