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Hitwise Intelligence - Alan Long - Asia Pacific
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In tough times, in brands we trust!
November 06, 2008
In a previous blog – Online Gathering Retail Muscle – I compared the top 100 Bricks and Mortar retailers with the top 100 pure online retailers to establish a picture of the online retail landscape.
With the credit crunch taking effect and the amount of financial uncertainty surrounding us, it's a good time to review that post as we enter the crucial retail period this Christmas.
As the chart above clearly highlights, the traditional brands – Bricks & Mortar retailers, are receiving a substantial increase in visits and now lead over their online counterparts. Bricks & Mortar retailers currently hold a 21.88% share lead over Online Retailers as of week ending November 1, 2008, reversing the reported 28.7% lead by Online Retailers in week ending June 21, 2008. This separation between the two custom categories has not been seen since late 2005.
Bricks & Mortar Retailers have seen a year on year growth in visits of 29.87%, and the majority of this growth has been seen in the past four weeks, increasing 23.17%. This past week's growth of 13.79% is strong compared to the corresponding week in 2007 of 3.71%.
Click chart to enlarge.
Online Retailers are enjoying accelerated growth over the past 4 weeks up 4.19%, compared to year-on-year growth of just 1.94%. This past week's growth (w/e November 1, 2008) is higher than the corresponding weeks in 2007 with an increase of 1.75% versus 0.74%.
Click chart to enlarge.
So what has caused this change in the landscape, is it the credit crisis, is it the larger brands starting to have some greater marketing impact online or are other factors at play?
In previous years Online Retailers growth has outpaced Bricks & Mortar brands online leading into Christmas so this is potentially a substantial change in the online retailing landscape.
"In tough times people revert to brands they know and trust" is an old adage and an underlying reason why the development and management of your brand is so important.
Opportunities abound in a tough market to enhance and develop brands and market share to capture not only the short-term benefit but also the longer-term revenue advantage in a rising market.
I'd be interested to hear any alternate perspectives on this trend and philosophy.
And, as always, we urge you to follow Hitwise Asia Pacific on Twitter to keep up with the latest Internet data and trends.
Posted by Alan Long at 05:06 PM
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Hey Alan,
USD/AUD. I would check your numbers against the currency exchange rate. Secondly, do the "bricks and mortar" operations you refer to have online shops? Selling in AUD?
It's not flocking to brands. It's shopping in local currency.
Cheers. alex
Posted by alex | November 24, 2008 12:22 AM