Christmas and the post 25th sales have helped make December the best so far for UK retail websites.
Sales volumes were up by a very healthy 14 per cent on December 2004, according to internet research firm, Hitwise, with the week after Christmas seeing no relaxation in traffic. In fact, the last week of December saw online sales grow 16 per cent on the same period in 2004.
The biggest gainers were ticket sites, which enjoyed a massive increase in trade of 280 per cent. Auction sites, chiefly eBay, were also very busy, up 29 per cent, with sites retailing clothing and accessories not far behind on 24 per cent.
Among the most popular search terms during December were electrical goods such as televisions and DVD recorders and household goods including sofas and beds.
Whether all these search terms later translated into online sales is debatable. For many goods, shoppers are now doing their research online but purchasing offline locally if the price is right. There are a number of reasons for this: A) you can see what you’re buying up close and personal, and B) often there’s little real price difference when delivery costs for web purchased goods are taken into account.
This does not mean local shops don’t need a web presence if their customer base is local. On the contrary, with so much choice online, it’s vital to fly the flag and remind people of the goods and services available on their doorstep. Fortunately, this is easier to accomplish with the growing focus on local searches. And for companies who operate within a tight geographic area, there’s less necessity to have a fully e-commerce-enabled site, making a web presence much more affordable for small to micro-sized companies.
