Online traffic surged in November

As holiday promotions heated up in November and shoppers hit the Internet, there was a 44% surge in traffic to Walmart.com when compared with October, according to the online measurement firm comScore. The growth propelled Walmart to the 20th spot on comScore’ November ranking of the top 50 U.S. Web properties. The nearly 52 million unique visitors Walmart.com attracted in November 2010 was 5% more than in November 2009, according to comScore’s data.

Other retailers such as Target and Best Buy reported substantial October to November gains and year-over-year growth. Target also saw its November traffic increase 44% to nearly 40 million, a 2% increased from November 2009. Target.com ranked 27th on the top 50 list while Bestbuy.com ranked 41st with 28 million unique visitors.

“As the holiday season kicked-off in November, Americans were quick to take advantage of retailers’ early promotions and saving in crossing a f few items off their shopping list,” said Jeff Hackett, EVP comScore Media Metrix. “Cyber Monday, the Monday after Thanksgiving, came in as the heaviest online spending day on record in the U.S. which contributed a strong portion of traffic growth at retail and coupon sites.”

While Walmart, Target and Best Buy advanced their position on the top 50 list, such properties as Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Facebook topped the ranking, while Amazon.com remains king of the online retail hill. The 84 million unique visitors it attracted during November placing it 10th on the top 50 list and represented growth of 8% when compared to November 2009.