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Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific
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More last-minute Christmas shopping this year
December 23, 2009
Visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites in Australia this year have been slower overall than in 2008. A key factor has been the fallout from the global financial crisis with consumers overall more cautious in their spending habits. As a result, we’ve noticed more last-minute shopping, with daily visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites prior to Christmas peaking later this year than in 2008:
·The peak day for Shopping and Classifieds in 2008 prior to Christmas day was 7 December 2008 (which was a Sunday), with 7.26% share of visits.
·In 2009, the day that has attracted the greatest share of visits for Shopping and Classifieds so far is 13 December 2009, also a Sunday, with 6.74% share of visits.
Another reason why visits to Shopping websites are occurring later in the season is the greater connection between online and offline shopping (See Heather Dougherty’s related post). We certainly have seen searches for ‘trading hours’ and ‘store location’ grow each Christmas period in Australia, demonstrating how shoppers use online to support their in-store purchases.
So in the 11th hour, which Bricks and Mortar Retailers are set to benefit from the last-minute shopping rush?
Apple is performing strongly, with the Apple Store and its Australian website accounting for 14.5% share of visits amongst Bricks and Mortar Retailers. It is also interesting to note the appearance of The Westfield Group amongst the top 10 websites, reinforcing our observations on the importance of online for promoting physical retail outlets.
This wraps up my retail posts for this year. You can download the full Experian Hitwise Christmas Retail series here. Wishing you all a happy festive season!
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Posted by Sandra Hanchard at 08:53 AM
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In Categories Shopping and Classifieds
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Hi Stephen, great question
The general trend of Rewards/Directories and specifically Comparison Shopping websites follows the Shopping and Classifieds average - this is because some of the comparison sites are major players in the category.
This could indicate that either the buying window is very short, or that a lot of the online activity to shopping websites is research-oriented
Posted by Sandra Hanchard | December 23, 2009 04:44 PM
Thanks for that Sandra.
I was mostly interested to judge whether the Comparison Sites had more of a positive traffic flow to online stores compared to shoppers comparing online to then visit real-world shops.
For the timing to be tied closely to the shopping website peaks, it appears more people are gaining confidence in following through with their comparison research to spend their money online.
Thanks for the response - have a fantastic Christmas!
Posted by Stephen Scott | December 24, 2009 11:39 AM
Good point re: tying confidence and propensity to spend. A bit harder to measure those 'qualitative' aspects but highly relevant.
All the best for xmas/new year to you too!
Sandra
Posted by Sandra | December 24, 2009 11:49 AM
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It would be interesting to see how the comparison shopping sites have done this Christmas - is their peak earlier or about the same?
Posted by Stephen Scott | December 23, 2009 11:03 AM