Online retailers were visited by nine out of 10 U.S. Web users in December, according to comScore, which lists Amazon, Apple and eBay as the top ecommerce destinations during the month.
comScore reports that holiday shoppers “bombarded the Web” in December, looking for deals on Christmas gifts and shipping. In all, 194 million Americans visited retail sites, and nearly 40 million visited shipping sites during the month.
“With every year that passes, we consistently see online buying becoming a more pivotal part of consumers’ holiday shopping strategy,” says Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of comScore. “The 2012 season was no different, generating $42.3 billion in spending throughout November and December, which is up 14 percent from last year.”
Google topped the list of websites ranked by number of unique visitors, followed closely by Yahoo, Microsoft and Facebook. Amazon, at No. 5 on the list, was the most-visited of sites where people go to purchase items. Apple (No. 10) and eBay (No. 13) were the second and third most-visited ecommerce destinations in the top 50. Retailers Walmart, Target, Best Buy and Sears also made the list.
During December, Amazon saw 120.8 million unique visitors to Apple’s 83.6 million and eBay’s 77.7 million.
comScore notes that many consumers also took time during the holiday shopping rush to get a jump on tax preparation. Tax site traffic grew 31 percent in December to 6.7 million visitors—the biggest gain of any category.
