In August, Hitwise predicted that visits to retail websites would peak in the week ending 3rd December 2005, and with 2 weeks to go until the projected peak, Hitwise can confirm that retail sites have already passed last year's high.

At the current rate of growth, online retailers are set to have their best year yet.

Some key insights from the report include:

• The Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds category captured 13.77% of all UK Internet visits for the week ending 19th November 2005, which represents a 14% increase over the same week in 2004.

• UK visits to retail websites have already surpassed last year's peak. For the week ending 19th November, visits to retail websites were 5% higher than the week ending 4th December 2004 - the strongest week for retail visits in 2004.

• Kelkoo UK has been the leader among shopping comparison sites over the past year, measured both in the volume of visits the site sends to retailers and the volume of visits the site attracts. Kelkoo UK sends nearly 4 times more traffic to retailers compared with its closest competitor, Pricerunner.co.uk.

• Shopping.co.uk was a new entrant in August 2004 and has enjoyed significant gains in the share of visits it attracts, increasing 772% year-on-year.

• Google's comparison shopping offering, Froogle UK, has also enjoyed healthy growth since its launch last October. The share of upstream visits that Froogle UK sends to retailers has increased 8 times comparing the weeks ending 12th November 2005 and 13th November 2004.

• Appliances and Electronics, Department Stores, and Computers are the top downstream categories from shopping comparison sites. Different comparison shopping sites show different strengths.

• Hitwise Search Intelligence reveals that Apple's iPod is set to be a big hit again this Christmas, with searches for 'ipod' and 'ipod mini' among the top 20 search queries. Searches for 'ipod' increased 8% in the week ending 19th November, from the previous week.

• Bratz and Barbie are also set to be popular gifts this Christmas, holding their own amongst the top 20 product search terms.

The leading product-related search terms driving traffic to retail websites for the week ending 19th November were 'robbie williams tickets', 'broadband', 'robbie williams', 'mobile phones' and 'ipod'.

The Movies category features all sites that are primarily concerned with film and video movies, including sites that focus on particular movies or movie stars, or sites that provide reviews, news and Hollywood gossip, plus cinema websites and video stores. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 26/11/2005 » Ranks by 'Visits'.

Local Competitiveness Index 43.6% 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 54.6% 2. Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories 42.4% 3. Entertainment 21.4% 4. Entertainment - Movies 11.4% 5. Shopping and Classifieds 8.9% 6. News and Media 4.5% 7. Lifestyle 3.6% 8. Computers and Internet - Graphics and Clip Art 3.2% 9. Entertainment - Television 2.8% 10. Computers and Internet - Email Services 2.8%

Top 10 Downstream Categories 1. Entertainment 35.3% 2. Computers and Internet 25.7% 3. Entertainment - Movies 19.1% 4. Shopping and Classifieds 16.6% 5. Computers and Internet - Search Engines and Directories 10.4% 6. News and Media 6.0% 7. Entertainment - Television 4.5% 8. Computers and Internet - Software 4.5% 9. Shopping and Classifieds - Department Stores 4.1% 10. Computers and Internet - Net Communities and Chat 3.8%