PriceGrabber traffic up 54% on Cyber Monday, shoppers want Wii, Zune

By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published November 27, 2007, 11:59 AM

Though the final data for Cyber Monday retail sales have yet to be projected, more early indications point to a sharp rise in online spending.

The online retail price tracking service PriceGrabber.com reported 54% higher traffic yesterday over Cyber Monday 2006. Customers who purchase products from online retailers and who go through PriceGrabber to do so, get their purchases recorded; so for the first time, we know what it is that consumers appear to want most.

The top-selling item yesterday through PriceGrabber was the Nintendo Wii - no other game console cracked the Top 10 overall products list. The Wii was naturally also the top-selling video game-related package tracked by PriceGrabber, with Xbox 360 Elite ranking third. But selling more units than Microsoft sold consoles yesterday was Activision's Guitar Hero III: Legends of Rock bundle.

But the number two item on the PriceGrabber Top 10 overall list is a shocker: It's the brown version of Microsoft's first-edition Zune MP3 player, which many retailers have been selling this week at big markdowns.

The brown Zune knocked the silver 4 GB iPod nano down to sixth place in the overall list; and it took first place among electronics items tracked by PriceGrabber, bumping the nano to third place on the CE list. The TomTom GPS was the #2 selling CE item yesterday.

Nine of the top 10 selling items overall through PriceGrabber were electronics-oriented, with the #9 item being a certain pair of ladies' sheepskin boots. No PC actually made PriceGrabber's top three computer-related items, though Western Digital's 500 GB external hard drive was the number three item.

PriceGrabber's results pretty much match the Consumer Electronics Association's expectations last week. Their survey prior to Cyber Monday showed, in terms of electronics, customers wanted a video game system first and foremost, with additional memory second (and that portable WD HDD plays into that want as well), and an MP3 player third.

Comments

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I think it is bad when people are buying more Wii systems than they need just to sell them on e-bay and other online bidding places just to make more money. There are a lot of people looking for them and they can't be found in stores, however if you go on e-bay you can find them going from 500.00 and more. I have a grandson who has saved his money all year to get one and now is lost because he told everyone to get him games for Christmas for this system, his now grandparents have purchased the several games for him, and he can't find the game system. This child is going to be devastated Christmas along with several other kids. Since people are buying them up just to resale at a higher price on e-bay and the other online bidding places. Since finding this out I have called Walmart, Target, Best Buy, K-Mart and other stores that sale this item and no one gets any in. I have called these stores everyday for 3 weeks and no one has them and can't give rain checks or let you pay for one and call when it comes in. This is very trying and devastating on all.

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Scott M. Fulton, III:

You added this little tidbit:

"The brown Zune knocked the silver 4 GB iPod nano down to sixth place in the overall list"

Solely to get pitdingo frothing at the mouth, didn't you? I'm sure it will engender images of the rabid dingo in the minds of nearly everyone reading it.

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whats wrong with that again? People cant post anti-apple rhetoric online anymore? Thats what it seems.

of course people were all anti-bush during the '04 elections, we all know how well their efforts turned out lol.

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you mean the fire sale M$ is having on the old players which no one bought before? people are buying them now, since the price in finally in line for the shody product you get in the M$ Zune.

How are the new Zunes doing? LOL. thought so. No one is buying them.

http://www.roughlydrafte...s-zune-is-still-failing/

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You post the same tired link every time. What, no-one else is as biased?

Still have never touched one, have you?

Didn't think so....

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I believe that statement was an attempt to discredit pitdingo's claim that no one is buying Microsoft Zunes. It has nothing to do with anti-Apple rhetoric.

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"Here’s why the Zune will fail in 2007, and how Microsoft is painting a fraudulent portrait of interest that doesn’t exist."

Blah blah blah.

The author of that article fails... miserably.

Clearly, there is interest in the Zune. There always has been... just not as high as Apple's over-priced and under-featured offerings. The price-feature ratio on Apple's media players has to be the worst in the market.

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Pitdingbat,

You post the same speech every article, and yet you're still incorrect. Saying it over and over doesn't make it true.

You ignore the facts, so say it with me now: Along with the Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS, Zunes are the top seller of the holiday season. Lots of people are buying them, because lots of people like them.

That is why you are-- and sing this with me now in the style of a grandfather clock chiming at the hour-- WRONG, wrong, WRONG, wrong... wrong, Wrong, WRONG, wrong.... You're wrong....

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