Online Retail Sales--Direct Marketing, Mail Order, E-commerce News

Direct Marketing, Mail Order, and E-commerce News from the National Mail Order Association

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ONLINE RETAIL REPORT CARD:

HIGHEST CONVERSION RATES AMONGST NON-BRICK-AND-MORTAR RETAILERS,

NEW YORK- Nielsen//NetRatings, the global standard for
Internet audience measurement and analysis, released the first
Internet retail report card today from the MegaView Online Retail
service. The report card highlights the top 10 online retailers ranked
by sales conversion rates, and top 15 product categories ranked by
average order size during February 2005. Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView
Online Retail service tracks online consumer retail activity and
purchasing behavior, and offers marketers competitive benchmarking,
dollar spending insights and buyer conversion rates.

Nielsen//NetRatings found that among the top 10 online retailers
ranked by conversion rates in February 2005, only Coldwater Creek has
a significant brick-and-mortar presence. The remaining nine retailers
are comprised of a television shopping network, catalogs and
online-only retailers.

Table 1. Top 10 Online Retailers Based on Conversion Rate, February 2005
+----------------------+----------------------+
| eCommerce Site       | Conversion Rate (%) |
+----------------------+----------------------+
| QVC                  |         16.3         |
| Lands' End           |         14.8         |
| sportsmansguide.com |         13.5         |
| FTD.com              |         13.4         |
| llbean.com           |         13.4         |
| Amazon               |         12.8         |
| Coldwater Creek      |         12.7         |
| eBay                 |         12.3         |
| Yahoo! Shopping      |         12.1         |
| proflowers.com       |         11.8         |
+----------------------+----------------------+
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Online Retail, April 2005

QVC marked the highest conversion rates out of approximately 117
online retailers, turning 16.3 percent of its site shoppers into
purchasers. Lands' End followed by converting 14.8 percent of its
visitors into buyers, with Sportsman's Guide ranking third by
converting 13.5 percent. The average conversion rate is 4.9 percent
among the top 100 retailers, as reported in the MegaView Online Retail
service.

"Brick-and-mortar retailers are noticeably absent among the top
performers in online sales conversion rates. While traffic is high to
popular brick-and-mortar Web sites, visitors are often researching
purchases to be made offline," said Heather Dougherty, senior retail
analyst, Nielsen//NetRatings. "Customers visiting a catalogers' Web
site already have the information they need about the product, and
therefore, are ready to make an immediate purchase."

Table 2. Top 15 Online Retail Categories Based on Average Order Size, February 2005
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------+
| Product Category                       | Average Order Size (US$) |
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------+
| Computer Hardware                      |          584.47           |
| Event & Movie Tickets                  |          121.60           |
| Automotive                             |          119.23           |
| Office Supplies                        |          102.47           |
| Consumer Electronics                   |           99.12           |
| Child/Baby Care                        |           86.13           |
| Sporting Goods & Outdoor Activities    |           74.15           |
| Home & Garden                          |           69.99           |
| Shoes & Athletic Footwear              |           53.14           |
| Flowers, Greetings, & Specialty Gifts |           51.61           |
| Computer Software                     |           46.76           |
| Jewelry & Watches                      |           46.62           |
| Health/Wellness/Beauty                 |           45.94           |
| Apparel & Accessories                  |           44.68           |
| Toys, Games & Hobbies                  |           40.41           |
+----------------------------------------+---------------------------+
Source: Nielsen//NetRatings MegaView Online Retail, April 2005

About MegaView Online Retail Service
MegaView Online Retail service is based on the Nielsen//NetRatings'
MegaPanel(r), which provides retailers with the most comprehensive
intelligence on online consumers by linking past surfing behavior from
the panel's large sample with current opinions through real-time
surveys. By combining these survey results with the actual surfing
habits of the respondents, retailers and marketers are able to better
understand how consumers are spending online. MegaView Online Retail
is the third product introduced from MegaPanel(r), an online syndicated
suite of services that provides comprehensive Internet market research
for key vertical industries including financial services, search and
online retail.

About Nielsen//NetRatings
Nielsen//NetRatings, a service provided by NetRatings, Inc. (Nasdaq:
NTRT), is the global standard for Internet audience measurement and
analysis and is the industry's premier source for online advertising
intelligence with its NetView, AdRelevance, @Plan, WebRF, MegaPanel
and SiteCensus services. Covering 70 percent of the world's Internet
usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated Internet and
digital media research reports and custom-tailored data to help
companies gain valuable insight into their business. For more
information, please visit www.nielsen-netratings.com.
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