European Online Holiday Shopping Off To Strong Start

European online Christmas shopping season got off to a strong start this year in the U.K., France and Germany, according to a new report from comScore.

Visits to retail sites were up 18 percent during the first week of November compared to an average week during the prior two months, and increased even more throughout the month to reach a 41 percent growth rate during the week ending November 29.

France saw solid gains, resulting in the same 41 percent growth rate during the last week of November, while Germany showed slight lower growth at 16 percent.

"That we're seeing such strong growth in visitation to retail sites in three of Europe's leading countries prior to the December pre-Christmas rush is, hopefully, a positive sign for the overall European economy," said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni.

"Right now the U.K. and France appear to be demonstrating the highest rate of traffic growth to retail sites, outperforming the U.S. by a considerable margin. While German growth has been slightly slower, the heavy part of the country's online shopping season should begin in earnest during the first week of December."

During the month of November, average weekly visits to online retail sites grew 35 percent in the U.K. compared to the prior two months. Among the top 5 online retailers as ranked by average weekly visits, Play.com sites experienced the largest growth at 62 percent, closely followed by the Home Retail Group (61%) and Tesco (50%).

Visits to online retail sites in France were up 36 percent during the first week of the month and remained steady during November. Groupe PriceMinister has the fastest growth rate at 188 percent, followed by Amazon and Cdiscount, both at 40 percent.

In Germany, visits to online retail sites got off to a slightly slower start than in France and the U.K., but still showed 17 percent average weekly growth. Amazon was the fastest growing retail site during November, up 46 percent, followed by Neckermann Gruppe (up18%).
 

Have You Read This?

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Black Friday 2009: The Best Deals On The Items You Want

Is there a better way to kick off the Holiday season then slowly dragging yourself out of your tryptophan induced coma to go shopping during the wee hours of the day after Thanksgiving a.k.a. Black Friday?

Sure, Black Friday seems utterly atrocious when thinking about it. I mean you got long lines, rabid shoppers, insane traffic, and bitterly cold weather. Mix that with sleep deprivation and you get a very lethal cocktail of insanity. So why do people put themselves through this monotony?

Well the answer to that is quite easy: It’s the deals.

Although Black Friday got its start sometime during the 1960s, online deals didn't come into play until around 2000. The reasoning for this was that most people had very slow dial-up connections at home, which made online purchases more of an annoyance, then a convenience. Most people would wait until the following Monday, when they returned to work, to do there online shopping. Utilizing the faster connection of the workplace, people would do their online shopping, thus creating Cyber Monday (often referred to as the busiest online shopping day of the year).

Have you found any good deals online this week? Talk to ArisYulianta and Friends....

One thing some people might not realize is that you don't have to brave the crowds to find great deals for your Holiday shopping. Did you know that numerous stores are currently offering Black Friday deals online? That's right, you could do most of your shopping from the comfort of your own home. Unlike the traditional Black Friday sales, the online deals tend to be more of a "one deal per day" sort of thing. Black-Friday.net offers the following info about this...

"During the entire month of November, stores such as Amazon.com, Walmart, and even eBay will be offering a "Deal of the Day". These deals are just as good as their Black Friday deals, except they are only good for one day! Be sure to check out the stores below to find out what they are offering today."

The site also lists online deals for 16 total stores (with more being added daily it seems), they are: Amazon.com, eBay, Walmart, onSale, Target, Kohl's, MacMall, Best Buy, HP, Dell, Meijer, Sears, NewEgg.com, Buy.com, Kmart and 6th Ave.

Online Holiday sales might be "old hat" to Amazon, but they're becoming known for the deals they have during the week of Thanksgiving. The site offers the following description of the weeklong sale...

You shouldn’t have to stand in a long line to get a great deal. We’re searching for the best Black Friday deals everywhere--including deals other stores are planning--so we can meet or beat their prices and bring them to you even earlier. These limited-supply offers will go quickly but we’ll add new ones throughout the day, every day this week, so you can skip the long lines and still save a bundle.

One company that is getting in on the Black Friday goodness is Apple, as they've announced a  “one-day shopping event” which will surely make it a happy Friday for some shoppers. Apple posted the following teaser to get shoppers stirring…

"Come back to the Apple Online Store this Friday for a special one-day-only shopping event. You’ll find lots of great iPod, iPhone and Mac gift ideas - all with free shipping."

Like we said before, shoppers will go to great lengths to save some money, some more so than others. So, what are some of the best deals that will be taking place on Black Friday 2009 in stores? We’ve scoured through the Black Friday advertisements and have listed the best prices for what surely will be the best selling items.

Televisions
[Target] Westinghouse 32" Class 720p LCD HDTV - $246.00
[Walmart] Emerson 32" LCD 720p HDTV - $248.00
[Best Buy] Dynex 32" 720p 60Hz LCD HDTV - $299.99
[Sears] Vizio 32" Class 720p LCD HDTV - $349.99

Desktop Computers
[Best Buy] eMachines Desktop: 18.5" LCD, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD - $299.97
[Dell Home] Dell Inspiron 537s: 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD - $349.00
[Walmart] HP Pavilion Desktop: 20" LCD, 3GB RAM, 320GB HDD - $398.00

Laptops / Netbooks
[Walmart] eMachines 15.6" Laptop: 2GB RAM, 160GB HDD - $198.00
[Best Buy] Compaq Netbook: 1GB RAM, 160GB HD - $179.99
[Kmart] Delstar 7" Wireless Netbook - $119.99
[Radio Shack] Acer Aspire One Netbook - 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD - $249.99

MP3 Players - 4GB and under
[Kmart] Sylvania 4GB MP3/Video Player - $19.99
[Kohl's] 2GB MP3 Player with Video - $24.99
[Walmart] Philips 4GB MP3/Video Player - $29.00
[Best Buy] SanDisk: Sansa Fuze 4GB - $44.99

MP3 Players - 4GB and up
[Costco] Apple 8GB iPod Nano - $129.99
[Target] Apple 5th Gen. 8GB iPod Nano 2/ $15 Target Gift Card - $145.00
[Walmart] Apple 8GB iPod Touch w/ $50 iTunes Gift Card - $195.00

Digital Cameras
[Toys R Us] Vivitar 8.1MP Digital Camera - $39.99
[Best Buy] Insignia Digital Camera - $49.99
[Walmart] Kodak CD82: 12MP, 3x Optical Zoom, 3" LCD - $69.00
[Sears] GE A1250 12MP Black Digital Camera - $69.99

Will you be doing any shopping on Black Friday? Online or In Store? Talk to ArisYulianta and Friends...

Other Black Friday Resources:

Black Friday Websites
Two of the more popular Black Friday sites are BFAds.net and BlackFriday.info. Both are relatively the same, as they both feature scans, lists by store, and the ability to save to a shopping/wish list.

Black Friday & Facebook
Black-Friday.net runs a Facebook page, which lists the various Black Friday deals. The great thing about the Facebook page is that users can see the likes and comments, which could aid in the Black Friday planning for Facebook users.

Black Friday & Twitter
CheapTweet.com, a site that lists various deals, runs a very popular Twitter account, which tweets out Black Friday deals.

iPhone Apps
Black Friday? Yeah, there’s an app for that. With TGI Black Friday (iTunes link) you’re never without the latest Black Friday deal news. The best part about the app... it’s Free.

What are you going after this year on Black Friday? Have any good Black Friday stories? Talk to ArisYulianta and Friends....

Spam is Getting More Malicious

Symantec has released two new reports for the month of November - the State of Spam, and the State of Phishing (both PDFs). The reports highlight a dramatic increase in spam that contains malware. On top of that, junk and malicious email now accounts for close to 9 out of 10 email messages.

The security firm says that a new generation of "Spam Princes" are rising, and that the Asia Pacific region, Japan, and South America have surpassed North America, with regards to where spam is originating from.

"Rising spam levels originating from South America, Asia Pacific and Japan are not altogether surprising when you consider the massive growth of internet connections in these regions," says Amanda Grady, Principal Analyst, Symantec. "Meanwhile, the increased threats to social networking websites is interesting because it shows spammers are hiding behind the reputation and brand trust built by legitimate companies. Social networking sites that have a large user base will continue to be targets of malicious and phishing emails."

Symantec shares the following findings:

- In October, an average of 1.9% of all spam messages contained malware. This equates to a 0.6% increase from September, when the number of messages containing malware hit a maximum of 4.5% of all spam

- Symantec observed a 17% increase from the previous month in all phishing attacks
 
- 30% of phishing URLs were generated using phishing toolkits; an increase of 24% from the previous month

-  Symantec observed a 45% increase from September in non-English phishing sites
 
- More than 97 Web hosting services were used, which accounted for 8% of all phishing attacks; a decrease of 19% in total Web host URLs when compared to the previous month

Symantec's report of an increase of malware-infected spam is made even more unsettling as news reports surface of computer viruses infecting unknowing victims' machines with child porn.

Have You Read This? 

> Stealth Phishing Attack Looks Like Internal Email

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> Beware Holiday Emails