Index shows 20% drop in time spent on retail sites

04.12.2008
Even though online retailers reported , another piece of data suggests shoppers are reining in their online spending.

The Online Publishers Association's says that the share of time spent on commerce sites dropped to 12.8% in October. The share was 16.1% in January, representing a drop of more than 20%.

The other categories in the index include communications, community, content and search. Content, the largest category, grew to 45.3% from 42.7% in January.

The figures are based on data captured by Nielsen Online and provided to the OPA. The OPA did not disclose which sites were included in the index, but says examples of retailers included in the commerce segment include Amazon, eBay, Shopping.com and Dell.com.

Sources cited, referenced, or consulted: online-publishers.org, ClickZ, Wall Street Journal.