FTC Makes “Free” Credit Report Sites More Transparent
February 24, 2010
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said today starting April 1, advertising for "free credit reports" online will require new disclosures to help consumers avoid confusing "free" offers which often require them to spend money on credit monitoring or other products and services.
The FTC's Free Credit Reports Rule will require new prominent disclosures in ads for "free credit reports." Any website offering free credit reports must include a disclosure, across the top of each page that mentions free credit reports, which reads:
THIS NOTICE IS REQUIRED BY LAW. Read more at FTC.GOV.
You have the right to a free credit report from AnnualCreditReport.com
or 877-322-8228, the ONLY authorized source under federal law.
The website disclosure must include a link to "Take me to the authorized source" and links to AnnualCreditReport.com and FTC.GOV.
The amended Rule also restricts practices that might confuse or mislead consumers as they try to get their federally mandated free annual credit reports. The new Rule requires consumer reporting agencies including Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion to delay any advertising for products or services on AnnualCreditReport.com until after consumers receive their free credit reports.
The wording of the disclosures for television and radio ads goes into effect on September 1, 2010. The FTC said it will monitor the effectiveness of the amended Rule, and will consider additional changes if necessary.
Google Puts Black Friday Searches Up 20 Percent
December 1, 2009
People may or may not have mobbed stores this Black Friday - your humble author hid inside and didn't watch any live TV - but they definitely spent some time at their keyboards. Google has stated that searches for "Black Friday" increased by more than 20 percent on a year-over-year basis.
That's actually a sort of low number, too, at least among the group of them that Google tossed out.
A post on the Google Retail Advertising Blog also stated, "Value minded shopping continued to reign, as searches for 'printable coupons' on Thanksgiving and Black Friday were up about 50% over last year and searches for 'sales' were up by more than 25%."
Plus, "Searches for 'black friday sales' and 'black friday ads' were both up by more than 50%, year over year."
Of course, comScore and Experian Hitwise had already published statistics proving that a lot of retailers did well on Black Friday, so all of this may not come as too much of a surprise. But it's at least another sign of Google's dominance that so many ordinary people turned to the search giant.
Have You Read This?
> Walmart Wins Thanksgiving, Amazon Wins Black Friday
> Amazon and Walmart Engage in Price War
> Is Cyber Monday Still A Factor In The Holiday Shopping Season?
Walmart Wins Thanksgiving, Amazon Wins Black Friday
November 30, 2009
You may have read about the online price wars going on this holiday season between Walmart and Amazon. It looks like both companies are doing quite well as a result (not that that is much of a surprise). According to data from Experian Hitwise, Walmart was the top retail site on Thanksgiving Day, and Amazon was the top retail site on Black Friday.
Where did you spend your dollars on Thanksgiving/Black Friday? Share here.
According to Experian Hitwise, among the top 500 Retail Web sites, the percentage of U.S. visits were down 15% on Thanksgiving Day in 2009 compared to Thanksgiving Day 2008, and the U.S. traffic to Black Friday sites on Thanksgiving Day was down 4% compared to 2008.
On Thanksgiving Day, Walmart received 15% of U.S. visits among the top 500 Retail Web sites. This is the fifth year in a row that Walmart was the top visited site on Thanksgiving Day.
Experian Hitwise also shares the following Thanksgiving Day stats:
- Amazon.com was the second most visited with 12.41% of visits followed by BestBuy.com with 6.22%. Target.com was the fourth most visited with 5.63% followed by Sears with 3.78%. (Attached are the top 20 sites for Thanksgiving Day 2009).
- Among the top 20 sites visited on Thanksgiving Day 2009, Old Navy saw the largest increase in visits compared to 2008 with a 59% increase, Amazon saw a 30% increase YoY and Target saw a 28% increase. Walmart had a 9% increase and the Apple Store site saw an 8% increase.
- Walmart was the top site to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Thanksgiving Day 2009 with an 11% increase in traffic compared to 2008. Best Buy and Target received the second and third most traffic from Black Friday sites. Facebook received the largest increase in visits YoY with a 671%.
- According to Akamai, global retail traffic peaked on the U.S. Thanksgiving Day (11/26/09) at 5,732,966 visitors per minute at around 2pm EST. On the same day, North America traffic peaked at 4,095,242 visitors per minute at around 10pm EST.
So that was Thanksgiving. Then there was Black Friday. Out of the top 500 Retail sites, the percentage of U.S. visits were up 4% versus Thanksgiving Day. Year-over-year the visits were down 9% compared to Black Friday 2008, according to Experian Hitwise. The U.S. traffic to Black Friday sites on Black Friday was up 9% compared to 2008.
Experian Hitwise shared these additional stats about Black Friday:
- The top visited Retail Website on Black Friday 2009 was Amazon receiving 13.55 % of U.S. visits among the top 500 Retail Web sites. This is the second year in a row that Amazon was the top visited site on Black Friday.
- Walmart was the second most visited with 11.18 % of visits followed by Target.com with 5.65%, BestBuy.com with 4.62%. followed by Sears with 2.95%. (Attached are the top 20 sites for Black Friday 2009).
- Among the top 20 sites visited on Black Friday 2009, The Apple Store saw the largest increase in visits compared to Thanksgiving day 2009 with a 110% increase, Staples saw a 47% increase YoY and Dell saw a 40% increase. Amazon had a 9% increase.
- Walmart was the top site to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Black Friday 2009 with a 32% increase in traffic compared to 2008. BestBuy and Target received the second and third most traffic from Black Friday sites. Among the top 10 sites to receive traffic from Black Friday sites on Black Friday, Target received the largest increase in visits YoY with 110%.
Another research firm, comScore, has provided its own Black Friday stats. They also have Amazon on top, with Walmart in second place. Here's a look at a couple of their charts:
"Black Friday, better known as a shopping bonanza in brick-and-mortar retail stores, is increasingly becoming one of the landmark days in the online holiday shopping world," says comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni. "The $595 million in online spending this Black Friday represents the second heaviest online spending day of the season-to-date and a double-digit increase from last year. While this acceleration in spending suggests the online holiday season may be shaping up slightly more optimistically than anticipated, it may also reflect the heavy discounting and creative promotions being put forth by retailers that now encompass the use of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Cyber Monday – the traditional kick-off to the online holiday shopping season – and the subsequent weeks will be the real test for how online retailers fare this season. That said, this is a very encouraging start."
"Much attention has focused on Amazon and Walmart this season, and both retailers performed particularly well online on Black Friday in terms of attracting visitors," adds Fulgoni. "We will be watching closely to see how these retailers perform during these next critical weeks of the season."
Everyone expects Amazon and Walmart to do well during the holidays season. It would really interesting to know how the smaller businesses are doing. Do you run a retail site? How have your holiday sales been thus far? What kinds of promotions have you run? Comment here.
Have You Read This?
> Amazon and Walmart Engage in Price War
> Is Cyber Monday Still A Factor In The Holiday Shopping Season?
> Black Friday 2009: The Best Deals On The Items You Want
Bing Managed Big Gain In October
November 12, 2009
According to new data from Experian Hitwise, October was the month of the underdog with respect to the search market. The two search companies that usually dominate lost a bit of share, while Bing (and to a lesser degree, Ask) gained ground.
Let's start with the success stories. Bing's market share rose from 8.96 percent in September to 9.57 percent in October, which represents an increase of 6.8 percent. That's nothing to sneer at, even if Bing remains solidly in third place.
Fourth-place Ask also made a small amount of progress as its share increased from 2.56 percent to 2.62 percent - a jump of 2.3 percent that's far better than a dip.
Meanwhile, Google came sort of close to losing its grasp on the 70 percent mark, slipping from 71.08 percent to 70.60 percent on a month-to-month basis. And Yahoo fared about the same, moving from a market share of 16.38 percent to 16.14 percent.
As always, it's not smart to read too far into a single month's search report. Still, Experian Hitwise also recorded a Yahoo loss (and Ask gain) in September, so a trend may be starting to emerge.
Have You Read This?
> Bing Gets A Bunch Of New Search Features
