Hitwise Foresees Xmas Success for Online Retailers
September 26 2005
There may be a slump on the high street, but the UK online retail sector is set to grow 25% between July and December this year - representing a 12% year-on-year increase since December 2004. These predictions come from the newly released Hitwise UK Online Retail Report.
The report, based on an analysis of UK Internet user behaviour for the past two years, anticipates that visits to online retailers will peak the week ending 3rd December 2005, with more than one in every seven Internet visits going to online retailers that week. Other insights from the report include:
- Auctions is the largest sub-category within Shopping & Classifieds, largely driven by the popularity of eBay. One in every four UK visits to online retailers goes to eBay UK, and the site has seen a 40% increase in visits between July 2004 and July 2005.
- After eBay, the most popular retail sites for last December were Amazon, Kelkoo and Argos.
- Online retail growth during the 2004 Christmas season was driven in particular by Flowers and Gifts (102% growth), Video and Games (64% growth), and Music (62%).
- 2005 has seen the overall market share of the industry's top 20 sites increase - they made up 57.4% of visits to retail sites in July 2005.
'Firms that are well prepared stand to benefit considerably from increased consumer demand for online shopping,' according to Heather Hopkins, Director of Research for Hitwise UK. She explains that high street retailers need to concentrate on attracting visits from generic product searches, as well as searches for the brand name. She cites
www.woolworths.co.uk as a successful example: last December, for example, it was one of the top recipients of searches for 'portable dvd players' and 'playstation games'. The report includes detailed Best Practice Case Studies for both Woolworths and Argos.
The information is based on the activity of 8.43 million UK Internet users, with data gained directly from a sample of ISPs. The various metrics provided - including User Visits, Average Session Time, and Page Requests - are defined according to definitions from the US Internet Advertising Bureau's Media Measurement Task Force on Metrics and Methodology.
A full copy of the Hitwise UK Online Retail Report is available until 30th September at
www.hitwise.co.uk/info/contact/uk_xmas_retail_report.html.
All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.
