Online sales soar for department store, intimate apparel and health & beauty sites

San Mateo, CA – January 22, 2008 – Coremetrics, the leading provider of digital marketing optimization solutions, today released its findings of eCommerce trends for the 2007 holiday shopping season. Based on Coremetrics’ benchmarking data for online performance, key metrics such as total online sales, number of online checkouts and average value of checkouts were compiled. The online data was recorded between the Monday before Thanksgiving and the Friday before Christmas. The results were matched against 2006 data over the same timeframe. Findings of this final report include:

• Department Store eCommerce sites saw the highest growth this holiday season vs. last year with a 35 percent increase in sales.
• Intimate Apparel and Health & Beauty sites saw strong gains in online sales with a 27 and 26 percent interest in sales, respectively.
• Home sites rebounded from a slow start during the start of the 2007 online shopping season (6 percent increase in sales) to finish with 13 percent year-over-year sales growth.
• Sports Apparel sites made strong gains in the average order value of online checkouts raising that number by 14 percent vs. last year’s figure.
• Office Supply/Electronics sites along with general Apparel sites saw more modest gains with a 10 percent increase in sales.

“As evident from these results, online shopping is growing and we’re seeing specific sectors make significant strides in capturing and retaining customers by optimizing their digital marketing campaigns,” said Joe Davis, CEO of Coremetrics. “As retailers set their sights on 2008, those that are able to adapt their marketing strategy based on the data captured from online shopping activity will continue to see gains in both online and offline sales.”

For Retail eCommerce Growth: 2006 - 2007, click here

Coremetrics produced this data from LIVEmark, the company’s unique benchmarking service that compiles performance data from more than 300 participating brands to deliver over 35 metrics including campaign and channel effectiveness, site stickiness and conversion rates. LIVEmark includes a benchmark of all participating retailers as well as 14 sub-categories. Coremetrics offers LIVEmark to its retail customers so they can identify Web site metrics needing improvement by comparing themselves anonymously against others in their specific sector, or against all other participating retailers. Retail brands in LIVEmark include 1-800-Flowers, Abebooks.com, Alibris, Bass Pro Shops, Benchmark Brands, Bluefly, Cabela’s, Coach, CompUSA, PETCO, REI, Victoria’s Secret and Yankee Candle. In addition to retail, Coremetrics is expanding LIVEmark to include travel, financial services and content verticals.

About Coremetrics
Coremetrics is the leading provider of digital marketing optimization solutions. Its solutions generate high return on online marketing investment and continue to pay daily dividends in improved marketing performance. Over 1,000 online business sites, transacting over $15 billion this year, are now using Coremetrics’ Software as a Service (SaaS) solution to optimize online marketing efforts. Coremetrics’ solutions encompass advanced online analytics and precision marketing applications, including search engine bid management, email marketing, and cross sell applications to acquire customers more cost effectively, increase conversion rates, and increase lifetime customer value. Clients have recognized over $300M in documented ROI and 87% of clients recognize ROI in 12 weeks or less. The company is privately held with funding from Accel Partners, FTVentures, and Highland Capital Partners and is headquartered in San Mateo, California. To learn more about Coremetrics, visit http://www.coremetrics.com or call 877-721-CORE.