Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK

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Hitwise UK Predicts Another Strong Year for Online Retailers

September 12, 2005

This week, I issued a report that predicts retail sites will experience 12% year on year growth in December this year compared with last year. We further predicted that the retail sector will grow 25% in share of UK internet visits in the last six months of the year (July to December 2005).This bodes well for retailers suffering on the high street. With online one of the only bright spots for retailers, this will be welcome news.

To help our clients plan internal resources, Hitwise also predicted that visits to online retailers will peak the week ending 3 December 2005, with more than 1 in every 7 UK internet visits going to retailers that week. Last year, we noticed that visits to eBay peaked a week earlier than visits to other retailers. So other retailers will likely see their traffic peak the following week, ending 10 December 2005.

This growth in online retailing is great news for retailers who are facing increasingly difficult times on the high street. 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.

For a full copy of the Hitwise UK Online Retail Report please visit: click here.

Posted by Heather Hopkins at 04:50 PM | (1) | (1)