First Five Days Of eShopping Winners: Amazon, Walmart, Etsy & Home Depot

Once trick-or-treating ends, the masks come off, and the shopping game faces go on. Retailers in-store are raring to go with news of their Black Friday shopping plans, from when stores are open and for how long. But online, the focus seems to be more so aimed at the weeks leading up to the minute shoppers wipe their mouths after indulging in their Thanksgiving meal.

Of those that are already off to the online shopping races? Amazon, Walmart, Etsy and Home Depot have already made the biggest jumps up (over last year) on the Internet Retailer 2016 Top 500 Guide, in terms of both desktop and mobile traffic to their sites. Of the 100 companies listed in the guide, more than 746.8 million visits occurred — notably, just in the first five days of November. More than half of those visits were by way of mobile device.

Amazon has been touting its Black Friday deals since Nov. 1. Walmart is hawking its “Early Bird Online Specials.” Home Depot has put up the signal for special Black Friday savings and “Lowest Prices Of The Year.”

For true and tangible context, Amazon was visited more than 385 million times globally in those first five days, according to website data from SimilarWeb. Whether or not that seems like a lot, compared to last year, it’s already up by 33 million more visits compared to last year at this time.

Walmart trails with more than 54 million visits this year, which is nearly 7 million more than last year. Home improvement site HomeDepot.com has had 3 million more visitors this year over last year, leveling out at a total 20 million visits in these first five days.

Perhaps most interesting is Etsy, which offers small businesses and crafters the opportunity for a global market. The platform was visited more than 30 million times in the first few days of the month, which is a bump up of more than 8 percent over last year. The site has not launched holiday promotions, but it has decorated the site to celebrate the festive shopping time.

The guide, however, does include some lagging companies and brands. The companies that have seen the biggest online visitor declines include Best Buy, Victoria’s Secret and Gap. They’re not alone: 76 of the 100 retailers listed did see a decline over last year.