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Online Comparison Shopping Shows Strong Growth as Holiday Season Nears, According to Nielsen//NetRatings

Shopping.com, BizRate, PriceGrabber and NexTag See Over 50 Percent Annual
Visitor Growth; eBay Extends Commerce Lead

NEW YORK, Oct. 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Nielsen//NetRatings, the
global standard for Internet audience measurement and analysis, reports that
online consumers are flocking to shopping comparison sites to research
products, prices, and merchants. More than 21 million online users, or
16 percent of active U.S. Internet users, visited one or more comparison
shopping sites in August 2003 at work and at home.

Leading the rapidly growing set of shopping advisors, Shopping.com
(formerly DealTime) attracted 11.9 million unique visitors from home and work
during August 2003 (see Table 1). BizRate Shopping garnered 5.9 million
visitors during the same month. The third most popular shopping comparison
site was NexTag, drawing in 4.6 million consumers. PriceGrabber grew
81 percent during the past year to attract 3.9 million shoppers. The ten top
comparison sites as a group grew 34 percent from August 2002 to August 2003,
as more consumers used multiple comparison shopping sites in August 2003.

Table 1. Nielsen//NetRatings Top Comparison Shopping Sites, August 2003
(U.S., Home & Work)

Unique Audience (000) (Brand Aug-02 Aug-03 Percent Growth)
________________________________________________________________________
Shopping.com (DealTime) - 7,019 11,916 (70%)
________________________________________________________________________
BizRate Shopping - 3,778 5,869 (55%)
________________________________________________________________________
NexTag - 2,629 4,573 (74%)
________________________________________________________________________
PriceGrabber.com - 2,160 3,909 (81%)
________________________________________________________________________

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2003

"Shopping comparison sites are no longer just about comparing price," said
Robert Leathern, director of commerce analytics, Nielsen//NetRatings.
"Consumers want to examine features and functionality along with user and
merchant reviews."

The shopping comparison category continues to grow significantly even as
eBay and Amazon remain the dominant online commerce sites, attracting
42.6 million and 26.1 million consumers respectively in August.
"eBay has proven that small firms can sell and compete alongside
multi-channel retailers, who have established brands and local stores. Amazon
continues to evolve into a form of comparison shopping site itself, blending
its own inventory with large branded merchants, and small Marketplace
sellers."

"Consumers also focus a great deal of their online product research on
finding ballpark prices for products they actually buy offline. Shopping
comparison sites and portal shopping sites are thus having an increasing
impact not just online, but on purchases made in stores as well," Leathern
continued.

Table 2. Top Portal Shopping Sites, August 2003 (U.S., Home & Work)

Brand Unique Audience (000)
________________________________________________________________
Yahoo! Shopping 15,145
________________________________________________________________
AOL Shopping 7,451
________________________________________________________________
MSN Shopping 4,943
________________________________________________________________

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2003

"Portal shopping sites have traditionally relied on retailer sponsorships
and CPM-based advertising, and their customer experience has often fallen
short to that of the comparison shopping sites," reported Leathern. "With the
recent shift in marketplace acceptance of cost-per-click online advertising,
portals like Yahoo! have regrouped and implemented new shopping features and
functionality, which are more consumer friendly and also likely to attract
customers this holiday season."

Amazon and eBay Still Dwarf Comparison Shopping and Portal Shopping
Categories

eBay and Amazon remain the primary consumer starting points for online
commerce. eBay was the leading shopping destination on the Web, reaching more
than 31.3 percent of U.S. online users in August of 2003 (See Table 3). During
the past 12 months, eBay has grown its audience by 40 percent while Amazon has
grown by 11 percent.

Table 3. Nielsen//NetRatings Amazon and eBay (U.S., Home and Work
Combined)

Unique Audience (000) Brand Aug-02 Aug-03 Percent Active Growth % Reach % Aug-03
_________________________________________________________________________
eBay - 30,399 42,622 40% 31.3%
_________________________________________________________________________
Amazon - 23,604 26,098 11% 19.2%
_________________________________________________________________________

Source: Nielsen//NetRatings, August 2003

"As shopping comparison sites continue to evolve and grow as sources of
qualified consumer leads, retailers should seek to more aggressively advertise
and work with these companies," Leathern concluded.

Nielsen//NetRatings Shopping Search Report Availability
The research featured in this press release is taken from the
Nielsen//NetRatings Shopping Search Report, which is produced monthly and
includes detailed Commerce analysis and metrics. Please contact Patrick Thomas
at 212-703-5941, pthomas@netratings.com for more information.

About Nielsen//NetRatings

Nielsen//NetRatings is the global standard for Internet audience
measurement and analysis and is the industry’s premier source for online
advertising intelligence with its NetView, AdRelevance, @Plan, WebRF, LemonAd,
MegaPanel and SiteCensus services. Covering 70 percent of the world’s Internet
usage, the Nielsen//NetRatings services offer syndicated Internet and digital
media research reports and custom-tailored data to help companies gain
valuable insight into their business. For more information, please visit
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com.

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