Santa surfing the Web this year

Full parking lots and crowded stores are testament to the fact that lots of people are Christmas shopping. Unfortunately, it is a different story when it comes to actual sales, as illustrated by November results and month-to-date projections for December, which shows consumers are reluctant to spend even though plenty of them are shopping.

It is a different story online though, where strong purchase activity is driving sales to record levels. That’s good new for Target, because the company enjoys a favorable national reputation, which means it can attract customers to Target.com beyond those who are physically able to shop at its nearly 1,800 locations. That explains why the retailer’s Web site is ranked 31st in comScore’s most recent listing of the top 50 U.S. Web properties, with 27.1 million unique visitors, compared with Walmart.com, with 31.8 million unique visitors. The Target and Walmart rankings are based on traffic in October, and, with November results due out later this week, both retailers are sure to have moved higher in the rankings due to their aggressive promotions and marketing efforts that have made online sales activity a real bright spot this season. According to comScore, online spending for the period beginning Nov. 1 through Dec. 11 increased 3% to nearly $20 billion, and roughly $4 billion of that amount occurred during the five days since Dec. 6, when comScore noted that online sales for the holiday period total nearly $16 billion.