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Online Consumers Get a Jump on the Holidays

Coremetrics LIVEmark Data Reveals Online Consumers Shopped Early for the Holidays to Take Advantage of Special Offers, Gift Services and Account for Shipping Time

San Mateo , Calif.—December 20, 2005—Coremetrics™, the leading provider of hosted Web analytics and precision marketing solutions, today released LIVEmark Index data revealing that online holiday shopping traffic peaked on November 28th, the Monday after Thanksgiving, otherwise known as "Cyber Monday." Online sales peaked the Monday after, on December 5th, allowing shoppers to take advantage of monogramming and gift-wrapping services while leaving ample time to account for shipping prior to the Christmas holiday. In addition to shopping early online, consumer trends showed increased browsing and purchases on Mondays when compared to other days of the week.

'This year more than ever, consumers are shopping online early to research hot holiday gifts and take advantage of the increasing number of gifting services and low cost shipping options offered by online retailers," said Joe Davis, president and CEO of Coremetrics. "Data revealing spikes in online activity on Mondays this holiday season also signifies a pattern in consumer behavior of 'window shopping' offline during the weekend and purchasing the week day following."

Data collected revealed that online traffic to retail sites peaked on November 28th this year, underscoring online consumer desires to research purchases for the holidays in a timely manner, especially during the holiday season. Retailers observed a peak in sales for the year on the following Monday, December 5th . A peak this early meets expectations given that it is three weeks before Christmas, leaving ample time to ensure availability of product and timely shipping of gifts that need to arrive before the holiday.

LIVEmark data regarding online traffic also shows that holiday shoppers turned to the online channel early in the week, possibly after browsing offline during the weekend. Traffic on Mondays was 16% higher and sales 15% higher than the average day for the three weeks prior to the Christmas holiday—November 28th through December 18th. This behavioral pattern highlights the importance of coordinating promotional activity across print, store, and online channels for multi-channel merchants.

The LIVEmark Index is the industry's most comprehensive benchmark for eBusiness performance, providing critical comparison data for site-wide key performance indicators across more than 175 leading retail brands. LIVEmark participants gain a clear understanding of business performance relative to peers and competitors so they can effectively allocate marketing spend, anticipate industry threats and trends, and make strategic decisions about site marketing and merchandising efforts.

LIVEmark is generally available to the global online retail industry. Organizations who wish to access benchmark data must contribute site data to the LIVEmark Index. For more information, please call 877-721-CORE.

About Coremetrics
Coremetrics is the leading provider of on-demand Web analytics and precision marketing solutions, offering the industry's only Web analytics platform that captures and stores all customer and visitor clickstream activity to build LIVE (Lifetime Individual Visitor Experience) Profiles. Representing the single most accurate and comprehensive source of online customer data, LIVE Profiles serve as the foundation for all successful eBusiness initiatives. Leading online brands rely on Coremetrics LIVE Profiles to monitor and optimize the performance of multiple marketing campaigns, improve cross sell and multichannel initiatives, and precisely target customers through intelligent marketing campaigns. Coremetrics services more than 600 clients and has delivered over $300 million in documented ROI in the past two years. The company is privately held with funding from Accel Partners and Highland Capital Partners and is headquartered in San Mateo, California with offices in Austin, Texas and London, England. To learn more about Coremetrics, visit www.coremetrics.com or call 877-721-CORE.

Coremetrics has strongly supported online privacy since its inception. To learn more, visit www.coremetrics.com/privacy.

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