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San Diego, California - (Cheap Web Hosting Directory) - January 12, 2006 - According to a new study by WebSideStory, Inc., web site search provided a hugeboost to e-commerce sites during the holiday shopping season, helping convertvisitors into buyers at nearly three times the rate of average site users.

The study found that during the last three months of the year, the conversion rate for visitors using the search box on a web site was 7.54 percent - 2.7 times higher than the conversion rate for average site users (2.79 percent).

The researchers used the new WebSideStory Index, a new statistical barometer that features techno-graphic and e-commerce trends culled from the millions of users that visit web sites using the company’s web analytics technology, to arrive at the results. Site search conversion rates also soared as the holiday shopping season progressed, jumping from just under 6 percent in October to more than 8 percent for the month of December, according to the index.

Ali Behnam, Senior Digital Marketing Consultant for WebSideStory commented on the findings, ”This data shows that effective site search is becoming one of the most critical conversion drivers in online commerce. Helping visitors find what they are looking for in a fast, convenient manner significantly increases the likelihood of their making a purchase. We only expect these conversion rates to increase as more and more e-commerce sites engage in best of breed site search implementations.”

The WebSideStory Index is a compilation of techno-graphic and e-commerce trends. It spans everything from browser and operating system trends to shopping cart usage and checkout conversion rates. Other findings of the latest index, which covered the last three months of the year and early 2006:

* Branding and customer loyalty also continue to drive conversion rates, especially during the holiday season. Repeat visitor conversion rates (13.88 percent) were seven times higher than new visitor conversion rates (1.68 percent) during the last quarter of the year

* Despite making strong gains in 2005, the Firefox browser did not meet its reported goal of 10 percent market share by year’s end. As of Jan. 5, 2006, Firefox had a U.S. browser usage share of 8.88 percent, according to the index. Although Mozilla Corp. did not reach its intended goal - a target first reported by ZDNet - the browser still made significant strides over the last year, rising from a 4.23 percent share on Jan. 5, 2005. Three-quarters of that growth came during the first half of the year. The last time a non-Microsoft browser achieved close to a 9 percent market share was Netscape in April 2002, according to the index.

”The good news for Firefox in 2005 is that it established itself as a viable Microsoft alternative with millions of users,” said Geoff Johnston, a WebSideStory analyst.

To learn more about WebSideStory, please visit: www.websidestory.com.

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