Cyber blues

Pre-Christmas online shopping in the US and Europe has been a disappointment to those who hoped that the world’s consumers hadn’t stopped spending but were just sitting at home and buying online. 

Last week’s Cyber Monday, according to HitWise Intelligence, showed a 1% decrease in the number of visitors to the top 500 retail web sites, year-on-year, the first reverse since shoppers started logging on. In the UK, ConScore reports that visit0rs to online retail sites were down 10% in November compared to the same month last year. France, Germany and Spain are reporting bigger drops.

Still, there are clear winners and losers in the cyberspace arena. Amazon.com’s traffic on Cyber Monday (December 1) was up a cool 21% this year over last and Walmart.com’s traffic was up 6%, according to HitWise. In fact, Amazon.com accounted for nearly 11% of  visits among the top 500 US Retail Web sites.  No prizes for guessing who was second. The world’s biggest cut-price emporium – Walmart.com – was in second place with 8.55% of visits followed by its rival Target.com with nearly 5%. In a downturn, online or off, consumers flock to discounters they know best.