Online Retail Visits ‘Peaked Later This Year’

by Stephen Logan on 16th December 2009

A new report has indicated that consumers are shopping online for Christmas presents in 2009 later than in previous years.

The study by Experian Hitwise showed that the peak in visits to retail websites in the UK occurred in the week ending December 5th.

During this time, 13.6 per cent of all UK searches were related to toys and hobbies, which suggests that well thought out SEO services could be successful over the festive season.

Robin Goad, research director at Experian Hitwise, commented: "UK consumers are clearly holding out more for bargains this year and have been prepared to order online later."

He pointed out that in previous years the peak shopping period online has been a week earlier.

According to the report, there was also a significant rise of 16.5 per cent between October and November, which may be due to people beginning their Christmas shopping early.

Last week, the market research company revealed that Sunday December 6th and ‘Cyber’ Monday December 7th have been two of the most popular retail days of the year.