It was billed as a shopper’s dream, but the real winners at Yahoo!’s
so-called
“Biggest Sale in Internet History” were the participating retailers, some
of whom saw sales volume increase as much as 500 percent, according to the
Web portal.
Yahoo!said the three-day sales event last week produced
a 25 percent boost in gross merchandise sales in its shopping area. Some
merchants such as Hewlett-Packard saw revenues from their own sites increase
380 percent. The average increase in sales for name-brand retailers was 70
percent, Yahoo! said.
Yahoo!, which has been looking to diversify its revenue stream as Internet
advertising has declined, says it now has more than 20 retail categories in
its shopping area. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company’s commerce offering
includes Yahoo! Auctions, Yahoo! Shopping, Yahoo! Travel and Yahoo!
Warehouse.