Online retail looks set to continue its growth over the coming months, defying a slump in high street spending to provide e-commerce with a bumper Christmas season, according to the latest data from Hitwise.
The online intelligence service claims that UK internet users will rely more heavily on online retailers than ever before during this year’s festive season, with the online retail sector set for a 25% increase in share of visits from July to December 2005
Such an increase would constitute a 12% year on year increase since December 2004, while visits to online retailers are expected to peak at 1 in 7 in the week ending 3 December 2005.
Hitwise claims that this peak will be driven by visits to eBay UK, which typically sees its traffic peak earlier than other online retailers.
Other retailers will see their highest traffic in the following week, ending 10 December, the analyst claims.
The forecasts are made from analysis of UK internet user behaviour over the past two years, as well as year to date data for 2005.
“This growth in online retailing is great news for retailers who are facing increasingly difficult times on the high street”, explained Heather Hopkins, director of research for Hitwise UK. “Last Christmas was one of the best ever for online retailers and this year is shaping up to be even stronger. Firms that are well prepared stand to benefit considerably from increased consumer demand for online shopping.”
Earlier this year saw online analyst eMarketer predict a rise in popularity for e-commerce across Europe, with increases of 40% expected for this year. The rise, it is claimed, has been spurred on by the adoption of broadband across the continent, with online shopping and purchasing on the rise even in countries with deteriorating offline retail markets (see European E-Commerce Forecast To Rise By 40% In 2005).
According to Hitwise’s latest data, online retail is one of the biggest categories of online usage, with the researcher’s Shopping & Classifieds category accounting for 11% of all UK internet visits in July. The statistics translate to 1 in every 9 internet visits being directed towards retail websites, with the category attracting a larger share of visits than search (10%) and Travel (5%) destinations.
Within the shopping & Classifieds sector, auction websites are by far the largest retail sub-category, representing 44% of visits. This is due, say Hitwise, to eBay UK’s dominance, accounting for 85% of visits within the auctions sub-category. Department Stores are the second largest retail sub-category at 12% followed by Rewards and Directories at 10%.
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