Christmas boosts retail websites

Amazon is ranked as the number one retail site in Nielsen’s study, easily ahead of its nearest competitor in the sector, as Argos comes in second with an average of 8.2 million unique users per month in Q4.

Play.com was the only pure online player in the top 10, coming fourth with an average of 5.7 million unique users, while all the other sites belong to High Street retailers.

Among the most popular retailers online, Littlewoods, Asda and Marks & Spencer enjoyed the largest year on year growth, of 66%, 53% and 46% respectively.

Alex Burmaster, communications director for Nielsen Online, said: “The fact that the leading retailers online managed to attract over a third more visitors than they did for Christmas 2007 meant online retail provided some very bright news amidst the overall gloomy economic picture at the end of 2008.

“It’s not that online retail will be impervious to the tighter financial environment but it has an opportunity to weather the storm better than other elements of the economy, particularly if retailers promote the web as the best way of finding cheaper goods in the most efficient and convenient way possible,” he added.

Nielsen’s survey also found that the five major retailed-focused sectors online averaged a 19% increase in unique users during the 2008 Christmas shopping period (Q4) compared to the 2007 period.

The biggest retail sector, Mass Merchandisers – which includes retailers such as Amazon, Argos and Tesco – experience a 15% year on year increase in unique users during the period.

Among the five major retail sectors online, Nielsen also found that ‘Multi-Category Home & Fashion’- which includes sites such as Marks & Spencer, Boots and Next – had the largest year on year growth of 30%.

Burmaster said: “Across the board, the online retail sectors have done well, all attracting more visitors in the 2008 Christmas shopping period than they did in 2007. The ‘Multi-Category Home and Fashion’ sector – which includes sites that sell various home & fashion goods including strong growth retailers such as Laura Ashley, BHS and T.K. Maxx – has done particularly well, growing at around five times the rate of overall Internet growth.

“Again, this is encouraging for the retail sector in 2009 as people aren’t coming online just for small-ticket, everyday items like CD’s and groceries but are increasingly looking to buy all manner of items from clothes for all the family to furniture across the entire house,” he continued.