Handbag Sees Visitor Numbers Climb 26%

Handbag.com, the women’s website which is a joint venture between high street chemist Boots and Hollinger Telegraph New Media, has announced a 26% increase in unique visitor numbers since May 2001, which now means it can claim a higher circulation than women’s print magazines Cosmopolitan and Glamour.

The ABCE figure for October 2001 puts the number of unique visitors to the site at 509,629, compared to Cosmopolitan’s most recent circulation figure of 452,176 and Glamour’s 451,486.

The website launched in October 1999 (see Telegraph And Boots Target Women With New Internet Service) and was swiftly joined by Freeserve’s iCircle, Associated New Media’s charlottestreet.com (see ANM And Freeserve Unveil Women’s Web Offerings) and IPC’s BeMe. A year ago, ivillage.co.uk, partly backed by Tesco, launched. However, it seems the market may be reaching saturation point, as this August saw the end for BeMe (see IPC Closes Online Business), while charlottestreet was given a new name and a complete facelift, re-emerging as www.femail.co.uk (see ANM To Rename Charlotte Street).

Nancy Cruickshank, managing director of handbag.com has said that the latest figures exceed the visitor targets outlined in the original plan. The company has also announced the appointment of two new non-executive directors, whose skills should further the promotional and editorial cause of the site. Zoe Morgan is the director of marketing at Boots, while Emma Soames is editor of Telegraph magazine and has editorial experience titles including Tatler and Vogue.

Handbag.com: 020 7292 0020 www.handbag.com

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