Smaller niche merchants are more dependent on search engines for traffic and sales than larger competitors, according to Hitwise, writes Internet Retailer.
Hitwise in early 2007 measured the average monthly traffic that each retailer in the Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide had received in the previous two years. Some of the findings from the Hitwise study:
- Half of merchants ranked 400-500 rely on search engines for 50% or more of site traffic.
- Most Top 100 retailers depend on search engines for 11-30% of monthly visits; only one generated up to 39% of site traffic from search engines.
- Only 13 Top 100 retailer generated 30.1-40% of all site traffic from search engines; 50 generated 20.1-30% of traffic via search; 31 generated 10.1- 20%, and 6 generated less than 10% of traffic, via search.
- Web-only merchants generated the most site traffic from search engines, followed by catalogs, chain retailers and consumer brand manufacturers:
- The 224 virtual-only merchants in the Top 500 averaged 64% of monthly visits from search engines
- The 89 Top 500 catalog companies averaged 30%.
- The 145 Top 500 chain retailers averaged 28%.
- The 42 Top 500 consumer brand manufacturers averaged 27%.
