Date:16 February 2011

IMRG Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List - February 2011

IMRG Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List - February 2011

SINCE NOVEMBER 2010

16TH February 2011

Highlights:
• Travel had a very strong quarter with the five fastest moving brands all coming from the travel sector. Travel agencies Thomas Cook (up 27 places) and First Choice (+21) saw the biggest gains of the quarter followed by Thomson (+15), Travel Republic (+15) and British Airways (+12).

• Consumer electronics also had a good quarter with Apple (+4), Currys (+6), and Comet (+5) all moving up in the Hot Shops list. 

• Year-on-year the most improved performers were Sainsbury’s (+19), IKEA (+10) and House of Fraser (+19). All of these brands also showed improvements compared to last quarter, with Sainsbury’s now a firm fixture of the top half of the Hot Shops list.

• Department stores generally had a solid quarter with John Lewis, Debenhams and House of Fraser all improving on their position from last quarter. Only M&S dropped this quarter falling three places since November and two places since February 2010.
Analysis:

This quarter was dominated by the travel brands which had a spritely start to 2011. January is always a big month for travel with consumers looking for ski holidays, spring breaks and early deals on their summer holidays. In particular the travel agencies saw strong growth led by Thomson (ranked 11) Expedia (12) and Thomas Cook (13). Airlines easyJet, Ryanair and British Airways all improved on last quarter’s position with easyJet returning to the top 10 for the first time since February 2010.

This year saw the busiest post-Christmas shopping period ever seen online. In particular, big ticket items such as TVs and laptops were in high demand before the VAT increase on 4 January 2011 which no doubt contributed to the success of electronics brands like Apple, Currys and Comet this quarter.

Consumers turned to multi-channel retailers this quarter and there was certainly evidence of an overlap between offline promotions and online traffic. Department stores such as John Lewis, House of Fraser and Debenhams all improved on last quarter’s performance and IKEA jumped 10 places thanks in part to a large multi-channel advertising campaign in the run-up to Christmas.

All of the fashion brands dipped in the rankings, despite a very successful Christmas for some of the multi-channel fashion brands. Next, Topshop, New Look and River Island all went down in the Hot Shops list this quarter, although all of these brands have improved their position year-on-year.
 
IMRG's CEO, James Roper, comments: “The travel sector always performs well after Christmas is finished for another year, and the freezing weather was likely to have made sunny destinations seem very appealing. The multi-channel retailers are continuing to power ahead in terms of traffic, which tallies up well with some of the results reported from the likes of John Lewis and House of Fraser in December. The entry of Best Buy into the UK market has increased the competitiveness of the electricals sector, and the need to respond with offers may have had some influence on Currys’ improved position. The economic conditions are tough, but early indications are that the year is getting off to a good start for online retailers.”

Robin Goad, Director of Research at Experian Hitwise comments: “As we expected travel brands have had an excellent quarter and are benefiting from increased consumer searches for Easter breaks and summer holidays. The January VAT increase has also spurred consumers to buy expensive electronics goods in December, though there is likely to be a backlash next quarter as a result of the new 20% VAT rate. What we saw over Christmas was that fashion retailers are increasingly relying on social media to deliver traffic to their websites and the announcement of an ASOS store on Facebook this January is an exciting development for online retail. Taking this into account, the fashion brands should recover quickly from this quarter’s dip in performance.”

IMRG Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List
FEBRUARY 2011

KEY: p /qdenotes movement up / down since November 2010. wv denotes same place. BACK – are sites that were previously in the top 50 list. NUMBERS denote ranking, 1-50

The IMRG-Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List of the top 50 UK e-retailers* is the key indicator of online merchant performance.  The List is published quarterly and tracks popularity, as indicated by visits, of those selling goods and services within the IMRG Capgemini Index Classification**.  This List is based on January 2011 data.

* The IMRG-Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List excludes eBay and price comparison / aggregator websites such as Kelkoo and Froogle.

** IMRG Capgemini Index Classification:  Beer / wine / spirits; Books; CDs / tapes / records; Clothing / footwear / accessories; Computer hardware / peripherals / consumables; Consumer electronics; Digital downloads (e.g. music, software); Flowers; Food, beverages and household supplies; Furniture; Garden / DIY; Health and beauty; Home appliances (e.g. washing machines); Household goods (e.g. kitchenware, bedding); Jewellery / watches; Software; Sporting goods; Tickets (e.g. cinema, theatre, events); Toys; Travel (e.g. flights, holidays, hotels, car hire); Video games; Videos / DVDs

ENDS

MEDIA ENQUIRIES

IMRG
Andy Mulcahy
Tel: 020 7189 8373
Email: andy@imrg.org
Web: www.imrg.org

EXPERIAN HITWISE
Jannie Cahill
Tel: 020 3042 4773
Email: press.uk@hitwise.com
Web: www.hitwise.com/uk

Notes to Editors

About IMRG
IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group) is the industry association for global e-retail. Formed in 1990, IMRG is setting and maintaining pragmatic and robust e-retail standards to enable fast-track industry growth, and facilitates its community of members with practical help, information, tools, guidance and networking. Consumers can be confident when dealing with IMRG Members because all interact in an environment where they are encouraged to operate using methods that are Honest, Decent, Legal, Truthful and Fair, and have undertaken to not bring the industry into disrepute. The strength of IMRG is the collective and cooperative power of its members. For more information please visit http://www.imrg.org/ or email market@imrg.org.

About Experian Hitwise
Experian Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Experian Hitwise gives marketers a competitive advantage by providing daily insights on how 25 million Internet users around the world interact with more than 1 million Web sites. This external view helps companies grow and protect their businesses by identifying threats and opportunities as they develop. Experian Hitwise has more than 1,500 clients across numerous sectors, including financial services, media, travel and retail.

Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada, France and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com/uk.

For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Experian Hitwise research blog at www.ilovedata.com and the Experian Hitwise Data Centre at www.hitwise.com/datacentre.