Online Shopping Sites Boosted by Holiday Season

HITWISE MEDIA RELEASE

New Zealand Online Shopping Sites Boosted by Holiday Season

Traffic to New Zealand’s Shopping and Classifieds sites up for the month of December

12 January 2001 – New Zealand Internet users turned to local e-tailers over the holiday season, with overall share of traffic to New Zealand shopping and classifieds sites up for the month of December.

According to Internet monitoring service, Hitwise (www.hitwise.co.nz), more than 37% of all traffic to Shopping and Classifieds sites headed to local sites last month. Overall, traffic to New Zealand shopping sites accounted for more than 11% of all traffic to local sites measured by Hitwise.

Executive Director of Hitwise, Mr Adrian Giles, said that the December statistics represented good news for New Zealand’s online retailers, and suggested New Zealand’s e-tailing industry was becoming increasingly competitive against international offerings.

‘Since September, the proportion of Internet users visiting New Zealand shopping sites in preference to international sites has increased nearly 5%,’ Mr Giles said today. ‘While this trend is in some part attributable to the strength of the US dollar, it also suggests New Zealanders are becoming increasingly confident that the local e-tailing industry can satisfy their needs.’

Shopping sites generally attracted a lower share of traffic than in previous months, capturing around 2.55% of all traffic to measured by Hitwise. The first week of December (week ending 9 December) was the most popular for both local and international Shopping sites, receiving nearly 3% of all traffic measured by Hitwise. In terms of New Zealand sites, shopping sites received around 12.075% of all traffic measured during this period.

Mr Giles added that the trend for shopping locally was not observed throughout all shopping websites, and depended largely on the type of product on offer.

During December, New Zealanders were most likely to shop locally for grocery and alcohol-related products, with New Zealand websites attracting 96.99% of all traffic to the Grocery and Alcohol category.

Other categories proving highly competitive included House and Garden, Video and Games, and Computers, with local sites capturing 65.18%, 60.48% and around 50% respectively of all traffic to these categories.

Online Department Stores, as well as websites selling books, music, apparel and accessories, electronics and computers proved popular with New Zealand online shoppers during the month of December.

Locally, businesses selling Video and Games, Computers, grocery and alcohol items experienced increased growth in total share of traffic.

Amazon.com was again New Zealand’s most popular E-tailing site for the month of December, attracting 6.98% of all Shopping-related traffic. Overall, the top 20 e-tailers comprised a mix of clicks and mortar sites and pure online retailers.

Woolworths New Zealand (www.woolworths.co.nz) was the top local site visited by New Zealand Internet users, followed by Gamezone (www.gamezone.co.nz), Sony New Zealand (www.sony.co.nz), Ascent Technology (www.ascent.co.nz) and music retailer SoundsNZ.com.

Some of the fast-moving sites for the month of December include Farmers Trading Company of New Zealand (www.farmer.co.nz), Supercyberstore (www.supercyberstore.co.nz), Fishing Tackle Online (www.fishingtackleonline.co.nz), online children’s clothing store, Pumpkin Patch Clothing (www.pumpkinpatch.co.nz), The Warehouse (www.superstore.co.nz), Smokecd’s.com (www.smokecds.com), gift e-tailer Iko Iko www.ikoiko.co.nz and The Epicurean Workshop (www.epicurean.co.nz).

The top 20 Global e-tail sites visited by New Zealand Internet users for the month of December were:
1. www.amazon.com
2. www.woolworths.co.nz
3. www.gamezone.co.nz
4. www.hallmark.com
5. www.cdnow.com
6. www.sony.co.nz
7. www.dell.com
8. www.ascent.co.nz
9. www.oakley.com
10. www.soundsnz.com
11. www.flyingpig.co.nz
12. www.amazon.co.uk
13. www.sonymusic.com
14. www.renaissance.co.nz
15. www.express.com
16. www.whitcoullsoffice.co.nz
17. www.barnesandnoble.com
18. www.abebooks.com
19. www.allposters.com
20. www.wickedweasel.com.au

The top New Zealand 20 e-tail sites visited by New Zealand Internet users for the month of December are:

1. www.woolworths.co.nz
2. www.gamezone.co.nz
3. www.sony.co.nz
4. www.ascent.co.nz
5. www.soundsnz.com
6. www.flyingpig.co.nz
7. www.renaissance.co.nz
8. www.whitcoullsoffice.co.nz
9. www.thesupermarket.co.nz
10. www.ezibuy.co.nz
11. www.farmers.co.nz
12. www.mallnz.co.nz
13. www.shop.co.nz
14. www.criminal.co.nz
15. www.supercyberstore.co.nz
16. www.fishingtackleonline.co.nz
17. www.marbecks.co.nz
18. www.thepccompany.co.nz
19. www.melco.co.nz
20. www.mitre10.co.nz

About Hitwise (www.hitwise.co.nz)

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service giving web strategists, agencies and financial analysts real-time insights on the online competitive environment. Because Hitwise monitors and reports on more sites, more people every day, only Hitwise can provide insights needed to make timely and effective business decisions.

The creators of Hitwise, Australian-based Sinewave Interactive, have partnered with Brave New World, one of New Zealand’s leading online marketing services businesses, to market Hitwise in New Zealand. Hitwise is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia and offers its service in Australia, New Zealand, and coming soon – Hong Kong, UK, Korea, South Africa and Japan.

MEDIA ENQUIRIES
Ms Angela Friend
Public Relations Manager
Tel: 61 3 9820 5443
Fax: 61 3 9820 0407
http://www.hitwise.co.nz
angela@hitwise.com

© Scoop Media