Hitwise

Who pulled more sales on Thanksgiving weekend? In this short and colorful data sheet, we break down which retailers got the most traffic, transactions and conversions on Thanksgiving, Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

Has Groupon's ship sailed? With its IPO pending, the group-buying leader has seen traffic decline nearly 50 percent since its peak in the second week of June. That's according to new Hitwise data, excluding mobile and app specific traffic.

The popularity of flash-sale websites with limited time and inventory offerings has grown exponentially over the past two years. Online shoppers’ love for the thrill of snagging designer clothing, home décor, travel and even wine has caused visits to the category to increase 368 percent in July 2011 as compared to the same month two years ago and 109 percent one year ago. 

Amazon's website visits top a new report from Experian Hitwise that shows search terms for the custom category "Retail 500," ranked by largest increase for the week ending July 23 vs. the week ending July 16.

As we prepare for the 2011 holiday season, online and offline data confirm what we already know: consumers willingness to spend this year is up in the air.

After a running start, Google+'s growth may be slowing down a bit. A report from Experian Hitwise found both traffic and users' average time on the social network fell last week in the U.S.

Over the past three weeks, there's been a spate of discussion in the search engine marketplace about the reduced quality of Google's natural search results. The discussion has centered around two key issues:

Daily-deal websites are growing in popularity, as bargain-hungry holiday shoppers look for fun and easy-to-give items. Groupon is the most popular of the bunch, accounting for 79 percent of all U.S. group-buying site visits according to Hitwise and comScore.

Part two of this series examines what impact social media will have on retail going forward. In particular, opportunities to bridge online and offline customer experiences in order to seamlessly integrate multiple touchpoints and selling channels are identified.

In the final installment of this three-part series on how multichannel merchants should adjust their marketing budgets to account for an influx of Web traffic and buyers, this week I continue with my list of online programs that make sense to invest your resources in.