The onset of the Christmas shopping season brought increased traffic to UK online retail sites, with the jewellery/luxury goods/accessories category experiencing the strongest growth, according to new figures from comScore.
Other categories that performed well were the mall, music, and flowers/gifts/greetings categories. High street retailers were particularly influenced by the seasonal uptick, said comScore, with retailers such as HMV, the John Lewis Partnership and the Dixons Stores Group all enjoying strong visitor growth.
The e-Cards and Shipping categories also achieved gains, while the Royal Mail Group property grew 31% to more than 4 million visitors.
Visitation to online dating sites also grew significantly in December, while Facebook.com continued to rise to the top of the online rankings – the social networking property moved up yet again in December to rank as the fourth most popular property.
| Top 10 Gaining Site Categories by Number of UK Unique Visitors, December 2008 vs. November 2008, Total UK, Age 15+ – Home and Work Locations* |
| Site Category |
Total Unique Visitors |
| Nov-08 |
Dec-08 |
% Change |
| Total Internet: Total Audience |
36,568 |
36,664 |
0% |
| e-cards |
3,108 |
4,553 |
46% |
| Retail – Jewellery/Luxury Goods/Accessories |
3,245 |
4,094 |
26% |
| Shipping |
4,225 |
5,259 |
24% |
| Retail – Music |
10,140 |
11,805 |
16% |
| Retail – Mall |
11,768 |
13,689 |
16% |
| Retail – Flowers/Gifts/Greetings |
4,775 |
5,522 |
16% |
| Retail – Department Stores |
9,701 |
11,087 |
14% |
| Online Dating |
3,821 |
4,354 |
14% |
| Retail – Computer Hardware |
16,203 |
18,425 |
14% |
| Retail – Consumer Goods |
6,148 |
6,917 |
12% |
| *Excludes traffic from public computers such as internet cafes or access from public phones or PDAs |
| Source: comScore World Metrix |
Figures released by Nielsen Online at the start of the year showed that the Christmas period significantly boosted a number of retail websites, with the top 10 sites seeing an average 37% year on year increase (see Christmas boosts retail websites).
Choicestream’s 2008 Personalisation Survey of US consumers, meanwhile, found that US retailers’ most attractive prospects – those who spend the most money and shop most frequently – are more likely to click on personalised ads than non-personalised ads.
The survey found that 39% of consumers are more likely to click on an ad if it is personalised; of those who shop online at least several times a month that number climbs to 58% (see New survey finds personalised ads attract high-value customers).
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