Hitwise predicts 12% growth for Online shopping this Christmas.

M2 PRESSWIRE-12 September 2005-Hitwise: Hitwise predicts 12% growth for Online shopping this Christmas(C)1994-2005 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD

RDATE:12092005

London: UK retailers may well be suffering a slump on the high street but online retailing continues to post healthy gains, and the latest analysis from Hitwise - the leading online competitive intelligence service - today reveals that this growth is set to continue through the busy Christmas season.

Hitwise analysis reveals that UK internet users will rely even more heavily on online shopping for Christmas gift buying this year and predicts that:

The online retail sector will grow 25% in share of visits from July 2005 to December 2005, representing a 12% year-on-year increase since December 2004.

Visits to online retailers will peak the week ending 3rd December 2005, with more than 1 in every 7 internet visits going to online retailers that week.

This peak will be driven by visits to eBay UK, whose traffic peaks earlier than most other online retailers. Retailers in general will see their traffic peak the following week, week ending 10th December.

These predictions are based on analysis of UK internet user behaviour for the past two years and year to date data for 2005, and allows businesses to more intelligently plan online promotions and allocate customer support resources.

"This growth in online retailing is great news for retailers who are facing increasingly difficult times on the high street", said Heather Hopkins, Director of Research for Hitwise UK. "Last Christmas was one of the best ever for online retailers and this year is shaping up to be even stronger. Firms that are well prepared stand to benefit considerably from increased consumer demand for online shopping."

eBay Continues to Lead Online Retailing

eBay UK continues to pose a serious threat to online retailers as the most visited online retailer by UK internet users. 1 in every 4 visits to online retailers goes to eBay UK and the site has grown rapidly - with a 40% increase in market share of visits year on year in July 2005.

"High street retailers have in the past relied on searches for their brand for visits. To compete online, they need to expand their efforts to get visits from generic product searches", continued Hopkins. "Woolworths is an example of a high street brand that was remarkably successful at getting visits on generic product searches for popular Christmas gifts last year. For example, www.woolworths.co.uk was one of the top recipients of searches for "portable dvd players" and "playstation games" in December 2004."

Hitwise helps businesses to identify the most popular online gifts and search term gaps (search terms sending visits to competitor sites but not to a firm's own site).

Online Retail Sector Landscape as of July 2005

Online retailing is one of the biggest online categories, with the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds category accounting for 11% of all UK internet visits in July; 1 in every 9 internet visits currently goes to retail websites. The category attracts a larger share of visits than search (10%) and Travel (5%).

Auctions is by far the largest retail sub-category, making up 44% of visits to the Shopping & Classifieds category. This is due to eBay UK's dominance, accounting for 85% of visits to Auctions websites in July. Departments Stores is the second largest retail sub-category at 12% followed by Rewards and Directories at 10%.

For a full copy of the Hitwise UK Online Retail Report please visit:

http://www.hitwise.co.uk/info/contact/uk_xmas_retail_report.html

About Hitwise:

Hitwise is the leading online competitive intelligence service. Each day, Hitwise monitors how more than 25 million Internet users interact with over 500,000 websites across 160 industry categories.

By monitoring more people, more websites, more often, Hitwise provides marketers with timely and actionable marketing insights on how their online presence compares to competitive websites. Companies use this information to maximize the return on their online investment, in efforts such as affiliate programs, search marketing, online advertising, content development and lead generation.

Hitwise collects Internet usage information via a combination of ISP data partnerships and opt-in mega panels, and complies with local and international privacy legislation as audited by PricewaterhouseCoopers. Founded in 1997, Hitwise is a privately held company, headquartered in New York City and operates in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore.

More information about Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.com.

CONTACT: Jannie CahillTel: +44 (0)20 7378 3600jannie.cahill@hitwise.com

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