Press Release

The Real Story of Cyber Monday: A View Into Actual Consumer Engagement

December 12, 2008--BERKELEY, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--ClickStream Technologies’ standing panel of U.S. adult internet users showed that internet retail sites received a dramatic increase in average clicks per visitor on Cyber Monday. Activity increases ranged from 500% to 14,500% times the average daily clicks per site.
An obvious downward trend was observed in the number of visitors to the top retail websites (based on Clickstream Technologies' own internal data) from August through October 2008, while a significant increase was seen in November. For most of these websites from August to December — even for those websites with a decline in visitors — there was an increase in average clicks per user.
On Cyber Monday, the most popular shopping websites received substantial increases in average clicks per user, suggesting that users were more engaged shoppers on that particular day. WalMart.com had the biggest increase with more than 145 times the average clicks per user. The top two shopping websites on Cyber Monday (Amazon.com and eBay.com) were on the bottom of the list for average user clicks per site.
On Cyber Monday, comparison shopping websites were big players in the public’s hunt for a better deal. When visiting the most popular comparison shopping websites (Shopping.yahoo.com, Shopzilla.com, and Nextag.com), users most frequently left those sites to visit Amazon.com and Target.com, with 5% of all internet users switching to one of these sites.
For the most popular websites, ClickStream analyzed the unique features of their checkout processes, revealing that 33-60% of consumers dropped out of the checkout process before confirming their purchase. Walmart.com and Target.com’s sites had the most successful purchase rate with a loss of 33% and 50% respectively, compared to Amazon.com’s 57% and eBay.com’s 60%. Also in the confirmation process, Walmart.com and Target.com had lower average clicks per user, compared to Amazon.com and eBay.com. This might indicate that fewer clicks in the checkout process result in a higher purchase rate.

Checkout-to-Purchase Process

% of Users Visiting Retail Websites

Additional Findings

• Most users leaving Cybermonday.com switched to Etoys.com, Walmart.com, or Sonystyles.com
  
• Amazon.com, eBay.com, and Walmart.com were the most visited retail sites on Cyber Monday
• Shopping.yahoo.com, Coolsavings.com, and Nextag.com were the most visited comparison shopping websites on Cyber Monday
• From June to December, October was the lowest month in visitors for all retail websites tracked
• Walmart.com, Target.com, and Circuitcity.com saw the biggest increase in November compared to other retail websites during the previous 5 months

Background/Methodology

From May to December 2008, ClickStream Technologies recruited 2,400 U.S. internet users over the age of 18 to complete a survey and install ClickSight®, a patent-pending data collection tool which records click-level user behavior data across all browsers and applications. In addition, ClickSight® reports on dozens of data points relating to the user’s computer configuration. Over 6 months of click data (more than 350 million user actions) was collected by ClickSight® and segmented by each user’s self-reported survey responses that were collected at the time of recruitment, which included basic demographic and attitudinal information.

Additional Notes

• Margin of error +/- 1.88% for general population topics.
• Participants were recruited through a market research firm in which compensation was exchanged for completing online surveys.
• Sample is self-reported (in initial recruitment survey) as 65.5% female, 34.5% male; 48.4% married; 76.4% Caucasian, 5.5% African American, 1.58% Asian, 1.73% Hispanic.

About ClickStream Technologies

Founded in 2003, ClickStream Technologies provides technology usage metrics to the world’s largest software and hardware developers. Our data-collection tools and standing panel of U.S. internet users create a rich, dynamic feedback loop between the people who develop technologies and the people who use them.
ClickStream's products and services deliver business value in every facet of the software cycle from product planning and development to solution deployment, employee productivity and e-learning. For more information about ClickStream Technologies, please visit www.clickstreamtech.com

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