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Europeans increasingly shopping online
A growing familiarity with internet shopping among general consumers led to some truly staggering amounts being spent online in Europe over the festive season.Figures from digital analyst comScore Networks show that around €4 billion (£2.6 billion) was spent online by UK shoppers between October 30th and December 31st, while the figure in Germany was even higher - €5.4 billion (£3.5 billion).
Across the pond in the US, internet sales totalled €18.8 billion (£12.3 billion) between the beginning of November and the end of December.
"European online retailers appear to have done well this holiday season," said comScore Europe's managing director, Bob Ivins, highlighting the potential available to online advertisers.
"High broadband penetration, familiarity with browsing and buying online, and confidence in the channel have all combined to make this a record Christmas."
In the UK, Argos captured the largest share of cyber shopping visits, with 12 per cent. In second place were Amazon sites, while Tesco, Littlewoods Shop Direct Group and Apple Computer all managed to capture a significant share of the market too.
Tesco itself enjoyed an increase of nearly a third in online traffic in the four weeks before Christmas.
comScore Networks compiles its data using a global cross-section of more than two million consumers who have given their expressed permission for their browsing and shopping behaviour to be monitored.
Corporate Internet news posted on 18 January 2007
