consumer action

Traffic to retail sites in this category has grown dramatically during the past year. Find out who's going where.

Summer has finally arrived, and with it many lazy weekend afternoons at the beach, sipping a cold drink and idly frittering the hours away-- for some. But for others, summer weekends are spent on more productive endeavors, including home remodeling and redecorating. 

The internet has helped ease the once back-breaking undertaking of planning these projects by taking some of the legwork out of shopping. In fact, traffic to retail sites in the Home Furnishings category has seen dramatic growth during the past year, with home enthusiasts underway in planning their summer projects.

• Traffic to the Retail/Home Furnishings category increased 30 percent versus a year ago to 38.9 million unique visitors in April 2006, outpacing the four percent growth in total internet traffic seen during the same time period. This translates into a 23 percent reach of the total internet audience for the category.
  
  
• Home Depot, Inc., the top site in the category, drew 10.8 million visitors in the month, up seven percent from last year. Sears.com ranked a close second with 9.1 million visitors (up 14 percent), while Lowes.com ranked third with 8.3 million visitors (up 23 percent).
  
  
• Williams-Sonoma, Inc. emerged as a major player in the category within the past year, ranking fifth in April with 4.5 million visitors.
  
  
• Visitation to the category skews towards middle-aged demographics, with people between the ages of 25 and 34 showing a higher than average tendency to visit the category (22 percent more likely than average). The only age groups showing below average levels of visitation were people 18 to 24 and people 65 and older.
  
  
• Households with higher incomes were also more likely to visit Retail/Home Furnishing sites. Households with annual incomes of at least $100,000 were 22 percent more likely than average to visit these sites, while those with annual incomes below $60,000 showed below average visitation.

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