FOR VALENTINES, CONSUMER SEARCHES FOR 'LOVE POEMS' EXCEED FLOWERS AND GIFTS
Young adults seek romantic expressions online while others seek Valentine Flowers and Gifts
NEW YORK, Feb. 14, 2006— Valentine's Day has long been one of the most lucrative days of the year for merchants of greeting cards, chocolates and flowers, as lovers and friends express their affection by showering each other with gifts. While it's not surprising that online retailers of flowers and gifts experience increased sales in the weeks leading up to February 14th, what is surprising is that searches for "love poems" surpass searches for flowers and other Valentine's Day gift staples.
According to Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, the share of Internet searches for "love poems" was up 83 percent for the week ending Feb. 11, 2006 versus the week ending Jan. 28, 2006. With the exception of Mother's Day flower searching, "love poems" receives a greater share of searches throughout the year than "flowers", "e-cards" and "lingerie".
For the week ending Feb. 11, 2006, the market share of visits to the Hitwise Flowers & Gifts category increased 39 percent versus the week ending Feb. 4, 2006, while the market share of visits to the top 10 poetry sites were up 14 percent. The site Poems for Free showed the largest increase in market share of visits in that time period, with an increase of 55 percent. Leading Flowers & Gifts retailers with the greatest increases in market share of visits in that time period were Vermont Teddy Bear Company, up 322 percent, FTD.com, up 179 percent, and 1-800-Flowers.com, up 106 percent.
"Search behavior indicates that users are highly involved in the romantic nature of Valentine's Day," said Bill Tancer, General Manager, Global Research for Hitwise. "Purveyors of gift items could engage users further by adding site content that helped buyers express their feelings in words as well as goods."
Visitors to the leading poetry sites tend to be younger than the average Internet user, while visitors to Flowers & Gifts websites tend to resemble the online population as a whole. For the four weeks ending Feb. 4, 2006, visitors to the leading poetry site, Poetry.com, were 56 percent more likely to be in the 18-24 age group. Visitors to another leading poetry site, Love Poems and Quotes, were 100 times more likely to be between 18 and 24 years of age, with 35 percent of all visitors in that age group.
Top 10 Poetry Sites by Market Share of Visits to Custom Category
Week ending Feb. 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-and-quotes.com
www.poems-and-quotes.com
8.78%
6.
PoemsForFree.com
www.poemsforfree.com
8.53%
7.
Academy of American Poets
www.poets.org
8.49%
8.
AmericaPoems.com
www.americanpoems.com
8.06%
9.
LovePoetry
www.lovepoetry.com
6.33%
10.
Allpoetry
www.allpoetry.com
6.09%
Top 10 Flowers and Gift Sites by Market Share of Visits to Category
Week ending Feb. 11, 2006
Rank
Name
Domain
Market Share
1.
Florists Transworld Delivery
www.ftd.com
13.48%
2.
Hallmark.com
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 Gifts
www.redenvelope.com
2.65%
9.
Vermont Teddy Bear Company
www.vermonteddybear.com
2.38%
10.
FromYouFlowers.com
www.fromyouflowers.com
1.84%
Contact: For media inquiries or to schedule an analyst interview, please contact Lizzie Babarczy: press@hitwise.com (212) 380 2910.
About Hitwise:
Hitwise is the world's leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.
By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as search marketing, affiliate programs, online advertising, visitor segmentation, content development and lead generation.
Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.
More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com
For up to date analysis on online trends, please visit the Hitwise Intelligence-Analyst Weblogs at weblogs.hitwise.com
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