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Wal-Mart And Amazon Battle It Out For Top Holiday Deals

Let the chaos begin, the holiday shopping season has officially arrived.  While the world is an economic battle, another battle is brewing between many online retailers, most specifically between Amazon & Walmart.  Last Friday, millions of people started their holiday shopping, lining up to get their hands on some of the best deals around.  It turns out though that many skipped the lines and did their shopping exclusively online.

Data from Experian Hitwise shows that Walmart.com took the top spot for sales on Thanksgiving Day, while Amazon.com had the biggest revenue for Black Friday.  Unfortunately, Experian Hitwise said that among the top 500 online retail stores, the number of U.S. visits were down 15% on Thanksgiving Day compared to  the same day last year.  Online traffic on Black Friday was also down nearly 4% compared to 2008. 

Walmart received 15% of traffic amongst the top 500 Retail websites, which would mark the fifth year in a row that the company was the top visited site on Thanksgiving.  Hitwise release other statistics about Thanksgiving Day, including: 

-Amazon.com was the second most visited with 12.41% of visits followed by BestBuy.com with 6.22%. Target.com was the fourth most visited with 5.63% followed by Sears with 3.78%.

 

– Among the top 20 sites visited on Thanksgiving Day 2009, Old Navy saw the largest increase in visits compared to 2008 with a 59% increase, Amazon saw a 30% increase YoY and Target saw a 28% increase. Walmart had a 9% increase and the Apple Store site saw an 8% increase.

 

– Walmart was the top site to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Thanksgiving Day 2009 with an 11% increase in traffic compared to 2008. Best Buy and Target received the second and third most traffic from Black Friday sites. Facebook received the largest increase in visits YoY with a 671%.

 

– According to Akamai, global retail traffic peaked on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day (11/26/09) at 5,732,966 visitors per minute at around 2pm EST.  On the same day, North America traffic peaked at 4,095,242 visitors per minute at around 10pm EST.

When it came to Black Friday, the company said:

– The top visited Retail Website on Black Friday 2009 was Amazon receiving  13.55 % of U.S. visits among the top 500 Retail Web sites. This is the second year in a row that  Amazon was the top visited site on Black Friday.

 

– Walmart was the second most visited with 11.18 % of visits followed by Target.com with 5.65%, BestBuy.com with 4.62%. followed by Sears with 2.95%.

 

– Among the top 20 sites visited on Black Friday 2009, The Apple Store saw the largest increase in visits compared to Thanksgiving day 2009 with a 110% increase,  Staples  saw a 47% increase YoY and Dell saw a 40% increase. Amazon had a 9% increase.

 

– Walmart was the top site to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Black Friday 2009 with a 32% increase in traffic compared to 2008. BestBuy and Target received the second and third most traffic from Black Friday sites. Among the top 10 sites to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Black Friday, Target  received the largest increase in visits YoY with 110%.

Both Amazon & Walmart were expected to be the top contenders when it came to holiday Internet sales for 2009.  It should be interesting to see what happens in the next few weeks leading up towards the Christmas Holiday.