To: Kimberly Lee who wrote (30882 ) 11/22/1999 1:48:00 AM From: Frederick Langford Respond to of 108040
Actual article that sent VSHP flying: Friday November 19 1:24 AM ET Internet Shoppers Favor Vitamins, Toys, Malls NEW YORK (Reuters) - With the holiday shopping season in full swing, Internet retailers offering vitamins or toys, as well as online malls, have enjoyed the biggest gains in traffic, according to a report released on Thursday. However, online auction site ebay.com, owned by eBay Inc. (NasdaqNM:EBAY - news), remained the most popular site, with 1,457 average daily unique visitors in the week ending Nov. 14, said Media Metrix, which tracks Internet audience traffic and advertising. The second most-popular retail site was Amazon.com, owned by Amazon.Com Inc. (NasdaqNM:AMZN - news), with 815. The Web site of VitaminShoppe.com, owned by VitaminShoppe.Com, Inc.(NasdaqNM:VSHP - news), saw the biggest growth in traffic, up 337 percent to 275 average daily unique visitors, the report said. It was followed by ToysRus.com, up 219.8 percent to 245, and ShopNow.Com, up 125.9 percent to 137 visitors. ShopNow.Com is owned by ShopNow.Com Inc. (NasdaqNM:SPNW - news), which became a publicly traded company in late September. In the fourth and fifth places were Buy.com, up 95.6 percent at 239, and eToys.com, owned by eToys Inc.(NasdaqNM:ETYS - news), up 79 percent at 221 average unique daily visitors. A unique visitor is an individual who accesses a Web site, even if the site is visited several times in a day. Media Metrix rival Nielsen/NetRatings, which released its own online shopping index earlier this week, said online toy retailers experienced the greatest traffic growth in the six weeks it measured ending Nov. 7, followed by online malls and electronics retailers. It said the top three toy sites each experienced increases of more than 100 percent in unique visitors during the month of October. KBKids.com jumped 246.3 percent, ToysRUs.com, owned by Toys ''R'' Us Inc.(NYSE:TOY - news), increased 121.4 percent and eToys.com gained 110.2 percent in unique visitors. In its report, Nielsen/Netratings said online retailers are especially nervous this season, ''because the prevailing thought is that 1999 is a time in which the holiday commerce world has run out of excuses. ''Last year, fingers were pointed at bad customer service as a reason for less-than-expected results,'' it said. ''In 1997, the reason for lower-than-expected projections was attributed to technological limitations and relative newness of the business. As the decade and millennium closes, there is a sense that the stakes are high and excuses will not be tolerated.''