Amazon is UK’s most popular site reports Nielsen

Online retailers continued to attract record numbers of visitors in the fourth quarter of 2008 despite the tough trading conditions. The top ten e-tailers averaged a 37% increase in unique visitors between October 1 and December 31 compared to 2007, according to figures released by Nielsen Online.

Online bookseller Amazon was the most popular site in the UK, attracting around 15.6 million visitors each month over the festive period. However, traditional high street stores such as Littlewoods also saw a huge leap in traffic with a 66% increase in visitors. While, Tesco attracted 7.3 million visitors with its price cuts.

Alex Burmaster, communications director at Nielsen Online, says: “The fact that the leading retailers online managed to attract over a third more visitors than they did for Christmas 2007 meant online retail provided some very bright news amidst the overall gloomy economic picture at the end of 2008.

“It’s not that online retail will be impervious to the tighter financial environment but it has an opportunity to weather the storm better than other elements of the economy, particularly if retailers promote the Web as the best way of finding cheaper goods in the most efficient and convenient way possible.”