Almost 33 million Europeans in December 2001 used the Internet to make their Christmas shopping easier, according to the latest study from Internet research firm Jupiter MMXI.
At 10 million and 9 million Unique Visitors at home respectively in December last year, Germans and Britons were the heaviest users of online retail sites. A comparison of December 2000 with December last year, shows the growth in popularity of retail online with most countries experiencing an increase of more than 40% in the number of Unique Visitors to retail websites. As the graph below shows, audiences to retail websites are growing faster than the increase in the overall Internet population across Europe.
* Comparing February 2000 with December 2001
** Comparing January 2000 with December 2001
Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr reached more than 10% of the Internet population in Germany, the UK and France. France is the only country where three sites (Fnac.com, Alapage.com and Amazon.fr) have more than 10% reach. Other countries have generally one clear leader (see Top 5 tables below). In the UK traditional high street retailers, such as Argos.co.uk, Comet.co.uk and Whsmith.co.uk were very popular for Christmas shopping. In December 2001 BOL.com, Johnlewis.com and Marksandspencer.com made it into the top 10 retail sites.
Not only retail sites benefitted from last year's Christmas spirit. In December last year Europeans increasingly used electronic greeting cards sites to keep in touch with their friends and family. Bluemountain.com is popular across Europe but local sites such as Egreetings.com in the UK, Epost.de in Germany and Carteexpress.com in France also increased their audience.
Of course the two big movie events Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings made their mark on the Internet. In the UK Warnerbros.co.uk, which hosts the official UK Harry Potter site, was the third most popular entertainment site at home in December 2001. Lordoftherings.net came in at number 15.
"Online retailers experienced a real growth in the usage of the sites in the run up to Christmas, which shows just how Europeans have come to accept the Internet as part of their lives. Online retailers report a successful Christmas period, which Jupiter MMXI have projected would be worth 2.9 billion Euro in Europe, an increase of 71% from 2000. The challenge for retailers is to keep customers loyal by staying in touch with them and convincing them to keep using their sites. Retailers cannot afford to rest on the success of Christmas." said Patricia Lueer, Analyst.
Top 5 Retail Websites in December 2001
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec 2001 | ||
| UK, at home panel | Unique Visitors(000) |
Digital Media Reach % |
|
| Total Digital Media | 16,092 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 9,212 | 57.2% |
| 1 | AMAZON.CO.UK | 2,915 | 18.1% |
| 2 | AMAZON.COM | 1,571 | 9.8% |
| 3 | ARGOS.CO.UK | 1,336 | 8.3% |
| 4 | TESCO.COM | 1,104 | 6.9% |
| 5 | COMET.CO.UK | 770 | 4.8% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec 2001 | ||
| France, at home panel | Unique Visitors(000) |
Digital Media Reach % |
|
| Total Digital Media | 9,398 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 4,686 | 49.9% |
| 1 | FNAC.COM | 1,301 | 13.8% |
| 2 | ALAPAGE.COM | 1,109 | 11.8% |
| 3 | AMAZON.FR | 1,040 | 11.1% |
| 4 | REDOUTE.FR | 458 | 4.9% |
| 5 | CDISCOUNT.COM | 374 | 4.0% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec, 2001 | ||
| Germany, at home panel | Unique Visitors(000) |
Digital Media Reach % |
|
| Total Digital Media | 15,981 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 9,866 | 61.7% |
| 1 | AMAZON.DE | 4,445 | 27.8% |
| 2 | BOL.DE | 1,346 | 8.4% |
| 3 | OTTO.DE | 1,285 | 8.0% |
| 4 | TCHIBO.DE | 1,274 | 8.0% |
| 5 | AMAZON.COM | 1,234 | 7.7% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec 2001 | ||
| Spain, at home panel | Unique Visitors(000) |
Digital Media Reach % |
|
| Total Digital Media | 4,641 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 1,861 | 40.1% |
| 1 | ELCORTEINGLES.ES | 352 | 7.6% |
| 2 | AMAZON.COM | 344 | 7.4% |
| 3 | GRUPOLIDERTEL.COM | 287 | 6.2% |
| 4 | CINENTRADAS.COM | 148 | 3.2% |
| 5 | DISCOWEB.COM | 141 | 3.0% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec 2001 | ||
| Italy, at home panel | Unique Visitors(000) |
Digital Media Reach % |
|
| Total Digital Media | 10,362 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 3,965 | 38.3% |
| 1 | CHL.IT | 544 | 5.2% |
| 2 | AMAZON.COM | 286 | 2.8% |
| 3 | BOL.COM | 276 | 2.7% |
| 4 | GIACOMELLISPORT.COM | 259 | 2.5% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec 2001 | ||
| Denmark, at home panel | Unique Visitors(000) |
Digital Media Reach % |
|
| Total Digital Media | 2,522 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 1,196 | 47.4% |
| 1 | WANNA-SAVE.COM | 202 | 8.0% |
| 2 | EDBPRISER.DK | 156 | 6.2% |
| 3 | ZILLIONSHOP.DK | 127 | 5.1% |
| 4 | JATAK.COM | 102 | 4.0% |
| 5 | AMAZON.COM | 96 | 3.8% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec, 2001 | ||
| Norway, at home panel | Unique Visitors (000) | Digital Media Reach % | |
| Total Digital Media | 2,050 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 815 | 39.7% |
| 1 | BOKKLUBBENE.NO | 160 | 7.8% |
| 2 | KELKOO.COM | 108 | 5.3% |
| 3 | MAO.NO | 83 | 4.0% |
| 4 | ELKJOP.NO | 82 | 4.0% |
| 5 | YATACK.NO | 77 | 3.8% |
| Jupiter MMXI | Dec, 2001 | ||
| Switzerland, at home panel | Unique Visitors (000) | Digital Media Reach % | |
| Total Digital Media | 2,397 | 100.0 | |
| Rank | Retail | 907 | 37.8% |
| 1 | AMAZON.DE | 201 | 8.4% |
| 2 | TICKETCORNER.CH | 114 | 4.8% |
| 3 | DIRECTMEDIA.CH | 78 | 3.3% |
| 4 | BOL.COM | 77 | 3.2% |
| 5 | AMAZON.COM | 69 | 2.9% |