Apparel & Accessories sector grows by 14% year on year
Hitwise has just released its Fashion Research Note for 2005, which highlights the importance of search marketing and profiles the key players in the sector. Some key insights from the report include:
- Apparel and Accessories websites enjoyed a 14% year on year growth in market share of visits in March.
- The category enjoyed stronger growth than many other retail categories.
- Rankings based on market share of visits change very little month to month.
- Next has maintained the #1 ranking each month since December 2003. The website enjoys significantly larger market share than other websites in the category.
- ASOS took the #2 spot in the rankings in November after close competition with La Redoute, Additions Direct, and Figleaves throughout 2004.
- UK Internet users show a strong preference for local Apparel and Accessories web sites, with nearly eight out every ten visits directed to a local site.
- Successful search marketing is vital to success in the sector with search engines sending the largest share of visits to the category.
- Eight out of every ten search terms that send visits to websites in the Apparel and Accessories category is a brand related term.
- The most popular product searches in recent weeks were for 'lingerie' and 'wristbands'.
Searches for Tony Blair on the increase as UK election draws near
With just 2 weeks to go before the UK makes its vote, Hitwise reveals that Labour's lead in the popularity polls is mirrored by online search terms data.
Search Terms Analysis of the three major party leaders reveals that the term 'tony blair' doubled its share of online searches following the announcement of the election in the week ending April 9. Searches for 'michael howard' and 'charles kennedy' also saw a marginal increase.
A comparison of search terms for the parties themselves, however, shows the Conservatives ahead of Labour in terms of online popularity. The term 'conservative party' is receiving 10% more searches than both 'labour party' and 'liberal democrats' and also continues to be the most visited party website.
In addition, visits to sites in the Hitwise Lifestyle - Politics category have increased by 15% since the election was announced, revealing a renewed public interest in the upcoming election despite reports that voters are already tiring of the drawn-out campaign process.
| Search Term | Share (%) |
|---|
| 1. | conservative party | 1.60 |
| 2. | bnp | 1.57 |
| 3. | labour party | 1.45 |
| 4. | liberal democrats | 1.43 |
| 5. | green party | 0.66 |
| 6. | british national party | 0.62 |
| 7. | labour | 0.58 |
| 8. | ukip | 0.55 |
| 9. | conservatives | 0.52 |
| 10. | conservative | 0.40 |
Fast Mover: OneBigVote.co.uk
www.onebigvote.co.uk
Position on April 1: 1,088
Position on April 2: 901
Positions Jumped: 187
Online marketing company Interactive Prospect Targeting launched an ambitious mock election this month, aiming to poll more than 7 million UK Internet users via its database of direct marketing recipients and viral circulation of the site.
Just prior to the official calling of the general election on April 4, IPT launched its election site, known as OneBigVote (www.onebigvote.co.uk). As its vast database of direct marketing recipients received the promotional emails, the site enjoyed a surge of traffic - coming from nowhere to debut on Hitwise at 1,088th amongst all sites, and leaping to 901st the following day. The site also reached 8th position in the Hitwise Lifestyle - Politics category for the week ending April 2, ahead of both Labour (www.labour.org.uk) and the Liberal Democrats (www.libdems.org.uk).
Results from OneBigVote, released on April 12, revealed that Michael Howard was the preferred Prime Minister. Out of 24,852 votes received by the site, the Conservatives claimed more than one third, with both Labour and the Liberal Democrats following on their heels with just over 23% of votes each.
News In Brief
Gambling sites race ahead on Grand National day
Visits to Gambling sites were up over 60% on the day of the Grand National and with a total of £250m bet overall, Saturday 9 April was the biggest individual betting day in history.
According to Hitwise Search Terms, many online punters were clearly doing their best to ensure they made the savviest bets, with searches for 'grand national odds' and 'grand national runners' making up two of the top variations on the term 'grand national' that were searched for in the lead-up to the race.
42% of searches on 'grand national' clicked through to the official website of the Grand National, www.aintree.co.uk, with 6.39% going through to www.theracingpages.org.uk
'Make Poverty History' clicks with online audience
Make Poverty History clicked its way to the number one position in the online charities sector, thanks to an ad campaign featuring a host of high-profile celebrities. Hitwise data for the week ending April 9 reveals that the official Make Poverty History website (www.makepovertyhistory.org) was the top site in the Community - Humanitarian sector with more than 11% market share following the launch of the campaign.
Traffic to the site remained high in the week following the campaign's launch on March 31, boosting the site to the #1 position in the Humanitarian category. Meanwhile, 'make poverty history' was also the top search term driving traffic to sites in the Humanitarian category for the week ending April 9.
Bargain hunters search out cheap cars as MG Rover collapses
Following reports that virtually new vehicles were being sold for almost half their list price, traffic to the official MG Rover website (www.mg-rover.com) shot up overnight.
The site almost doubled its market share of traffic to all sites in the Automotive - Manufacturers sector between Thursday April 14 and Friday April 15, from 2.2% to 4.1%. The following day, the site reached a peak of 4.5% share of the category, propelling it to #2 within the Automotive - Manufacturers rankings.
Searches for 'mg rover' also peaked last week following a 27% increase in the number of searches from the week ending April 9. The top variations on the search term 'mg rover' included 'mg rover latest news' and 'mg rover saic'.
Category Spotlight: Automotive - Manufacturers
The Manufacturers category includes all official websites of automotive manufacturers, such as Mercedes, BMW, Volkswagen and Audi. The data below is based on All sites, Weekly rankings for the week ending 16/04/2005, Ranked by 'Visits'.
|
Local Competitiveness Index
81.9%
of traffic to this category
was directed at domestic sites.
|
Traffic Distribution
The chart above illustrates the distribution of this category's traffic for the week among sites in various rank ranges.
|
| Top 10 Upstream Categories |
|---|
| 1. | Computers and Internet | 43.2% | | 2. | Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories | 33.7% | | 3. | Automotive | 31.4% | | 4. | Automotive - Manufacturers | 18.2% | | 5. | Automotive - Classifieds | 5.9% | | 6. | Shopping and Classifieds | 5.3% | | 7. | Business and Finance | 4.2% | | 8. | Automotive - Dealerships | 4.2% | | 9. | News and Media | 2.9% | | 10. | Entertainment | 2.3% |
|
| Top 10 Downstream Categories |
|---|
| 1. | Automotive | 45.1% | | 2. | Automotive - Manufacturers | 24.3% | | 3. | Computers and Internet | 18.5% | | 4. | Automotive - Dealerships | 10.1% | | 5. | Automotive - Classifieds | 9.3% | | 6. | Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories | 7.1% | | 7. | Travel | 6.0% | | 8. | Business and Finance | 5.8% | | 9. | Shopping and Classifieds | 5.6% | | 10. | Travel - Maps | 4.9% |
|
Media queries at Hitwise
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.
About this Newsletter
This monthly email Newsletter is designed to provide Hitwise subscribers with analysis of new developments, industry trends and competitive activity. The powerful real-time web intelligence capabilities of Hitwise and a continual flow of additional research findings make this an indispensable business resource.
You have received the Hitwise newsletter because you subscribed to our services, or a friend sent it to you. To change your details or unsubscribe from the Hitwise newsletter please click here.
Hitwise is strongly committed to your privacy rights and does not sell or give its list to third parties. To view the Hitwise Privacy Policy please click here.
Brought to you by the team at Hitwise United Kingdom - www.hitwise.co.uk.
Copyright Hitwise Pty Ltd, April 2005
| 
Hitwise United Kingdom Newsletter - April 2005
Real-time competitive intelligence