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Online retailers make strong gains
Retail websites have made massive gains as the growth of online advertising and internet shopping drives sales.Data from market research company comScore shows that shopping sites such as Boots and HMV dominate the list of the top 20 gaining sites in the UK.
In November, Boots enjoyed a month-on-month increase in traffic of 65 per cent (totalling 2.7 million), Toys R Us visitor numbers rose by 63 per cent (to 2.6 million) and HMV had 37 per cent more visitors (a total of 3.3 million).
Other strong performers were Play.com, Marks & Spencer, Wal-Mart and Littlewoods Shop Direct Group, which all posted double-digit increases thanks to a spate of online Christmas shopping.
The traditional December shopping spree saw more and more consumers turning to the internet instead of doing battle on the high street, where sales were sluggish.
comScore's data also reveals that Microsoft and Google sites were the top two internet properties in the UK for the month of November, with almost 30 million unique visitors each.
"Clearly, Google and Microsoft are locked in a battle to be the most visited site in the UK," said comScore Europe's managing director, Bob Ivins. "As expected, due to the holiday shopping season, the sites posting the strongest gains versus last month were predominantly online retailers."
In the four weeks running up to Christmas, online sales at Tesco rose by 30 per cent and Amazon enjoyed its strongest ever sales period.
Corporate Internet news posted on 03 January 2007
