Online lost ground in February

No surprise that traffic to retail websites falls off appreciably in February after the big holiday surge, but Target really took it on the chin and nearly fell out of online measurement firm comScore’s ranking of the top 50 U.S. Web properties.

Target was ranked 49th in February with 23.9 million unique visitors, compared with 24th ranked Walmart with 38.6 million unique visitors, 41st ranked eBay at 71.3 million uniques and 6th ranked Amazon at nearly 106 million uniques. By comparison, Target had roughly 37.3 million unique visitors in December and 40.2 million visitors in November. Walmart’s February figures were also well below its holiday peaks when it had 55.8 million unique visitors in December and 58.5 in November. The fall of at Amazon was less extreme as the 106 million unique visitors it had in February was down from 114.7 million in December and 112.8 million in November.

“Valentine’s Day and the Super Bowl seemed to be the driving forces behind much of the online activity in February as Americans browsed romantic gifts and checked out Super Bowl advertisers’ websites, especially auto makers,” said Jeff Hackett, comScore EVP.

“In addition, tax sites posted another month of gains as the filing deadline drew nearer.”

Valentine’s Day sparked millions to visit flowers, gifts and greetings sites in early February, with the category rising 28% to 29.3 million visitors. Jewelry, luxury goods and accessories sites also saw a Valentine’s Day boost as the category grew 4% to 21.3 million visitors.