Analyst Weblog
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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Posted by Hitwise Research at 03:34 PM
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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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Posted by Hitwise Research at 07:43 PM
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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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 10:58 AM
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In Categories Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds | Valentine's Day
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:19 AM
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In Categories Black Friday | Coupons | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
With Facebook ranked as the #1 website in the US, retailers have been increasingly turning to social media to communicate with current and potential customers, particularly during the critical holiday shopping season. As a traffic driver, the Social Networking and... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:22 PM
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In Categories Facebook | Google | Holiday | Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds | Social Media | Social Networking
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:46 PM
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In Categories Appliances & Electronics | Black Friday | Cyber Monday | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
Visits to retailers have been higher each week during the 2010 holiday season as compared to last year (8% increase for the week ending Dec. 18th, 2010) and coupled with the higher traffic are searches for coupons and promotional codes.... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:07 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Coupons | Cyber Monday | Holiday | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:15 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Holiday | Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:17 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:40 PM
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In Categories Facebook | Google | Group Buying | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:00 PM
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In Categories Fashion | Luxury | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:43 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Coupons | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:45 PM
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In Categories Cyber Monday | Fast Moving Search Terms | Holiday | Hot Products | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | Video Games
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:36 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Cyber Monday | Email | Holiday | Retail | Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:11 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Email | Holiday | Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds | Thanksgiving
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:33 PM
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In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:37 AM
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In Categories Bing | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:51 PM
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In Categories Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:43 PM
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In Categories Retail | Shopping and Classifieds | fashion
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 01:04 PM
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In Categories Fashion | Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:06 PM
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In Categories Email | Mother's Day | Retail | Search Engines | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:40 PM
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In Categories Retail | Search Strategies | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:03 PM
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In Categories Economy | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 10:32 AM
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In Categories Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:57 PM
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In Categories Holiday | Hot Products | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:56 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:56 PM
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In Categories Google | Holiday | Retail | Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:40 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Economy | Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:55 PM
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In Categories Fast Moving Search Terms | Holiday | Hot Products | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:05 PM
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In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:52 PM
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In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:22 PM
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In Categories Holiday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 07:51 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:34 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Economy | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
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...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:55 PM
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In Categories Black Friday | Retail | Shopping and Classifieds
Last week, several retailers announced steep same-store sales (based upon physical stores open for at least a year) declines in September as compared to previous years. Additionally, other economic indicators such as the Deloitte Research’s Leading Index of Consumer Spending... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 03:34 PM
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In Categories Economy | Shopping and Classifieds
This week MSN announced the launch of SearchPerks!, a new promotion that rewards visitors that use Live Search with tickets redeemable for various prizes. The latest endeavor is separate from the Live Search Cashback rebate program launched a few months... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:21 PM
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In Categories Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds
One sector that we continually monitor here at Hitwise for insight into consumer behavior is traffic to the Shopping & Classifieds category. Given the current economic climate, price sensitivity is driving more visits to the websites of online retailers, coupons,... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 09:28 AM
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In Categories Search Engines | Shopping and Classifieds
As an avid NYC walker I am fascinated by shoes that are designed to help you exercise – shoes that turn an ordinary walk into a ‘workout’. One of the first ones I learned about was the ‘MBT’ walking shoe,... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:46 AM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
Today the US Commerce Department reported a gain in retail sales for May 2008, attributing the increase in consumer spending (at least partially) to the tax stimulus checks that were sent out during the month. We have also been theorizing... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:54 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
Today I am speaking at the Internet Retailer conference at a session called 'New Frontiers: Marketing and Merchandising on Social Media'. Since the discussion could never be complete without a look at the traffic on social networks, I checked to... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 09:58 AM
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Earlier this week The Gap publically launched ‘universality’ across the websites of their four brands – linking them through navigation, a single shopping cart and shipping & fulfillment. Each of the brands certainly has a specific identity and target market,... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:12 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
On Sunday I presented at the eMetrics Industry Insights Day on high-level Internet behavioral trends. One trend that I discussed is the rise of consumers using the Internet to save money (even more so than usual!) through searches for coupons,... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:35 AM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
During last week’s broadcast of the Oscar awards, JCPenney launched the new American Living line (through a partnership with Polo Ralph Lauren Corp.) of apparel & home products. American Living is the biggest merchandise launch in JCPenney’s history, so I... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 04:38 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
The celebration of Valentine’s Day is an annual tradition that brings stars to the eyes of some and terror to the hearts of others. For those that love the holiday, planning for the big day presents a challenge for gift... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 05:20 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
Ticketmaster has purchased secondary market ticket seller TicketsNow.com (WSJ cites price of $265 million) in an effort to capture (and share with partner venues, artists, etc.) more revenue from ticket reselling. This move will help Ticketmaster compete more directly with... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 02:24 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
Rumors are circulating (again), that woot! has received an investment from Amazon. While this may just be speculation, it reminded me that several of my friends have been addicted to this website for some time. They diligently check woot! each... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 01:15 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
With the majority of standard shipping deadlines upon us from online retailers, traffic has increased for the websites of major shipping providers. For these websites, avoiding a site failure should be easy thanks to the predictability of the peaks. Historically,... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 06:45 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
The advent of consumer-generated content focused specifically on shopping has driven a significant amount of user reviews on a variety of blogs, retail sites, and comparison shopping engines. With the exception of some blogs, the majority of the reviewers lack... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:36 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
In case you were wondering what you would like as an elf, Office Max has brought back last year's popular microsite Elf Yourself. The website allows users to upload photos of up to 4 people to generate personalized, dancing elves... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 12:11 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
Traffic to the Alternative Payments Category is up 17% for the week ending Dec. 8, 2007 over same week during the previous year. The main driver of this growth was from the increase in traffic to Bill Me Later, which... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 01:10 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
On Tuesday, Dec. 4, I presented at Search Engine Strategies in Chicago on a panel titled "Shopping Search Tactics". I have included a high level summary of some of the key points from the presentation with some exclusive new analysis.... Continue reading...
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Posted by Heather Dougherty at 11:45 PM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds