Amazon also accounted for 45% of online purchases on Thanksgiving Day among top 50 e-retailers, Hitwise says. But other data points to strong showings by Walmart, eBay, Kohl’s and Old Navy.

Amazon.com Inc. had a blockbuster weekend, winning 54.9% of online transactions at the top 50 retailers’ websites on Black Friday, according to Hitwise, and 45.1% on Thanksgiving Day.

Other data points to strong showings by Wal-Mart Stores Inc., No. 3 in the Internet Retailer 2017 Top 500eBay Inc.; Kohl’s Corp. (No. 18); and Gap Inc.’s (No. 24) Old Navy brand.

Walmart.com and BestBuy.com followed Amazon (No. 1) in terms of number of transactions on both Thanksgiving Day and the following day, widely known as Black Friday. Target Inc.’s (No. 20) Target.com was fourth on Thanksgiving and fifth on Black Friday, with Kohls.com fifth on Turkey Day and fourth the following day.

Amazon didn’t win in every respect in the data from Hitwise, part of digital marketing firm Connexity Inc. In terms of conversion rate, Amazon was only second on Thanksgiving Day among the top 50 online retailers at 6.6% and fourth on Black Friday at 7.7%. On Thanksgiving Day, the conversion leader was photo-services site Shutterfly (No. 46) at 8.0%, with OldNavy.com coming in third at 6.3%.

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OldNavy.com led on Black Friday at 9.1%, followed by Shutterfly (8.5%) and L.L. Bean Inc.’s e-commerce site at 8.3%. Victoria’s Secret (owned by No. 26 L Brands Inc.) also converted well, ranking fourth on Thanksgiving Day at 5.6% and fifth the following day at 7.0%, Hitwise says. LLBean.com (No. 35) was fifth on Thanksgiving Day at 5.5%. Walmart’s conversion rate was much lower, 3.9% on Thanksgiving and 3.4% on Black Friday, which may indicate many site visitors were checking store deals and hours and not intending to purchase.

While Hitwise does not categorize eBay Inc. as a retailer because auctions remain a significant part of its business, Hitwise data shows eBay turned in strong results over the holiday weekend. EBay processed 918,289 transactions on Thanksgiving Day and 992,509 transactions on Black Friday, by Hitwise’s estimates. That would put eBay in third place on the retailer list for Black Friday and fourth on Thanksgiving Day.

EBay also showed up well in an Internet Retailer analysis of traffic to e-commerce sites provided by SimilarWeb.

That data shows eBay was second to Amazon in traffic consistently on the four days from the Wednesday before Thanksgiving through Saturday, followed by Walmart.com, BestBuy.com (No. 10 in the Top 500) and Target.com. HomeDepot.com (No. 8) was sixth overall in traffic for the four-day period, but it was overtaken in terms of visits on Thanksgiving Day by Macys.com (No. 6) and Etsy.com (No. 22). Etsy also made a strong showing on Saturday when it was the sixth most-visited site, according to SimilarWeb.

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Biggest gains year over year in terms of traffic to retailer websites during the four-day period from the day before Thanksgiving through the following Saturday (Nov. 22-25) was video game retailer Gamestop Corp. (No. 42), followed by home improvement chain Lowes Cos. Inc. (No. 25).


A separate survey by investment research firm Gordon Haskett found that 68.5% of consumers said they shopped at Amazon.com over the period from Thanksgiving Day to Saturday, well ahead of Walmart.com at 41.8%, Target.com 35.1%, eBay.com 30.1%, Jet.com 15.1% and Overstock.com (No. 30) 14.7%.

However, analyst Chuck Grom notes that when combining those who shopped at Walmart.com and Walmart’s Jet.com subsidiary, that adds up to 57%, only 12 percentage points behind Amazon. Grom says that shows that Walmart held its own over the holiday weekend, and he applauded the retailer’s “strategy to invest heavily in digital in order to remain a dominant player among changing consumer habits.”

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Among the nine department stores included in the Gordon Haskett survey, Bloomingdales.com, part of Macy’s Inc., had the highest percentage of consumers, 21.5%, saying they shopped only at the website, with another 4.8% saying they shopped both at Bloomingdales.com and in the retailer’s stores.

Among consumers who said they shopped at a retailer’s website only or both at the website and in that retailer’s stores, J.C. Penney (No. 33) led the way at 32.2%, followed by Macy’s at 30.1% and Kohl’s at 30.0%.

In terms of consumers shopping at one of the nine department stores online or in stores (including in-store only), Kohl’s led the way with 55.6%, followed by J.C. Penney  at 54.0%, Macy’s at 52.2% and Sears Holdings Corp. (No. 19) at 45.0%.

Walmart led discount stores in terms of shopping both in stores and online, with 76.5% of shoppers saying they shopped with Walmart in at least one channel, followed by Target at 61.6%, Costco (No. 9) at 46.6% and Sears at 43.4%. Combining those who shopped online-only or at a discounter’s website and its stores, Walmart easily led at 42.2%, followed by Target at 33.4% and Sears at 28.1%

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The survey found consumers shopped more in stores than online from Thanksgiving Day through Saturday. 48.2% said they did more of their shopping in stores, 36.9% said they shopped more online and 14.9% said their shopping was split between the channels.

The good news for all retailers is that consumers in the Gordon Haskett survey said they spent liberally over the weekend. 53.6% said they spent “more” or “much more” over the weekend than they did last year, 36.3% about the same and only 10.2% “less” or “much less.”

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