comScore has just released a new study of the online shopping activity of UK, French and German consumers during Christmas 2007, showing that online shopping activity built steadily throughout the season, peaking during the first half of December.
The sixth week of the season (Dec 3 – Dec 9) recorded the highest level of online shopping activity, up 38% versus the base period (Sep 3 – Oct 28) in the UK, and up 45% in France.
Week 7 (Dec 10 – Dec 16) was the second busiest period of online shopping activity, up 35% in the UK and 39% in France.
Germany’s online shopping season built more slowly, achieving peak traffic that was only 12% higher in the seventh week (Dec 10 – Dec 16) than in the base period. The high point occurred a week later in Germany than in the UK and France.
Throughout the Christmas shopping season, visits in the UK to online retail sites were led by Amazon Sites, which attracted a 9% share of total online retail category visits for the period, said comScore.
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 5% share.
Supermarket chain Tesco and online pure-play retail property Play.com Sites rounded out the top five with 4 percent and 3 percent shares, respectively.
| Top Retail Sites By Average Share Of Visits From UK Users During The Christmas Shopping Period* |
| Total UK, Age 15+ – Home And Work Locations** |
| Property |
UK Average Share Of Visits To Online Retail Sites |
| Amazon Sites |
9% |
| Apple Inc |
6% |
| Home Retail Group |
5% |
| Tesco Stores |
4% |
| Play.com Sites |
3% |
| *Average share of total visits to online retail sites (excluding auction sites) by UK visitors for the period Oct 29 – Dec 23 |
| **Excludes traffic from publiccomputers such as internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs. |
| Source: comScore |
In other research, comScore revealed that nearly $28 billion was spent online in the US during the Christmas period, a year on year rise of 19% (see $28bn Spent Online In US Festive Season).
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