| Marks & Spencer, HMV.co.uk and Woolworths Among Top Performers this Christmas |
Monthly data for visits to retail websites in the UK over the Christmas period reveals that High Street retailers such as Marks & Spencer, HMV.co.uk and Woolworths were among the top performers online in December.
Earlier this month, Marks & Spencer boss Stuart Rose used the "R word" (recovery) for the first time to describe their performance and Hitwise data reveals that the share of UK internet visits to the retailer was up 25% year-on-year in December, supporting the brand's strong online trading, reportedly up 70%. Advertising and strong offers from Woolworths, Marks and Spencer and HMV.co.uk in particular seem to have driven the growth in visits to these websites.
Google and Yahoo! were also winners at Christmas, with search engines accounting for 36% of upstream visits to retail websites, representing a 20% increase year-on-year. This growth was led by Google and Yahoo! Search. Google (combined UK and dot com properties) accounted for 28% of upstream visits to retail websites in December, up 28% year-on-year. Yahoo! Search (combined UK and dot com properties) accounted for 2.4% of upstream visits, up 60% year-on-year. Both Google UK and Yahoo! UK & Ireland Search sent one in five of their own visits to retail websites in December.
In September, Hitwise issued a series of predictions for Christmas retailing online. Were they correct?
Prediction: Share of category visits will rise 8% year-on-year
In December 2006, visits to the Hitwise Retail Index (an index of 100 leading retail websites) were up 5% year-on-year, cementing a strong year for online retail in the UK. This is slightly lower than the 8% we predicted in September.
Prediction: High Street retailers will continue to make gains against pure-play providers
High street retailers were among the biggest gainers this Christmas, experiencing some of the largest increases in market share of UK internet visits among the top 100 retailers. In particular, market share of UK internet visits increased year-on-year in December by:
- +25% for Marks and Spencer
- +26% for Woolworths
- +60% for HMV.co.uk
- +23% for John Lewis
- +107% for Waitrose
Prediction: More last-minute shopping
Hitwise predicted that whilst visits to retail websites would again peak in the second week of December (week to 9th December 2006), the peak would straddle the second and third weeks, as opposed to the first and second weeks as they had in 2005. Visits did peak in the week to 9th December 2006 and whilst they declined slightly the following week, remained stronger than they had in 2005, reflecting the trend to more last-minute shopping.
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| Search Suggestions - 'flights to' |
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The following report provides a detailed analysis on 'flights to' for the 4 weeks ending 20/01/2007. Results are based on the volume of searches.
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| 1. |
flights to australia |
1.12% |
90.47% |
| 2. |
flights to tenerife |
0.75% |
95.67% |
| 3. |
cheap flights to tenerife |
0.64% |
98.14% |
| 4. |
flights to new york |
0.63% |
87.56% |
| 5. |
cheap flights to australia |
0.59% |
94.55% |
| 6. |
flights to cyprus |
0.56% |
94.84% |
| 7. |
cheap flights to new york |
0.53% |
93.17% |
| 8. |
flights to canada |
0.52% |
96.40% |
| 9. |
flights to malaga |
0.44% |
90.34% |
| 10. |
flights to florida |
0.43% |
92.69% |
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| Thomson.co.uk - www.thomson.co.uk |
Position week ending October 28: 110
Position week ending January 13: 57
Positions jumped: 53
Visits to Travel websites have shot up over the past couple of weeks as consumers turned their attention away from Christmas to thinking of winter escapes. In the past two weeks (comparing the week ending 13th January 2007 and the week ending 30th December 2006), visits to Travel Agency websites are up 67%, Destinations and Accommodation websites are up 52% and Commercial Airline websites are up 49%. Thomson Holidays has benefited well, currently the 2nd most visited Travel Agency website in the UK behind Expedia.
Visits to travel websites are following a similar seasonal pattern this year to previous years, with visits to Travel websites declining between October and December and climbing again in January. However, year-on-year, visits to Travel websites are down slightly, by -11% to Travel Agencies and -5% to Commercial Airline websites. The reasons for this are likely a mild winter and reports of a lack of snow in the Alps.
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| UK Internet Users Head Online to Buy LA Galaxy Kit |
As the news broke that the Beckhams were taking on LA, both UK and US internet users turned to the web for the latest information on one of sport's biggest ever deals and to take a look at David Beckham's new club.
Hitwise data reveals that UK internet searches for 'David Beckham' were up 4-fold for the week ending 13th January 2007 and surpassed searches for 'cristiano ronaldo' who is currently in the running for 'Player of the Season' for Manchester United, Beckham's old club.
Searches for his new football club 'LA Galaxy' increased from a base of zero to overtake searches for the footballer himself. Searches for "la galaxy" were almost 30% higher than those for "david beckham" for the week ending January 13 and 'la galaxy' was the 13th most searched-for term of almost 7,000 terms that resulted in traffic to the Sports - Football category, ahead of many larger football clubs like 'aston villa' and 'blackburn rovers'.
Hitwise data reveals that 28.28% of UK internet visits to www.lagalaxy.com went on to visit the Major League Soccer gear website www.mlsgear.com where you can buy kit for all the US soccer teams.
Hitwise US data shows similar interest to the UK, as visits from US internet users to the Los Angeles Galaxy's official website www.lagalaxy.com took the site from relative obscurity to number 8 in the Hitwise Sports - Soccer category, whilst US searches for "david beckham" quadrupled in the week ending 13th January 2007.
Cabbage Soup Most Searched-for Diet
New Year resolutions were in full swing in January, with visits to the Health & Medical - Wellbeing category attracting a larger share of visits on everyone's first day back at work after the New Year, with visits up 6% from January 2 2006.
Tesco Diets (www.tescodiets.com) led the UK fitness charge by becoming the most visited site within the Hitwise Wellbeing category, increasing its share of visits by 387% from the 1st to the 2nd January. However by 3rd January, visits to the Weight Watchers website (www.weightwatchers.co.uk) reclaimed its #1 position from the same day in 2006 as its new year's TV promotion kicked in.
Hitwise Search Intelligence data reveals that eighties diet system 'The Cambridge diet', which made a big return in the summer last year, is proving very popular with UK internet users with searches increasing almost five-fold year-on-year.
'cambridge diet' was the most searched-for dieting term for the 4 weeks ending 30th December, along with perennial favourites 'atkins diet', 'cabbage soup diet' and 'gi diet'. However, it appears that the UK's love affair with the Atkins diet is fading fast: Hitwise data reveals that 7% of searches for 'Atkins diet' sent traffic to anti-Atkins website www.atkinsexposed.org, whilst searches for the diet are down almost 50% year-on-year.
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| Health and Medical |
Primary and secondary health provision, health information, medical and pharmaceutical products manufacturers, hospitals, paramedical services, organisations and general health and wellbeing lifestyle sites. The data below is based on All sites » Weekly rankings for the week ending 20/01/2007 » Ranks by 'Visits'.
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| 59.5% |
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of traffic to this category was directed at domestic sites.
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| 1. |
Computers and Internet |
59.8% |
| 2. |
Computers and Internet - Search Engines |
50.4% |
| 3. |
Health and Medical |
15.0% |
| 4. |
Health and Medical - Information |
8.4% |
| 5. |
Shopping and Classifieds |
4.7% |
| 6. |
Education |
4.4% |
| 7. |
Business and Finance |
3.8% |
| 8. |
Education - Reference |
3.4% |
| 9. |
Computers and Internet - Email Services |
3.0% |
| 10. |
Government |
2.9% |
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| 1. |
Health and Medical |
26.9% |
| 2. |
Computers and Internet |
19.3% |
| 3. |
Health and Medical - Information |
14.3% |
| 4. |
Shopping and Classifieds |
11.5% |
| 5. |
Computers and Internet - Search Engines |
8.9% |
| 6. |
Business and Finance |
8.5% |
| 7. |
Education |
7.1% |
| 8. |
Education - Reference |
5.3% |
| 9. |
Government |
4.8% |
| 10. |
News and Media |
4.6% |
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