"The growth in traffic to online retail sites on Cyber Monday was betterthan many people expected, making retailers hopeful that this growth willcarry through the holiday shopping season and drive sales," said KenCassar, vice president, industry insights, Nielsen Online. "The combinationof aggressive holiday sales and incentives, such as free shipping, acrossmany of the major retailers is helping drive a large number of consumersonline this year." Cassar added, "It remains to be seen if people have donethe majority of their shopping on these two big shopping days to save time,or if they are holding out for additional sales and promotions. If historyis any indication, we expect that Monday, Dec. 15th will be the peak dayfor online shopping traffic."

Holiday eShopping Index Category Growth

Beauty was the fastest growing product category on Monday, increasing 151percent over the previous Monday, November 24th. Toys/Videogames took theNo. 2 spot growing 112 percent Monday over Monday; while Apparel roundedout the top 3 with an increase of 58 percent (see Table 1).

Table 1: Product Categories ranked by Growth on Cyber Monday(U.S., Home and Work)Categories Unique Audience Growth from 11/24/2008 to 12/01/2008 ----------------------------------------------------Beauty 151% ----------------------------------------------------Toys/Videogames 112% ----------------------------------------------------Apparel 58% ----------------------------------------------------Consumer Electronics 49% ----------------------------------------------------Computer Hardware/Software 44% ----------------------------------------------------Home and Garden 40% ----------------------------------------------------Books/Music/Video 22% ----------------------------------------------------Flowers and Gifts 21% ----------------------------------------------------Shoes 13% ----------------------------------------------------Retail 11% ----------------------------------------------------Shopping Comparison/Portals -12% ----------------------------------------------------Jewelry N/A ----------------------------------------------------TOTAL 14% ----------------------------------------------------Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis

Cyber Monday Top 10 Online Retail Destinations

Many of the top online retail destinations on Cyber Monday were the same asthose on Black Friday. eBay took the No. 1 spot, with 10.6 million uniquevisitors, while Amazon and Wal-Mart were No. 2 and No. 3, with 9.0 millionand 5.2 million unique visitors, respectively. Among the top 10 onlineretailers, Sears was the fastest growing online retail destination,increasing 58 percent over last year (see Table 2).

Table 2: Cyber Monday Top 10 Online Retail Destinations Ranked by UniqueAudience on Cyber Monday 2008, and Compared to Cyber Monday 2007(U.S., Home and Work)Site 11/26/2007 UA (000) 12/01/2008 UA (000) Percent Growth ------------------- ------------------- ------------------eBay 10,799 10,564 -2% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Amazon 7,225 8,998 25% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Wal-Mart Stores 5,165 5,189 0% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Target 3,393 3,646 7% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Best Buy 2,363 3,558 51% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Sears 1,698 2,680 58% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Dell 2,673 2,369 -11% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Overstock.com 2,154 2,070 -4% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Netflix 1,442 2,046 42% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------ToysRUs 1,386 1,652 19% ------------------- ------------------- ------------------Source: Nielsen Online, NetView Custom Analysis

About Nielsen Online's Holiday eShopping Index

The Nielsen Online Holiday eShopping Index is comprised of over 120representative online retailers across twelve categories, and acts as abarometer to gauge the level of activity at online shopping destinationsduring the holiday season. The Index illustrates increased shoppingactivity through category growth.

About Nielsen Online:

Nielsen Online, a service of The Nielsen Company, delivers comprehensive,independent measurement and analysis of online audiences, advertising,video, consumer-generated media, word of mouth, commerce and consumerbehavior, and includes products previously marketed under theNielsen//NetRatings and Nielsen BuzzMetrics brands. With high quality,technology-driven products and services, Nielsen Online enables clients tomake informed business decisions regarding their Internet, digital andmarketing strategies. For more information, please visitwww.nielsen-online.com. Also, visit our blog atwww.nielsen-online.com/blog.

About The Nielsen Company:

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leadingmarket positions in marketing and consumer information, television andother media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, tradeshows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter,Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries,with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit,www.nielsen.com.

Editor's Note: Please source all data to Nielsen Online.

Media Contact:Michelle McGiboney(408) 941-2930pr.us@nielsen.com