UK Online Shopping Sees Seasonal Growth
UK cyber shopping visits continued to gain momentum in the last week of November, up 34% versus the average weekly online shopping activity in the eight weeks prior to the start of the Christmas shopping season, according to the latest figures from comScore.
Christmas shopping activity in Germany has started more slowly, said comScore, primarily due to the trade union strikes in the transport and service industries and the reported decline in consumer confidence.
Bob Ivins, comScore EVP, European Markets, said: “While the number of visits to online retail sites is developing well for the Christmas shopping season in the UK and France, retail site visitation in Germany is still not higher than it was before the Christmas shopping season started.
“This lack of online retail growth is consistent with the softness in retail spending in Germany that has been widely reported.”
Visits to online retail sites in the UK were led during November by the online retailer Amazon Sites, with a 9% share of total online retail category visits for the month. Apple Inc., which also has high-street stores in the UK, had a 6% share, while the Home Retail Group, owner of multi-channel retailers Argos and Homebase, had a 4% share.
Supermarket chain Tesco, also held a 4% share. Rounding out the top five positions is online retailer Play.com sites with 3% of the retail site visits.
| Christmas Online Shopping Index*, Visits to Online Retail Sites Excluding Auction Sites, UK, France, & Germany** | |||
| Time Period | UK | France | Germany |
| Base Period Index (Sep 3 – Oct 28)*** | 100 | 100 | 100 |
| Week 1 (Oct 29 – Nov 4) | 112 | 115 | 102 |
| Week 2 (Nov 5 – Nov 11) | 124 | 138 | 105 |
| Week 3 (Nov 12 -Nov 18) | 125 | 127 | 99 |
| Week 4 (Nov 19 – Nov 25) | 123 | 121 | 97 |
| Week 5 (Nov 26 – Dec 2) | 134 | 127 | 97 |
| *Point index represents the percentage change in the number of visits to online retail sites compared to the pre-Christmas season base period average | |||
| **Total UK, French & German internet audiences, age 15+, home &work locations. Excludes traffic from public computers such as internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs | |||
| ***Defined as the average weekly visits to online retail sites excluding auction sites for the period Sep 3 – Oct 28 | |||
| Source: comScore | |||
In other research, comScore found that the UK online retail sector attracted 29 million unique visitors in October 2007, which amounts to 89% of the country’s total online user base in that month (see UK Online Retail Sector Attracts 29 Million Unique Users In October).
The most popular online property was eBay, which attracted 22.2 million unique visitors or 68% of the UK’s total internet audience.
Meanwhile, a report from Forrester Research suggested that internet users in Europe will spend a projected â‚Ź51 billion (US$71 billion) online during the Christmas season this year (see European Internet Users To Spend €51b Online At Christmas).