NIELSEN//NETRATINGS REPORTS SURGE IN INTERNET TRAFFIC AND ADVERTISING FOR VALENTINE’S DAY

Victoria’s Secret Leads Lingerie Sites with 65% Growth

NEW YORK, NY – February 11, 2000 - Nielsen//NetRatings, the Internet measurement service from Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTRT), today reported on online traffic activity and Internet advertising for leading up to Valentine’s Day. According to the Nielsen//NetRatings Valentine’s Day Index, popular categories included sites selling gifts, lingerie, gift certificates and flowers. Data for the past few weeks showed that a variety of advertisers leveraged Valentine’s Day to attract more eyeballs, that more women than men visited Valentine’s Day e-commerce sites, and that consumers, having recently experienced the holiday rush of 1999, were concerned about possible delivery and fulfillment issues.

Hot Categories Leading Up To Valentine's Day

Following quickly on the heels of the 1999 holiday shopping season, Valentine’s Day traffic patterns reveal that e-commerce is rapidly following the lead of traditional brick-and-mortar retailers by focusing on key selling seasons and events. According to Nielsen//NetRatings' Valentine's Day Index, the hottest categories with the largest increases in unique audience for this past week ending Feb. 6 were gifts (88% increase), lingerie (78% increase), gift certificates (77% increase) and flowers (32% increase) as compared to the previous week ending Jan. 30 (see Table 1).

"E-tailers are in attack mode, seizing the opportunity to attract online shoppers seeking the comfort, ease and efficiency of buying gifts for their loved ones on the Web," said Allen Weiner, vice president of analytical services at NetRatings, Inc. "The powerful marketing programs deployed by a number of retailers use ‘viral’ marketing – also known as ‘word of e-mail’ – to reach targeted consumers with special offers for this special day," continued Weiner.

Table 1
Nielsen//NetRatings Valentine’s Day Index
Percent Change in Unique Audience for the Weeks Ending Jan. 30 and Feb. 6

CATEGORIES	6-Feb	30-Jan	% change
GIFTS	384,996	204,835	88.0%
LINGERIE	530,190	297,723	78.1%
GIFT CERTIFICATES	259,351	146,240	77.3%
FLOWERS	617,899	467,937	32.0%
GREETINGS CARDS	6,804,102	5,246,643	29.7%
SUPER STORES	8,447,759	8,346,756	1.2%
JEWELRY	144,004	230,985	-37.7%

 

 

 

 

 

Note: This index is comprised of five representative sites for each category, and acts as a barometer for
gauging the level of interest at commerce sites during the holiday season.

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, February 2000

Online greeting card sites surged with a 30 percent increase in traffic as Web users sent electronic Valentines. Superstores, including Amazon, Buy.com, eBay and CDNow, sustained normal traffic flows (1.2%), although special holiday promotions were prominently displayed on their sites, suggesting Valentine's Day shoppers preferred niche gift sites to multi-purpose cyber stores.

"Valentine’s Day shoppers are beginning to see the value of buying jewelry and other luxury goods online with sites such as redenvelope.com and giftpoint.com. While the jewelry category experienced a decline this past week, sites such as miadora.com and buyjewel.com are seeing major upturns in audience traffic," said Weiner.

This year online retailers stand to profit handsomely from St. Valentine if early traffic patterns are any indication. Red hot sites for the past week with the largest increases in unique visitors in the index included RedEnvelope.com (123%), GiftPoint.com (103%), 1800Flowers.com (71%), VictoriasSecret.com (64.8%) and FTD.com (63.1%), as compared to the previous week (see Table 2).

Table 2
Nielsen//NetRatings Top 5 Sites* with Largest Unique Audience Growth

Site	30-Jan	6-Feb	% Change
redenvelope.com	60,520**	135,048	123.1%
giftpoint.com	66,499**	134,648	102.5%
1800flowers.com	212,945	364,357	71.1%
victoriassecret.com	284,049	468,004	64.8%
ftd.com	85,491	139,446	63.1%

 

 

 

 

*Note: These site rankings are compiled from the Nielsen//NetRatings Valentine’s Day Index
**These sites fall below minimum reporting standards and are therefore subject to a higher error rate.
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, February 2000

Advertising
Online shoppers began to see Valentine's Day advertising as early as January 10. In the weeks following the 10th, there was a large jump in the number of Valentine's Day-related ad impressions on the Internet. Valentine's Day advertising increased more than 240 percent during the week ending Feb. 6 as compared to the previous week ending Jan. 30. The top advertisers for Valentine’s Day included major portals looking to convert eyeballs to dollars, comparison shopping sites, and flower/candy/gift sites (see Table 3).

Table 3
Nielsen//NetRatings Top 20 Valentine’s Day Advertisers, Jan. 10 - Feb. 6

Site	Impression in Millions (000)
1800Flowers	16,608
LookSmart	13,495
DealTime	10,841
Deja.com	10,673
MSN	9,433
AltaVista	9,064
FTD	8,809
Dan's Chocolates	8,168
Go.com	7,794
PetSmart.com	7,633
ProFlowers	7,239
Next Card	5,284
Great Entertaining	5,066
Disney	4,755
CompuServe	4,462
Yahoo!	4,240
Della	3,963
BabyStyle	3,504
Ashford	3,488
Mammoth Golf	3,096

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, February 2000

Gender Bender

Although e-tailers specifically targeted men in their advertising, convention ruled as women proved to be the dominant shoppers for the weeks leading up to Valentine's Day (see Table 4).

"This trend is right in line with ongoing research from Nielsen//NetRatings that indicates women spend less time online, but seize the ability to accomplish time-consuming tasks quickly and efficiently on the Web," noted Weiner.

Table 4
Nielsen//NetRatings Valentine’s Day Index -- Shifting Demographics for the Past Five Weeks

	Week ending Feb. 6		Week ending Jan. 30		Week ending Jan. 23		Week ending Jan. 16		Week ending Jan. 9
	% Male	% Female	% Male	% Female	% Male	% Female	% Male	% Female	% Male	% Female
GIFT CERTIFICATES	18.8	79.9	27.7	72.3	33.2	66.8	33.6	66.4	29.8	70.2
GIFTS	46.1	53.9	30.4	69.6	24.6	75.4	43.9	56.1	23.7	76.3
GREETING CARDS	32.1	67.9	29.8	70.2	30.8	69.2	33.0	67.0	31.3	68.7
FLOWERS	43.8	56.2	41.5	58.6	36.8	63.2	45.4	54.6	28.5	71.6
LINGERIE	52.7	47.3	38.6	61.4	46.6	53.4	49.1	51.0	46.2	53.8
JEWELRY	47.5	52.5	14.6	85.4	28.0	72.1	43.3	56.7	36.5	63.5
SUPER STORES	51.3	48.7	51.2	48.9	50.3	49.7	50.6	49.4	51.4	48.5

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, February 2000

Women led the shopper's way at sites offering gift certificates, flowers, jewelry, gifts and greeting cards, while in this past week, more men found their way to lingerie sites.

Victoria’s Secret experienced a 65 percent increase in site traffic from the week of January 30 to the week of February 6. Of greater significance is that for the week of February 6, men accounted for more than 52 percent of traffic to lingerie sites.

"Men who might be embarrassed to walk into their local Victoria’s Secret or Frederick’s of Hollywood are much more at ease using the anonymity and privacy of the Web to buy gifts for women," said Weiner.

Delivery Issues

As seen during the 1999 holiday shopping season, consumers proved once again that they are not procrastinators when it comes to buying gifts online. While some companies guaranteed on-time deliveries for February 14, a surprising number of companies did not address Valentine's day shipping and simply asked customers to abide by their standard delivery timetables, forcing buyers to plan their purchases for loved ones in advance.

The Nielsen//NetRatings audience measurement service collects data from more than 41,000 panelists as they use the Internet. The Nielsen//NetRatings panel is the largest media research sample of at-home Internet users currently under measurement. Nielsen//NetRatings uses unique technology capable of measuring both Internet use and advertising to provide the most timely, accurate and comprehensive Internet usage data and advertising information in the industry.

# # #