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Hitwise Intelligence - Robin Goad - UK

Analyst Weblog

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Pre-Christmas peaks in online retail traffic

December 16, 2008

In our retail webinar last week I noted that UK pre-Christmas Internet traffic to Shopping and Classified websites has already started to decline from its peak on Sunday November 30th. As the data in the chart below illustrates, the week which started on that Sunday and ended on Saturday December 6th was also the weekly traffic peak. Last week UK Internet visits to out Shopping and Classifieds category fell by 0.5%, and this decline in traffic will now continue until Christmas Day.

UK_Internet_traffic_to_online_retail_shopping_websites_novermber_december_christmas_2008.png

However, the chart above only represents the average; our Shopping and Classifieds category includes over 40,000 retailers and different types of retailer experience peaks at different points within the cycle. One area where a difference has emerged is between the high street and online only retailers.

Last week we highlighted the gap that has opened between the two types or retailer online but, as the chart below illustrates, the gap closed last week. Where high street retailers saw a decline in their web traffic, online only retailers (e.g. Amazon, Play, ASOS) experienced an increase. This contrasts with last year, when traffic to both categories fell during the equivalent week. One thing that this may imply is that customers have become more trusting of later final order and delivery dates.

UK_Internet_traffic_to_high_street_and_online_only_retailers_november_december_xmas_2008_chart.png

Another area of online retail that continued to grow last week was our Rewards and Directories category, which experienced a 1% growth in visits. This was primarily driven by a 5.1% increase in traffic to voucher sites, but price comparison sites also received more traffic than in the previous week. One such site that did extremely well was Foundem, which last week saw its visits quadruple. It looks like this was a result of Foundem being featured on Channel Five’s The Gadget Show, who’s homepage was the price comparison site’s second largest source of traffic last week (behind Google UK). Searches for ‘foundem’ also shot up thanks to the publicity: it was the fastest moving search term in the UK last week, while ‘the gadget show’ ranked fourth.

Finally I wanted to emphasise the difference between the various retail sub sectors. In the table below I’ve listed the busiest days for 10 of the biggest and, as you can see, they vary quite significantly. The House & Garden category peaked first on Sunday November 23rd, with Appliances & Electronics and Computers reaching their maximum traffic levels the following Saturday. It’s interesting to note that those sectors – all of three of which sell products that allow enable people to ‘cocoon’ themselves in their house during the economic downturn - had been performing well during the previous months.

Pre_Christmas_peak_traffic_dates_online_retail_home_electronics_computers_fashion_toys_departmentstores_sports_food_music_video_games_2008_table.png

Apparel & Accessories (fashion) and Toys & Hobbies peaked on the same day as the category as a whole, Sunday November 30th, while Department Stores and Sport & Fitness peaked the following Sunday (December 7th). Interestingly Grocery & Alcohol (food & drink), Music and Video & Games – all categories that sell lower value items (as we noted recently, video games are likely to outsell consoles online this year) - peaked last Monday (December 8th, or Mega Monday). Looking at the contrast between the categories that peaked early and this that peaked later, it seems that people prefer to first shop online for more expensive items before moving on to cheaper goods.

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