E-commerce Summary

Online merchants challenge 43% of credit card chargebacks and recover losses from 39% of those challenges, resulting in a net recovery of 17% of chargebacks, CyberSource says. USA Today also runs an article on cyber-merchants challenging more chargebacks from unscrupulous customers.

Visits to 7 of the top 10 online shopping sites increased by double digits in October 2005, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Target was #1 with visits increasing 63% to 17.6 mln from 10.8 mln in October 2004. Shopzilla.com experienced the second largest increase, with visits rising 56% to 17.5 mln from 11.2 mln in October 2004; followed by Overstock.com, up 38% to 14.1 mln from 10.2 mln; Dell, up 27% to 16.7 mln from 13.2 mln; Wal-Mart Stores, up 26% to 16.2 mln from 12.9 mln; Amazon, up 19% to 39 mln from 32.7 mln; the Shopping.com network, up 13% to 16.8 mln from 14.8 mln, and eBay, up 9% to 53.2 mln from 48.6 mln. Visits dropped at two sites: Yahoo Shopping, where visits fell 36% to 11.2 mln from 17.5 mln, and Expedia, where visits decreased 3% to 15 mln from 15.5 mln.