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Charles Schwab & Co., Inc.
Email Alert Internet Daily for Wednesday, December 26, 2001 by Frank Barnako CBS MarketWatch.com Sites tout strong online holiday sales Yahoo says visitors spent $10.3 billion online in the fourth quarter, beating analysts' expectations of 10% growth by more than eight times. Sales volume during the period running from Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve was up 86% compared to the same period last year, said Rob Solomon, vice president and general manager of Yahoo Shopping. He said bargain hunting was a major driver this season -- and one to which his site is catering after Christmas. Yahoo launched a post-holiday sales center Wednesday morning, through which it will offer discounts of 50% to 75% on items from Banana Republic, Old Navy and SonyStyle. Yahoo will also open an Unwanted Gifts showcase on its auction site. "Consumers can auction off their undesirable gifts and shop for products they really want," Solomon said. Separately, comparison shopping site BizRate.com's estimate of online shopping was similar to Yahoo's. During the weekend before Christmas, online shopping transactions were valued at $345 million, a gain of 73% compared to last year, BizRate.com said. Another interesting factoid: 52% of the shoppers were men. Meanwhile, Terra Lycos said results of its online shopping season confirmed early predictions that bargain hunting would be in the forefront of consumers' minds were right on target. "The tone and attitude of this season was different," said Kim Kluck, group product manager for Lycos Shopping. Moreover, she said there was plenty of evidence of cocooning. "The values of giving and gathering, or keeping family close together and safe at the holidays, emerged early," she said. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Media Metrix makes accuracy revisions Web audience-measurement company Jupiter Media Metrix has decided to separately report Web site visits generated by pop-up, pop-under and other "involuntary" means. Previously, the company's listings of Web properties included sites that use such advertising techniques. The decision to include such traffic in a new "promotional servers" category reflects adaptation to "the evolving Internet landscape and industry's needs," Media Metrix said. Sites in this category will not appear in any of the company's other measured categories, but it will include sites that sell email lists, opt-in email providers, image servers and promotional links. Media Metrix also said it would include elements of major portal sites in its popularity ranking of Web sites by category of content. This means traffic to the personal-finance, real-estate and travel portions of AOL Time Warner's America Online, Microsoft Corp.'s MSN, Yahoo and others will be reported as if they were stand-alone properties in those categories. The reason to do this, said Will Hodgman, president of the company's measurement business, is demonstrated by the finding that AOL properties ranked among the top 10 in 37 categories, while Microsoft and MSN-branded components were in the top 10 in 30 categories, and Yahoo's placed in 10 of the top 30 as well. "This will provide the most accurate snapshot and reliable performance metrics to meet the needs of all companies with a stake online," he said. ----------------------------------------------------------------- For late-breaking market news you can't afford to miss, go to http://CBS.MarketWatch.com/ ================================================================ LOGIN to access your account: https://investing.schwab.com/trading/start ---------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe or modify your Email Alert customization options, log in using the link below or copy and paste it into your browser's address window: https://investing.schwab.com/trading/start?SANC=EAMyAlerts ---------------------------------------------------------------- Notice: All email sent to or from the Charles Schwab corporate email system may be retained, monitored and/or reviewed by Schwab personnel. (0801-11478) Copyright 2001 CBS MarketWatch. All rights reserved. Commercial use or redistribution in any form, printed or electronic, is prohibited. Distribution by Quris, Inc.
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