Thanksgiving Day E-Commerce Traffic: Amazon, Walmart

Experian released 2012 online traffic data for Thanksgiving e-commerce compared to the prior year. Across teh board, Thanksgiving day traffic was +71% - an astounding increase. And it was 46% greater on Thanksgiving day versus the prior day (Wednesday).

Three takeaways from Experian's chart (shown above):

1. Amazon is #1, Walmart #2 (and not too far behind). #3 and #4 combined are smaller than either. Big gap.

2. Of the top 5 retailers, Amazon did not see a huge jump day-over-day. Meaning their traffic was more stable / consistent: 16% growth versus 80-104% jumps. Could also mean that Walmart, Target, etc are more reliant on marketing promotions to drive awareness / traffic.

3. The bottom line reads: "note: rankings based on weekly data that does not include mobile traffic." I will make an assumption that this impacts Amazon more than others. More importantly, as mobile and mobile commerce grow, this is a noteworthy, impactful omission.

For what its worth, Thanksgiving was the 3rd most trafficked day in 2011 behind Cyber Monday and Black Friday.

Apple's Latest iPhone Advertisement: All About Big Brands

In March, I wrote about Apple's full page advertisement in the New York Times touting the iPhone as a weekend tool: "Getting the most out of your weekend, one app at a time."

In yesterday's New York Times, they ran a continuation of the ongoing campaign - but with a slight twist: promote the branded apps (I wrote a post this week about seven of the best branded iPhone apps):

"It's pretty amazing who's on the iPhone these days. From CNN to Nike, Starbucks to FedEx, there are over 100,000 apps for just about anything. Only on the iPhone and the nation's fastest 3G network." It is a poor photo, but you can see that each of the applications comes from a very recognizable name: Nike, Starbucks, eBay, CNN, Gap, ESPN, Facebook, Target, Bank of America, Whole Foods, CNN, USA Today, Avis, eTrade, Pizza Hut and Barnes & Nobles.

Also of note, other than CNN's $1.99 app, all of these applications are free. In many of Apple's advertisements - and certainly in their app recommendations - they tend to promote paid applications... but here, the brand names are intended to sell hardware and reputation rather than micro-purchases.