OREANDA-NEWS. December 03, 2014. The official start to the U.S. holiday shopping season is here, and to help put things into perspective, Verizon Enterprise Solutions is launching the Verizon Retail Index.  

Designed to identify online traffic patterns in the United States that Verizon attributes to consumer retail shopping activity, the Verizon Retail Index will measure average daily traffic and peak volumes from the Verizon IP network during the holiday season. Initial findings, which also include data insights based on traffic from the Verizon Cloud, will be posted at 9:30 a.m. ET on the Verizon Enterprise Solutions News Center starting Friday (Nov. 28) and will continue through the end of the year. Information will be available here and updated daily.

“The size and strength of the Verizon IP network and our cloud platform give us tremendous insight into online shopping trends among consumers,” said Michele Dupre, vice president of retail and hospitality at Verizon Enterprise Solutions. “The Verizon Retail Index offers decision makers and influencers in the retail, shipping and transportation industries a fresh point of view about online consumer habits. As more people go online to comparison shop and take advantage of Web promotions such as free shipping, in-store trials, discounts and loyalty programs over the holidays, it should be insightful to see when that activity is occurring and to what extent.”

Calculating the Verizon Retail Index
The Verizon Retail Index is based on traffic data attributed to consumer shopping activity from the company’s networks over a 24-hour period. Based on historical network data, Verizon has assigned a baseline value of 100 to represent the average daily traffic rate. As part of its analysis, Verizon also will factor in select cloud data and provide the data with insight from the company’s leading retail experts. Each day the Retail Index will be presented on a graph to provide an at-a-glance view of the 2014 online holiday shopping season.