CHICAGO, Nov. 23 /PRNewswire/ -- ShopLocal(TM), the leader in multi-channel shopping and marketing services, today reported a combined 84 percent rise in traffic on top retailers' online circular sites over last year's online activity on Wednesday, Nov. 21 and Thanksgiving Day as consumers prepared for their Black Friday shopping. ShopLocal's indicators from earlier in the month showed a slow start to the holiday shopping season, but strong page view activity and efforts by retailers to lure customers on Black Friday paid off in the form of greater numbers of shoppers seeking limited-time, 'door buster' deals.
Consumers' activity increased on the retailers' online circular sites as early as nine a.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 21, and peaked from nine p.m. to ten p.m. on Thanksgiving Day with a total of almost 267 million page views*, due in part to earlier store opening hours, increasingly savvy, research-minded consumers and the ever-increasing appeal of Black Friday shopping excursions. Significant Black Friday promotions drew visitors to circular sites; during the peak hour, visitors viewed 10.9 million pages, an increase of 89 percent versus last year.
"Consumers waited to start their holiday shopping and were savvier this year, checking out the special promotions and deals on retailers' circular ad sites before fighting the crowds on Black Friday," said Vikram Sharma, CEO of ShopLocal. "The huge growth in online traffic is a reflection of the dramatic increase in use of the Internet by retailers and consumers related to shopping in their local stores."
Retailers began discounting hot items and offering special promotions well in advance of Black Friday this year, but day-of sales events, which are searchable on the Web and powered by ShopLocal's SmartCircular(TM) technology, still held out some pleasant surprises for consumers.
One surprise was the placement of the newest introduction to the iPod family in retail promotions. The iPod Video Nano, ranked highly in the list of most-searched-for items, ran a distant second to discounted laptops, flat panel TVs, GPS systems and digital cameras in Black Friday advertisements.
* As measured by Web Trends, a ShopLocal partner in real-time marketing analysis.
About ShopLocal
ShopLocal, the leader in multi-channel shopping services, offers a complete suite of solutions connecting retailers and consumers online and in-store. The company's consumer Web site, ShopLocal.com, provides users with choice and control in their shopping experience by offering the most comprehensive selection of timely online and in-store offers on one easy-to-use site. With ShopLocal.com, consumers can find millions of products and up-to-date weekly sales, deals, and coupons for consumer electronics, apparel, groceries and more.
ShopLocal's customers include Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, CVS and Sears. ShopLocal powers multi-channel shopping for hundreds of newspaper Web sites and other leading local and shopping sites, such as Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Arizona Republic, Google and SuperPages.com. ShopLocal is owned by Gannett Co., Inc. , Tribune Company , and The McClatchy Company . For more information, visit http://www.shoplocal.com/.
ShopLocal, ShopLocal.com, SmartCircular, SmartCatalog, SmartMedia and SmartDelivery are trademarks and Eva the Shopping Diva is a service mark of ShopLocal. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
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