Walmart.com traffic declined in November

Online sales are expected to reach record levels this holiday season, but traffic to Walmart.com was down in November compared to the same period the prior year.

That’s according to online measurement firm comScore Media Metrix which compiles a list of the top 50 Web properties each month. During November 2012, the firm showed Walmart.com with 55.8 million unique visitors compared to 58.5 million unique visitors during November 2011. Walmart was ranked 18th on the top 50 list both years. Meanwhile, 6th ranked Amazon.com was shown to have 116 million unique visitors in November 2012 compared to 112.8 million last year. Walmart was not alone in reporting a decline in web traffic during November. Only three other retailers made the top 50 including Target ranked 28th with 37.3 million unique visitors, Best Buy ranked 31st with 35.7 million unique visitors and Sears ranked 43 with 28.9 million visitors. All three saw a decline from November the prior year when Target had 40.1 million visitors, Best buy had 36.5 million visitors and Sears had 31 million visitors.

While the decline in November traffic compared to the prior year was not explained by comScore, which focused on the sequential increase compared to November and record sales, one possible explanation is higher conversion rates.

"Online holiday promotions began in earnest almost as soon as the calendar flipped to November, as retailers hoped to draw in those ambitious early-season shoppers," said Jeff Hackett, EVP of comScore. "As we moved later into the month, the promotional activity surged even higher around Black Friday and Cyber Monday as consumers spent record amounts online. Numerous retail categories saw huge gains for the month, with toys and consumer electronics sites posting the sharpest month-over-month gains."

Retail sites had a near-monopoly on the top-gaining categories chart in November, as the entire category grew 5% to 191 million visitors – representing 87% of the total U.S. online population. Toys ranked as the fastest-growing category with a 30% increase compared to October’s to 23.9 million visitors. Toysrus sites led the category with 12.4 million visitors (up 54%), followed by The LEGO Group with 3.8 million (up 34%), Disney Shopping with 2 million (up 11%), AmericanGirl.com with 1.9 million (up 60%) and Fisher Price with 1.3 million (up 28%).

Consumer Electronics sites were a close second on the top-gaining categories chart, up 29% to 59.7 million visitors. BestBuy.com ranked first in the category with 35.1 million visitors (up 90%), followed by Samsung Group with 5.4 million (up 22%) and eBay Electronics U.S. with 5.2 million (up 14%). RadioShack Corporation doubled its traffic base to 4.4 million, while Buy.com Group Sites rounded out the top five with 4.1 million.