July 01 2007

May sees traffic increases to shopping and travel sites

Sites within the travel and shopping sectors saw big gains in visitor numbers during May as UK consumers planned their holidays. Google maintained its place though as the most-visited property in the UK with nearly 28 million visitors (reaching 89% of UK web users aged 15 and older), according to comScore's World Metrix.

Amongst the sites gaining from higher visitor numbers during the month was Top Shop. Driven by the launch of the fashion line designed by Kate Moss, Arcadia Group experienced an increase of 17% to 2.7 million visitors.

Seasonal shopping drove traffic to other retail sites in the top gainers list, including shopping comparison group Ciao Sites (up 26% to 3 million visitors); Karstadt-Quelle (up 16% to 4.4 million visitors); Marks & Spencer (up 15%to 2.4 million visitors); and Play.com Sites (up 13% to 4.1 million visitors).

UK web users focused on travel planning for the long weekends afforded by May's bank holidays and for summer holidays, as evidenced by some of the top gainers, which included Priceline.com (up 17% from April to 3 million visitors); First Choice Holidays (up 16% to 2.8 million visitors); EasyGroup (up 15% to 3.6 million visitors); and TUI Group (up 13% to 4.3 million visitors).

Away from the ecommerce arena, Facebook continued its meteoric rise, up 30% from April to 4.8 million visitors in May, its third consecutive month of gains of 30% or more. According to comScore, the site has increased its visitor base by 2,123% from May 2006, when it garnered only 216,000 unique visitors.





Emma Herrod