Sam OliverAccording to new data from Experian Hitwise, overall Cyber Monday Web traffic was down 9 percent among the top 500 retail sites in the U.S. But Apple bucked the trend, with a nearly three-quarter increase since 2008.
Apple's increase is especially noteworthy because the largest increase among the top 20 Web sites tracked by Hitwise was Staples, which spiked 61 percent in Web traffic compared to 2008. It was followed by Barnes & Noble, which grew 46 percent in 2009.
The top Cyber Monday Web site, as it has been since 2006, was Amazon. The online retailer continued to grow, adding another 44 percent in visits over 2008. More than 15 percent of all online traffic of the top 500 retail sites went to Amazon.
Coming in second was Walmart with 9.54 percent of all top 500 traffic, followed by Target (5.16 percent), Best Buy (3.56 percent), and JC Penney (2.58 percent). Sites that decreased in traffic since 2008 were Home Depot, down 29 percent, and Overstock.com, which dropped 25 percent.
Cyber Monday is a marketing term coined by the retail industry in 2005 designed to grow online sales. It has been called the single largest day for the purchase of electronics online.
Hitwise also found that social Web sites like Facebook and Twitter drove traffic to top retailers Amazon, Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Toys R Us. The number of users relying on Facebook to find online deals grew 36 percent, while Twitter traffic increased 15 percent.
Apple offered modest discounts on various accessories for its Cyber Monday sale. Major products like MacBooks and iPods were not discounted.
Though Apple did not crack the top 20 for Cyber Monday, Black Friday was particularly strong, as the Mac maker was one of only five retail Web sites that surpassed 4 million unique visitors. Last Friday, Apple saw 39 percent year-over-year growth in Web site traffic.
Wesley Hilliard
Marko Zivkovic
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Andrew O'Hara
17 Comments
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Does it count if I make a relevant comment?
I went to Apple's online store on Monday, but since we already have all the Macs, iPods and iPhones we need, I ended up buying my Finnal Cut Studio upgrade at smalldog.com since Apple didn't have it discounted and Smalldog did.
Yes- the traffic may have been high but did anyone actually buy?
We all went looking to buy the black or white morphie battery pack but Apple only discounted the red one- go figure by 10%?
Again - there may have been traffic both days but did anyone actually buy from stingy Apple? Amazon had real discount of 20 - 40%. I bought an LG blu-ray player at 50% off for $99! Who bought the Magic Mouse for $5 off? $5 will barely get you a round trip on the NYC subway.
Yes- the traffic may have been high but did anyone actually buy?
We all went looking to buy the black or white morphie battery pack but Apple only discounted the red one- go figure by 10%?
Again - there may have been traffic both days but did anyone actually buy from stingy Apple? Amazon had real discount of 20 - 40%. I bought an LG blu-ray player at 50% off for $99! Who bought the Magic Mouse for $5 off? $5 will barely get you a round trip on the NYC subway.
Well if traffic is way up, you'll likely see greater sales than usual. Just depends on sales of what.
At least the article lays out where Cyber Monday came from, it was a made up marketing concept, l recall that it still didn't make the top 5 online shopping days last year. It probably did this year if the gains were that great, but that might be because of more aggressive promotion of the idea and more aggressive sales.
I did happen to order some office supplies that day, but I didn't order anything from Apple, their products or related accessories. Unless you count toner for a printer whose use is maybe 20% from a Mac.