Our Times / Orange County Communities

NEW YORK â€”  Amazon.com Inc., EBay Inc. and EToys Inc. drew the most Internet shoppers this holiday season, boosting their number of visitors by about half and pointing to better-than-expected sales, analysts said Monday.

Two Web sites with ties to traditional stores--Barnes & Noble Inc. and Toys R Us Inc.--rounded out the five most visited retail sites for the five-week season ended Dec. 26, said market researcher Media Metrix Inc.

America Online Inc. and Lycos Inc., two Internet service companies that built online malls to tap the boom, said Monday that shopping at their Web sites surged between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

AOL, the No. 1 Internet service provider, said its subscribers spent $2.5 billion during the holiday season in 1999, more than double the $1.2 billion spent in 1998. The average AOL shopper spent $300 online buying goods and services during the holiday season, about 50% more than in 1998, the company said.

Lycos, one of the most popular Internet search engines, said the number of shoppers visiting the retail area on its Web site increased more than fivefold from 1998. It didn’t disclose the amount spent or the actual number of visitors.

Retailers spent millions to promote their sites, hoping to attract new shoppers and persuade them to come back after the holidays. Sites that don’t get the return business will have to keep up the spending or go out of business, analysts said.

“There will be a lot of talk about what it cost to get those sales, and who’s really building a brand and who’s spinning their wheels to get sales,� said analyst David Trossman at First Union Securities.

Amazon.com, the biggest Internet retailer, led shopping sites with 5.69 million unique visitors this season, a rise of 81% from a year earlier, Media Metrix said.

It was followed by auctioneer EBay, whose 4.07 million visitors marked an increase of 76%, and EToys, whose number jumped 45% to 1.66 million.

Though the most visited sites were companies that sell only on the Internet, sites tied to traditional retail stores generated some of the biggest sales per order, according to a report from accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young.

The average amount spent at Best Buy Co.’s Web site was $233, according to its survey of shoppers. That compares with $128 at Amazon.com, $127 at EToys and $152 at EBay.

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Reuters was used in compiling this report.

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High-Volume Sites

A look at the 10 most visited Internet shopping sites during the holiday season, from Nov. 14 to Dec. 26. The figures, provided by Media Metrix, are for unique visitors.

Source: Bloomberg News