Nielsen Online reported that Web traffic from home and work to the Holiday eShopping Index increased 10% year over year on Black Friday, growing from 28.8 million unique visitors in 2007 to 31.7 million unique visitors in 2008 across more than 120 representative online retailers.


Consumer Electronics was the fastest growing product category on Friday ,increasing 219% from the previous Friday, November 21st. ShoppingComparison/Portals and Toys/Videogames took the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, with 83% and 73% Web traffic growth, respectively.

“Even with the weakening economy, an unstable stock market and a risingunemployment rate, Black Friday traffic to online retail sites grew at adouble digit rate this year,” said Ken Cassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online. “Consumers are continuing to shift their holiday shopping to the Web for the convenience of not having to fight the crowds and to further stretch shrinking budgets. The fact that the Shopping Comparison/Portals category was the second fastest growing segment indicates that consumers continue to see the Web as the source for determining the best deals and prices of the season, which we expect to be top of mind for holiday shoppers this year.”


Cassar continued, “With the season underway and consumers back at work, it will be interesting to compare activity for Cyber Monday and to see if the initial growth rate wesaw on Black Friday holds up throughout the holiday shopping season.”