Best ever year for online retail in the UK

Hitwise, the world's leading online competitive intelligence service, today reports that the 2004 Christmas season saw the strongest ever performance for the Internet retail sector in the UK, with online retailers experiencing a 23% increase in traffic from December 2003.

Hitwise monthly data for December 2003 to December 2004 shows that the sector experienced a period of particularly healthy growth between August and December 2004, with market share of all UK Internet traffic directed at online shopping websites increasing from just over 10% in August to more than 12% in the final month of the year.

The highest performing week during December was the week ending December 4. The first week of the month saw market share of online traffic to retail sites surpass 13% as online shoppers sought to beat the Christmas crowds and avoid the last-minute pre-holiday rush by searching for the best deals and making gift purchases online.

The top 20 UK online retail websites for the month of December included eBay (www.ebay.co.uk), Amazon (www.amazon.co.uk), Kelkoo (www.kelkoo.co.uk) and Argos (www.argos.co.uk), as well as the websites of several major high street computer and electronics chains: Currys, Comet and PC World all performed strongly throughout the pre-Christmas period.

A popular gift this Christmas was clearly the portable MP3 player, with the iPod and its various imitators flying out of stores around the UK in December. Subsequently, 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. December 25 saw both sites increase their market share amongst all sites tracked by Hitwise by more than 500% and 150% respectively, as users evidently rushed online to download music for their new gadgets.

Hitwise Search Terms data for the 2004 Christmas season highlights the dominance of MP3 players, toys, games and gadgets in the Christmas gift market, with data on the top 10 branded products and the top 10 generic products revealing the most popular items with consumers in the lead-up to Christmas.

'ipod' was the top brand entered into search engines by users who visited sites in the online retail sector, with 'mp3 players' the fifth most searched-for generic product. Gaming consoles also proved hugely popular, with 'playstation 2', 'ps2' and 'xbox' making up three of the top 10 branded products.

SHOPPING & CLASSIFIEDS: TOP 10 BRANDED PRODUCTS Based on data for four weeks ending 8th January 2005 Search Term 1. ipod 2. barbie 3. playstation 2 4. samsung d500 5. ps2 6. bratz 7. dell computers 8. robosapien 9. playmobil 10. xbox

SHOPPING & CLASSIFIEDS : TOP 10 GENERIC PRODUCTS Based on data for four weeks ending 8th January 2005 Search Term 1. mobile phones 2. digital cameras 3. broadband 4. lingerie 5. mp3 players 6. fancy dress 7. books 8. gadgets 9. dvd 10. dvd recorders

News In Brief

easyJet and RyanAir fly high during January

January 2005 looks set to be a bumper month for Europe's second biggest discount airline, easyJet. The cut-price airline recently reported a rapid rise in passenger numbers for December, and Hitwise data reveals a similarly sharp rise in online traffic to the easyJet website for the first week of January. While traffic to the site dipped slightly during the holiday period from December 25 to January 1, the week ending January 8 saw a 20% increase in traffic, with the website's market share increasing from just over 10% to more than 12.2% in the Travel - Transport sector in the space of a week.

easyJet's cut-price competitor, RyanAir, also increased its traffic by 18% in the first week of January, with Hitwise weekly data revealing a leap from 5.9% to almost 7% market share of the Travel - Transport sector between January 1 and January 8.


Asia disaster prompts surge in traffic to charity websites

The devastation caused by the Indian Ocean earthquake resulted in a dramatic increase to charity websites this month as Internet users rushed online to give their support. Following the tsunami disaster on December 26, traffic to humanitarian websites grew over eight-fold in the space of just four days: from 0.05% of all UK Internet traffic on December 26, to 0.4% of traffic by December 30.

The website of the UK's Disaster Emergency Committee (www.dec.org.uk), an umbrella organisation which coordinates the UK's national appeal for humanitarian crises overseas, was the most visited charity website with almost 30% share of all visits made to charity websites. The appeal for donations to the crisis resulted in the website increasing its ranking by over 120 places in the space of seven days, from the week ending December 25 to January 1. However, the overwhelming response to the appeal resulted in people having difficulty making donations online and instead visitors were advised to make a donation by telephone.

Fast Mover: Apple UK

www.apple.com/uk


Position on January 10: 806
Position on January 12: 359
Positions jumped: 447

Following Apple's recent announcement about its new low-cost iPod Shuffle and Mac Mini products, the Apple UK website (www.apple.com/uk) has rocketed up the Hitwise charts, more than doubling its traffic in the space of two days.

Apple's UK site was bombarded with traffic following the company's announcement on January 10, with users rushing online to order the company's new products. The ultra-lightweight iPod Shuffle, which will retail at just £69, looks set to become hugely successful.

The Apple website jumped from #806 to #359 out of all websites tracked by Hitwise between January 10 and January 12. The site also peaked at #51 within the online retail sector on January 12.

If you are interested in using Hitwise content and statistics in publications and presentations, we encourage you to do so. Please source the content as "Hitwise United Kingdom - www.hitwise.co.uk".

Additionally - if you require assistance with statistics or content, please feel free to contact Jannie Cahill at jannie.cahill@hitwise.com.

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Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, January 2005