Sweethearts flock to online retailers

Online retailers have enjoyed a surge in traffic leading up to
Valentine's Day, with sites selling gifts, lingerie, gift certificates
and flowers among the favorites.

Nielsen/NetRatings, the
Internet measurement service from Nielsen Media Research and NetRatings
Inc., says retailers have also stepped up advertising efforts to draw
more eyes to their sites.

The hottest categories with the largest increases in traffic for the
week ended Feb. 6 were gifts, up 88 percent from the week ended Jan. 30,
lingerie, up 78 percent, gift certificates, up 77 percent, and flowers,
up 32 percent.

The popularity increase of e-commerce has been cited by the National
Governors' Association and other local government associations as
evidence of a need for Internet sales taxes. The groups say increased
online sales diminish revenue at "brick-and-mortar" merchants who are
required to collect sales taxes.

TRENDING: Is this what you voted for, America?

NGA is sponsor of the leading pro-tax proposal now before the
Advisory Commission on Electronic Commerce.

Web watchers say the rise in e-tail popularity is a result of
shoppers seeking more convenient and cost-effective methods of commerce.

"E-tailers are in attack mode, seizing the opportunity to attract
online shoppers seeking the comfort, ease and efficiency of buying gifts
for their loved ones on the Web," said Allen Weiner, vice president of
analytical services at NetRatings. "The powerful marketing programs
deployed by a number of retailers use 'viral' marketing -- also known as
'word of e-mail' -- to reach targeted consumers with special offers for
this special day."

The report said online shoppers starting seeing Valentine's Day
advertising as early as Jan. 10, with a surge in holiday-related ads in
the following weeks. Valentine's Day advertising increased by more than
240 percent during the week ended Feb. 6, compared with the week ended
Jan. 30.

Traffic to online greeting card sites surged 30 percent as people
sent electronic Valentines, the report said. However, it said online
superstores, including Amazon.com, Buy.com, eBay Inc. and CDNow, had
normal traffic flows despite special holiday promotions prominently
displayed on their sites.

Nielsen/NetRatings said sites with the largest increases in unique
visitors during the past week included RedEnvelope.com, up 123 percent,
GiftPoint.com, up 103 percent, 1800Flowers.com, up 71 percent,
VictoriasSecret.com, up 64.8 percent, and FTD.com, up 63.1 percent from
the previous week.

While women shoppers were most prevalent at gift, flower, jewelry and
greeting cards sites, more men found their way to lingerie sites, the
report said.

"Men who might be embarrassed to walk into their local Victoria's
Secret or Frederick's of Hollywood are much more at ease using the
anonymity of the Web to buy gifts for women," said Weiner.

While anonymity may be appealing, one small drawback to the economy's
fastest-rising star can be the tedious filling-out of forms required for
Net purchases. Shoppers must type in names, addresses, credit card
numbers and other information to complete a sale -- a monotonous process
for Web mall regulars.

BuyFast.com believes it has the answer to the "form problem" for
e-tail shop-o-holics: the "Internet Enabled Credit Card." When buying
from an Internet site, and at the point where consumers would normally
have to fill out many fields of data to complete the transaction, users
simply place the card in the computer's CD drive. The card
automatically launches a program that fills out the fields in the form
with all of the customer's data. When finished, the consumer takes the
card out, without fear of leaving the crucial information in the
computer's memory, according to BuyFast.

The card, which has a distinguishing hole in the middle to allow its
use in CD drives, may also be used as a traditional credit card at
brick-and-mortar merchants. It has 10 megabytes of memory, allowing
users to view the status of their account.

BuyFast is marketing its new technology to credit card companies.

In the meantime, Valentine gift-givers in the technology-age are
limited to old-fashioned keyboard-and-mouse methods.