Online Stores' Christmas Boom

The 2004 Christmas season saw the strongest ever performance for the Internet retail sector in the UK, with a 23% increase in traffic versus December 2003, according to online intelligence provider Hitwise. Online offerings from High Street names dominate much of the top 20 sites but with eBay and Amazon way out in front the dotcoms still have a major share.

Between August and December 2004, market share of all UK Internet traffic directed at online shopping web sites increased from just over 10% to more than 12%. The week ending December 4th was busiest with market share of online traffic to retail sites passing 13% - perhaps indicating that some learnt from previous experience of late gift delivery and broken promises from online stores, and ordered early.

Portable MP3 players, including the iPod and its various imitators, were a major item in December and both Apple's iTunes ( www.apple.com/itunes ) and the newly-relaunched Napster MP3 download site ( www.napster.co.uk ) saw a massive peak in traffic on Christmas day itself. Both sites increased their market share amongst all sites tracked by Hitwise by more than 500% and 150% respectively between 23rd and 25th December, as users rushed online to download music for their new gadgets.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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