Poetry Rules Valentine's Day Online

Searches for love poems gained the most market share prior to Valentine's Day.

Chocolates, flowers and other gifts each grew in online market share this Valentine’s Day, however searches for love poems gained the highest according to Hitwise.

The search term, “love poems” grew 83 percent for the week ending February 11, 2006. Traffic to the top poetry site, Poems for Free, increased 55 percent in that time period.

US Traffic for Valentines Day Related Keywords by Week January 2005 February 2006
Click on graphic to view chart

Poetry, which increased 39 percent, beat out the flowers and gifts category. Individual sites within the latter category saw triple-digit improvement. Vermont Teddy Bear Company’s market share went up 322 percent; FTD.com increased 179 percent; and 1-800 Flowers.com traffic grew 106 percent.

Poetry site visitors skew to a younger demographic than the average Internet user. Visitors to Poetry.com were 56 percent more likely be in the 18-24 age group. Visitors to Love Poems and Quotes were 100 times more likely to be 18-24. Thirty-five percent of that site’s visitors were in that group. Visitors to e-commerce sites in the flower and gift categories represented all demographics the online population.

Top Poetry Sites by Market Share of Visits to Custom Category , Week Ending February 11,2006
Rank Name Domain Market Share (%)
1 Poetry.com www.poetry.com 17.11
2 Best Love Poems www.best-love-poems.com 12.60
3 Love Poems and Quotes www.lovepoemsandquotes.com 12.33
4 Passions In Poetry www.netpoets.com 11.66
5 Poems & Quotes www.poems-and-quotes.com 8.78
6 Poems for Free www.poemsforfree.com 8.53
7 Academy of American Poets www.poets.org 8.49
8 American Poems www.americanpoems.com 8.06
9 LovePoetry www.lovepoetry.com 6.33
10 Allpoetry www.allpoetry.com 6.09
Source: Hitwise, 2006

Top Flower and Gift Sites by Market Share of Visits to Category , Week Ending February 11, 2006
Rank Name Domain Market Share (%)
1 FTD www.ftd.com 13.48
2 Hallmark www.hallmark.com 13.18
3 ProFlowers www.proflowers.com 8.24
4 1-800-flowers.com www.1800flowers.com 7.90
5 Birthday Alarm www.birthdayalarm.com 5.09
6 Collections Etc. www.collectionsetc.com 3.70
7 DaySpring Cards www.dayspring.com 2.94
8 RedEnvelope www.redenvelope.com 2.65
9 Vermont Teddy Bear Company www.vermonteddybear.com 2.38
10 FromYouFlowers.com www.fromyouflowers.com 1.84
Source: Hitwise, 2006

Data from comScore Networks report a 22 percent year-to-date increase in spending within the flowers and gifts, health and beauty and jewelry and watches categories. Online sales in the health and beauty, and jewelry and watches categories increased 24 percent each compared to the same period in 2005.

Online Consumer Spending, January 1-February 9, 2005 adn 2006
Item 2005 (M) 2006 (M) Change (%)
Flowers, greetings, and gifts 231 270 17
Health and beauty 337 418 24
Jewelry and watches 176 219 24
Total 743 907 22
Note: Excludes auctions and large corporate purchases.
Source: comScore Networks, 2006

comScore releases data collected from its panel of users who opt-in to the panel. Hitwise measures over 25 million users by recording data at the IP level. It has additional data from an opt-in panel.

Unique U.S. Visitors to Flower, Gift, and Greetings Sites by Location, January 2006
Total Unique Visitors (000)
All Locations Home Work University
Total Internet Audience 170,797 143,196 53,025 14,395
Flower, gifts, and greetings 29,393 18,166 10,689 2,052
AmericanGreetings.com 8,688 5,560 2,784 528
Hallmark 6,669 3,601 2,745 518
FTD.com 1,935 1,175 678 173
1-800-flowers.com 1,753 961 803 76
Martha Stewart sites 1,546 904 608 108
WeddingChannel.com 1,464 745 643 148
ProFlowers.com 1,377 766 602 76
Lillian Vernon 1,263 790 436 96
Red Envelope 1,180 636 511 90
Celebrate Express, Inc. 970 577 364 74
Source: comScore Media Metrix, 2006

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