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Hitwise Intelligence - Heather Hopkins - UK
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Social Networks Can Drive Traffic - Case Study of ASOS and TopShop
March 01, 2007
TopShop.co.uk and ASOS.com last week received more than twice as much traffic from MySpace than from MSN and Yahoo! Search combined. Our column in this week's Technology Guardian (sorry our Siteseeing columns are not yet available online) showcased this interesting bit of data and I wanted to share it here and elaborate on it.
The #2 source of UK visits to TopShop.co.uk was MySpace, accounting for 5% of site visits. MSN UK Search and Yahoo! UK Search each accounted for just over 1% of visits. MySpace was the #5 source of visits to ASOS.com.
Visits from MySpace to TopShop.co.uk are up five-fold year on year and up two-fold to ASOS.com.
When I first noticed this, I was told it was likely a result of the recent London Fashion Week. But the growth has been steady over the past 52-weeks, as the charts above illustrate.
It is also not solely a result of demographics. Miss Selfridge and New Look attract a similar demographic profile of young women, but do not enjoy the same volume of traffic from MySpace. The success seems a result of participation in the community and targeted offers. TopShop has a profile on MySpace with a blog that includes special offers and discounts. ASOS and TopShop are mentioned on several profile pages.
This offers a great example of creative brands that are engaging with their audience on the terms - and turf - of their audience.
Posted by Heather Hopkins at 10:38 AM
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Comments
Hi Heather - any insight in the sort of traffic driving effect Bebo is having?
Posted by Robin Grant | March 1, 2007 04:54 AM
Rather than 'twice of nothing' I would say that the 5% of site visits from MySpace with an upward trend is the significant metric :)
Posted by Paul Marko | March 1, 2007 05:54 AM
Robin, Thanks for your question - it's a good one. Bebo accounts for significantly less traffic than MySpace to both ASOS and TopShop. Here are the figures for last week:
TopShop.co.uk:
#2 MySpace 5.12%
#9 Bebo 2.89%
#14 MSN UK Search 1.29%
#15 Yahoo! UK Search 1.15%
ASOS.com:
#5 MySpace 4.55%
#9 Bebo 2.27%
#13 Yahoo UK Search 1.16%
#15 MSN UK Search 1.11%
Whilst MySpace and Bebo are close to tied (ranking at #8 and #9 respectively among all categories last week) MySpace accounts for a much larger share of traffic across the web. We see this across many categories, in particular music and retail.
There are probably several reasons for this. Most importantly is that people can't link to other sites from their profile. The only links that people can include on their profile pages are within Hitwise. You can type in a link, but it won't show as an HTML link.
Another reason is likely how people use the two sites. Our data can't bear this out, but from what I hear from people in the industry (and what I hear from my younger cousins), Bebo replaces email and the phone. MySpace can be dipped in and out of. But socialising after school happens on Bebo.
Anyone else with thoughts on this, please weigh in in the comments.
Heather
Posted by Heather Hopkins | March 1, 2007 06:11 AM
Hi Heather
Still trying to get my head around this! I've done some digging and can't seem to find any direct links to topshop.co.uk from people's MySpace profiles.
So, the question is this - when you say MySpace accounts for 5% of topshop.co.uk's visits, does this mean people have clicked on a link to topshop.co.uk from MySpace OR does this mean topshop.co.uk happens to be the site that people went to (by typing in the URL directly, using a bookmark etc) after having previously been on MySpace.
yours hopefully...
Robin
Posted by Robin Grant | April 16, 2007 01:11 AM
Robin,
Thanks for your comment. We are reporting traffic as it moves across the web. So as you suggest, there need not be a link for us to see a site in clickstream. Much of what we see is organic or natural traffic as it flows across the internet.
For example, we often see Easyjet among the top sites refering traffic to Ryanair. This is not due to any direct link!
But, there are several MySpace profiles that link to TopShop. Here are a few I found.
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=135213540
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=118784138
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=8546964
Posted by Heather Hopkins | April 16, 2007 02:43 AM
Heather - thanks for getting back to me.
Although I have to now question your headline - MySpace isn't really 'driving' any traffic to Topshop (beyond that created by Topshop's own profile, which will only account for a small proportion of the traffic).
The only safe conclusion is that people who visit Topshop's and ASOS's websites are increasingly using MySpace, especially when compared to those who visit Miss Selfridge's and New Look's websites. Which isn't quite as sexy or interesting...
Posted by Robin Grant | April 18, 2007 02:15 AM
Please could you send me a personal email Heather in regard to this research, as I desperately need some advice.
I thank you in advance.
Posted by sarah graham | April 27, 2007 12:58 AM
I think it's difficult to prove cause and effect in this instance...it is entirely conceivable that the same time of people likely to shop online at Topshop, Asos or even Queen of Suburbia! are the type of demographic profile likely to be embracing social networking.
It doesn't make myspace et al any less interesting or important to marketeers though. Even if they are not directly driving traffic per se...if myspace is where my customers are, then that's where I need to be!
danni.
Posted by Queen of Suburbia T-Shirts | July 2, 2007 09:42 AM
Twice of nothing is nothing. Why make the comparison with MSN & Yahoo which are tiny in the UK compared to Google?
Posted by Debbie Procter | March 1, 2007 03:47 AM