| High Street Retailers Winning Online Shopping Battle |
The Internet properties of the 100 largest high street retailers in the UK, such as Argos, Next, and Marks & Spencer, received 19.3% more UK Internet visits during July 2008 than the 100 largest online-only retailers, such as Amazon, Play.com and ASOS.
High street retailers overtook their online-only counterparts for the first time during December 2006, but quickly fell behind them again for most of 2007. However, when the high street overtook again last Christmas, the gap was even greater than before. During 2008, the pure-play retailers only managed to edge ahead during February.
Between July 2007 and 2008, UK Internet traffic to the online properties of high street retailers increased by 18.7%, compared with a drop of 10.2% for online-only retailers. The top 100 high street retailers online accounted for 1.85% of all UK Internet visits in July 2008, equivalent to one in every five visits to an online shopping website.
Over the last 12 months, fashion has been the fastest-growing area of online retail in the UK. In July 2008, UK Internet visits to Hitwise's Shopping and Classifieds - Apparel and Accessories industry accounted for one in every ten visits to online retail websites, with the sector experiencing an annual growth rate of 34.2% since July 2007. Online fashion retail in the UK is dominated by the major high street brands, which accounted for seven of the top ten websites in the category during July.
The growth of the online fashion industry has been one of the main contributors to the increasing market share of high street retailers online, with UK Internet traffic to online-only fashion retailers more than doubling over the last 12 months.
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| 1. |
Argos |
www.argos.co.uk |
1.69% |
| 2. |
Tesco.com |
www.tesco.com |
1.27% |
| 3. |
Next |
www.next.co.uk |
0.90% |
| 4. |
Marks & Spencer |
www.marksandspencer.com |
0.74% |
| 5. |
John Lewis |
www.johnlewis.com |
0.58% |
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| Katy Perry - www.katyperry.com |
Position for week ending 02/08/2008: #56 (Music - Bands and Artists)
Position for week ending 09/08/2008: #20 (Music - Bands and Artists)
Positions Jumped: 36
UK Internet visits to the website for Katy Perry, the US singer whose song 'I Kissed a Girl' stayed at the top of the US Billboard charts for seven weeks, have increased eightfold over the four weeks ending 9/08/2008. During this period, the website ranked at #20 within the Music - Bands and Artists industry, up from #56 the week before.
As well as Google, the main drivers of visits to Perry's website were BBC Radio 1, YouTube and MySpace. Four of the top 10 searches for 'katy perry' were related to her #1 song.
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| Hitwise Dashboards with Search Intelligence Portfolios |
By using Hitwise Dashboards in conjunction with Search Intelligence Portfolios, you can determine which websites receive the most traffic from a group of terms that are relevant to your industry. For instance, if you are a broadband supplier, you might be interested in seeing which websites receive the most traffic from generic broadband-related terms.
To do this, create a portfolio of the relevant generic broadband terms - including misspells - using Hitwise's Search Intelligence tools. Then you can monitor up to 15 websites that receive traffic from those terms over a given time period using Dashboards.
In the following example, we can see that Top 10 Broadband received the most visits from generic broadband terms, capturing 12.69% of searches for these terms during the four weeks ending 9/08/2008.
If you would like to discuss this application further, please contact Hitwise Customer Support, or visit Hitwise University to learn more about Dashboards.
The following report shows websites for the portfolio 'Broadband Generic Search Terms', ranked by Volume for the 4 weeks ending 09/08/2008.
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| 1. |
Top 10 Broadband |
12.69% |
| 2. |
Broaband Checker |
9.72% |
| 3. |
Broadband Finder |
6.13% |
| 4. |
Broadband Checker |
5.54% |
| 5. |
ThinkBroadband.com |
5.34% |
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| Top Brands Account for Nine in Ten UK Internet Searches |
UK consumers are shunning generic Internet searches, such as 'cheap flights' or 'broadband', in favour of searching for popular brands. According to the Managing Your Brand Online report, the growth of branded search in the UK offers threats as well as opportunities for brand owners and marketers.
Eighty-eight percent of searches for the 2,000 most popular search terms in the UK during May 2008 were for branded terms, a figure that has increased from 65% in May 2005. The most searched-for term in the UK during May 2008 was 'facebook', which accounted for one in every 72 searches.
To register for the Managing Your Brand Report, click here.
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| US Swimmer Michael Phelps Most Popular Olympian in the UK |
As the Beijing Olympics kicked off during the first week of August, US swimmer Michael Phelps topped the list of the five most searched-for Olympians in the UK. Phelps is generating a lot of interest as he attempts to win eight gold medals in Beijing. The remaining four most searched-for Olympians are from the UK, with interest mostly focused on young first-timers: swimmer Hannah Miley, hockey player Charlotte Craddock, fourteen-year-old diver Tom Daley and diver Tonia Couch.
Download the Hitwise Widget to bring the latest online trends to your desktop!
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