Archive for the ‘e-commerce’ Category

Christmas shopping lives up to the hype

January 8, 2010

Yes it looks like the major online & multi-channel retailers had another good Christmas, here are some highlights:

Marks & Spencer online sales  grew 32% in the 13 weeks to 26th December. The retailer hailed Christmas trading a success after posting a 0.8% like-for-like sales growth over the festive period but warned that trading conditions during 2010 will remain challenging. The retailer reported a 1.2% comparable sales rise in general merchandise and food sales advanced 0.4% in fourth quarter of 2009.

John Lewis online  Clearance sales were up 23% in its first three days. The retailer experienced its busiest ever hour online when it launched the online Clearance at 6pm on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day online shoppers made a purchase every 10 seconds, but the volume of sales dropped between 1pm and 4pm as people enjoyed their Christmas lunch. On Boxing Day the retailer saw a record number of visitors to the web site, peaking between 11am and midday.

Amazon said that it had a busy Christmas with 2 million orders delivered on its busiest day which was December 7. At its peak it said it was shipping over 1.2m units in just 24 hours.

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Christmas 2009 online spending

December 24, 2009

Here is a quick round up on Christmas Eve of stats for online spending so far this Christmas (2009)…

According to Hitwise – peak online spending days (UK)

  • Cyber Monday’ (Dec 7) and Sunday December 6 were the joint busiest days for online retailers so far this year, meaning that the peak for Christmas online shopping has moved closer to the 25th. The busiest day for online retailers in 2008 was Sunday November 30.
  • Department stores and supermarkets have been the biggest beneficiaries of the shift towards later online shopping this Christmas, though Amazon had the biggest increase in visits.
  • According to MetaPack stats, Cyber Monday remains the highest shopping day in the UK with sales on Monday 14 decreasing by 2% on the 7th.
  • On December 7, £1.4m was spent online at 13:43 in just one minute, with sales peaking at £33m between 13:00 and 14:00. (IMRG)

Average (UK) order size / value according to Coremetrics

  • Coremetrics figures show that  the value of the average order placed online is up by 94% this Christmas, compared to 2008.
  • The number of goods that are purchased per transaction has also increased significantly, from 2.7 items in 2007 to 3.7 per order in 2009.

Last year the big surprise was a big online spending day on Christmas Day – let’s see what happens this time!

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“Preloved” goods in demand online in the recession

October 24, 2008

As we react to the recession and tighten our belts it seems secondhand is one of the big keywords in web searches nowadays. Hitwise says “UK consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to help them deal with the financial pressures and insecurities brought on by the global credit crunch”

Hitwise reports that UK Internet searches for second hand goods have increased by 22% over the last 12 months, while Classifieds websites have experienced a 47% increase in traffic over the same period.

The number of UK Internet searches containing the word ’second hand’ increased by 22% between the weeks ending 13 October 2007 and 11 October 2008. During the 12 weeks ending 11 October 2008, UK Internet users searched for over 22,000 distinct terms containing the phrase ’second hand’ with searches for ’second hand cars’ proving to be the most popular.

Top five UK Internet searches containing ’second hand’, 12 weeks ending 11 October 2008

1. second hand cars

2. second hand books

3. second hand car prices

4. second hand furniture

5. second hand bikes

UK Internet visits to Freecycle  the website that enables people to recycle their unwanted goods by passing them on to others, increased by 35% between September 2007 and September 2008.

“The community aspect has played an important role in the success of Freecycle and lots of people are searching the web for lists in their neighbourhood,” commented Robin Goad, Director of Research for Hitwise. “The site is currently most popular in Wales and the West Midlands and is used most by people with families”.

In one quote from the Hitwise press release they say “Property searches have fallen, but traffic to House and Garden retailers has reached a new high as people look to cocoon themselves in their existing homes”

Well that’s interesting but I don’t think the DIY Retailers are feeling the benefit just yet!

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