EBay traffic leads online shopping sites

NEW YORK: Online auction site eBay Inc. had double the traffic of Amazon.com Inc., its closest competitor among U.S. Web retail sites, at the start of the holiday online shopping season, according to data released on Tuesday.

Nielsen NetRatings, which tracks traffic to more than 100 retail Web sites, said eBay had 11.7 million unique visitors and Amazon 5.6 million on "Cyber Monday," when Internet shopping gets a boost as Americans return to work in force after the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and "Black Friday," the traditional start to the shopping season in stores.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. was third with 3.1 million, Target Inc. fourth with 2.2 million, Overstock.com Inc. fifth at 1.93 million and Dell Inc. sixth with 1.88 million.