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Hitwise Intelligence - Alan Long - Asia Pacific

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Boxing Day Retail Test

December 23, 2008

One of the biggest sporting events of the calendar kicks off on Boxing Day, and it's not the annual Boxing Day Test Match at the MCG, but the now traditional Boxing Day sales at retailers around the country.

The heavily promoted sales have turned Boxing Day into the largest online retail day in Australia, our own equivalent of Black Friday (the Friday after Thanksgiving) in the US.

Online visitation to the Shopping & Classifieds industry continues to track comparatively with 2007. The chart below highlights the Boxing Day peak and the current December trend against the previous year.

Share of visits on Boxing Day 2007 increased 24.93% when compared to the share of visits received on Christmas Eve, this was fuelled by a number of industries where Boxing Day is also the top online retail day of the year.

Shopping & Classified Industry	Boxing Day 2007 Increase % compared to Christmas Eve 2007
House and Garden	92.96%
Appliances and Electronics	75.86%
Department Stores	66.09%
Apparel and Accessories	52.06%
Video and Games	46.69%
Rewards and Directories	32.42%
Automotive	15.22%

Other noticeable industries include Shopping & Classifieds – Music with 66.44% increase when compared to the share of visits received on Christmas Eve but sits behind Christmas Day as the largest online retail day, impacted by the iTunes phenomenon.

Boxing Day online activity for Shopping & Classifieds – Sport and Fitness sits behind a mid-December peak, but still generates a substantial jump from Christmas Eve with the share of visits increasing 31.04%.

So what does this all mean?

Are there any last minute affiliate or advertising opportunities that you can implement to take advantage of these retail peaks to generate leads and create sales?

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Posted by Alan Long at 03:58 PM | (0) | (0)