Target.com cracks comScore top 50

Target’s website was among the 50 most heavily trafficked U.S. web properties during August, according to comScore Media Metrix. The online measurement service showed Target.com with 26.5 million unique visitors for the month, which earned it the 46th position on the list.

That’s the good news. The bad news is traffic to Target.com actually declined from August the prior year when more than 27.8 million visitor hit the site and Target.com was ranked 37th. The August comScore figures do not reflect the surge in traffic related to launch of the exclusive Missoni for Target brand, which cause temporary site outages. Nevertheless, what makes the decline especially noteworthy is that on Tuesday, Aug. 23, Target relaunched its site, which presumably should have resulted in an increase in traffic. The site was redesigned to provide a more desirable user experience, among other things, so the frequency of site usage among regular Target.com visitors should have increased and new visitors should have been attracted.

Granted, the new site was up for only nine days at the end of the month so it is impossible to tell whether there was a surge in site visitation following the relaunc, but it wasn’t enough to offset weak traffic early in the month. It is also conceivable regular visitors to the site showed up after the change was made, decided they didn’t like the new look or functionality and stayed away. If that’s the case, Target had better hope the effect is only temporary as the holidays are here and shoppers will be heading online en mass in the months ahead.