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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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Post Holiday Shopping Wrap-Up

January 14, 2008

Here are a few summary points on Australian consumer behaviour online during the 2007 holiday shopping period:

* Retail sectors that performed that performed strongly online during the Christmas 2007 period included Appliances & Electronics, Books, Music and Video & Games, experiencing substantial increases upwards of 30% during the last quarter of 2007.

* Visits to the Department Stores online industry were also solid, increasing in category share by 42% between weeks ending 6 October 2007 and 15 December 2007. This compares to 26% growth within the same time period in 2006.

* Shopping & Classifieds website visits peaked in the holiday shopping season during the week ending 1 December 2007. This compared to week ending 25 November 2006 the prior year confirming that the optimum time for reaching consumers remains between late November and early December.

* Searches for 'boxing day sales' spiked dramatically during the week ending 29 December 2007, with the News & Media industry capturing 19.6% of related search traffic, compared to 8.03% for Shopping & Classifieds websites.

* Searches for 'digital photo frames' spiked during the week ending 15 December 2007; almost triple the volume of searches compared to the same time last year.

* The strong growth in music visits was due to Apple iTunes, which experienced a year-on-year increase of 15%, comparing weeks ending 30 December 2006 and 29 December 2007. New users comprised 72% of visits to the Apple iTunes website for the week ending 29 December 2007, suggesting that recipients of iPods on Christmas day were eager to logon and download media for their new gifts.

* Pure-play shopping websites, DealsDirect.com.au, oo.com.au and Lasoo.com.au had a strong impact on driving growth to the online Department Stores industry during early to mid December, as consumers made allowances for shipping times; while Kmart, Big W and Myer enjoyed significant gains peaking week ending 29 December 2007, enjoying last-minute and post Christmas sales visits.