Online Retailers See 29% Surge in `Black Friday' Visitors

New York -- Web traffic to online retailers on Black Friday -- the traditional start
of the holiday shopping season -- shot up 29% from a year ago, according to
new figures from Internet research firm Nielsen//NetRatings. The firm said
that its 100 representative online retailers brought in 17.2 million unique
visitors, up from 13.3 million a year ago. "While many shoppers headed out to
the stores over the weekend, the majority first turned to the Internet to check
prices and product availability," said Heather Dougherty, a senior retail analyst
with Nielsen//NetRatings. EBay was the top online retailer, with 9.5 million
unique visitors, followed by Amazon and Wal-Mart Stores, which drew 4.6
million and 3.4 million unique visitors, respectively. Target and BestBuy.com
rounded out the top five. Target, Wal-Mart and Circuit City, which offered deep
discounts on selected items on Friday,  saw traffic to their sites more than
double from the previous Friday. 
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