Online shopping increases 20% Thanksgiving Day

Black Friday was a good shopping day in the US for online retailers, but Thanksgiving may have been the best shopping day - at least so far - this holiday shopping season. According to metrics firm Hitwise, Thanksgiving day saw a 20% year over year increase in online shopping.

by Kristina Knight

By comparison, Black Friday traffic increase by 16%. Both numbers are strong and this could indicate a stronger than expected online shopping season.

"The increase in traffic to retail sites on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday signals a strong online holiday season," said Heather Dougherty, director of research at Hitwise. "The big box retailers are taking advantage of their sites to heavily promote both in-store offerings and online-only specials to drive traffic even while stores are closed to capture holiday dollars."

According to Hitwise this is the fourth year in a row that shopping has peaked on Thanksgiving day. This indicates that Thanksgiving day is actually the busiest online shopping day during the busy holiday season.

Online stores with the highest traffic should come as no surprise. Walmart.com accounted for more than 15% of retail traffic, followed by BestBuy.com (8.7%) and CircuitCity.com (7%). Amazon.com (7%) and Target.com (5%) also showed heavy traffic on Thanksgiving Day.