Hitwise Intelligence - Sandra Hanchard - Asia Pacific

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• Blog Shops popular in Singapore

  Posted: 2009-11-19 06:42:48 UTC

  Christmas online shopping in Singapore and Hong Kong has gained strength over the past few years, with visits to the Shopping and Classifieds industry reaching a 3-year high during the week ending 28 November 2008 in Singapore, and week ending 13 December 2008 in Hong Kong.

  Earlier this week I provided an update on the leading product categories in the retail sector in Australia. There were some regional similarities in Singapore and Hong Kong, with Apparel and Accessories, Computers and Appliances and Electronics dominant verticals in all three markets.

  

  · Apparel and Accessories was the largest retail category in Singapore, accounting for more than 1 in 5 visits to Shopping and Classifieds during the week ending 7 November 2009. Visits to the sector also grew by 34.7% year on year to week ending 7 November 2009.

  · An interesting phenomenon in the Singapore Apparel and Accessories industry is the prevalence of blogging websites that offer retail. Examples of blogs amongst the top 10 Apparel and Accessories websites included, BonitoChico, Agneselle, Hollyhoque, Agnes's Deepest Thoughts and So She Say. This could be an indication that Singapore users increasingly prefer to do retail transactions through a blogging vehicle and if this is the case, presents a real challenge to Auctions and Classifieds players in Singapore. Slow year on year visit rates to Auctions and Classifieds websites supports this hypothesis. I’d be interested to hear from Singapore readers if this is backed up anecdotally.

  · The Computers industry attracted the highest share amongst Shopping and Classifieds websites in Hong Kong, accounting for 1 in 10 visits during the week ending 7 November 2009. Apple Store accounted for 40% share of visits in the Computers category; behind Singapore in local penetration rate (45%) but ahead of Australia (15%) and New Zealand (4.93%).

  · Video and Games attracted 136% growth in visits year on year in Hong Kong, primarily due to the dominance of SensAsian.com, a Malaysian entertainment retail portal. Fast moving categories also included Music and House and Garden. In Singapore, Apparel and Accessories, Computers and Sports and Fitness attracted the fastest year on year growth (34.7%, 21.8%, 5.25% and respectively).

  

  

• Apparel websites competing strongly in retail sector

  Posted: 2009-11-17 05:25:01 UTC

  Expectations for consumer spending this Christmas in Australia are moderate, despite consumer confidence sitting at 38.3 percent above its level a year ago (Westpac Melbourne Institute Consumer Sentiment Index). Given that retailers will be vying for consumer spend not just against immediate competitors, but against retailers in other verticals, I thought I would take a look at the types of products that are attracting consumer interest. Below is a breakdown of visits to Shopping and Classifieds websites by product category.

  

  
  While Computers attracted the largest share of visits amongst product-related websites, visits dropped by 13.7% comparing week ending 14 November 2009 to the same week last year.

  Apparel and Accessories visits attracted the highest year on year growth of 18.2%, and closely trailed Computers in overall volume. Strong performance in the Apparel and Accessories industry has been underscored by significant investment in the online channel by key vendors. Apparel retailers have increasingly recognised the need to maintain a strong web presence to strengthen their brand awareness and increase revenue both online and offline. Examples of fast moving local brands included, Sportsgirl Online, Pumpkin Patch, Kathmandu, Oroton and Witchery.

  Other product categories to attract year on year growth included (in order of percentage increase): Music, Video and Games, Grocery and Alcohol, Appliances and Electronics, House and Garden, Automotive, and Sport and Fitness.

  Retailers heavily reliant on search traffic

  Boosting lead generation from key traffic sources is another important consideration for retailers as they compete for limited consumer spend this year. Shopping and Classifieds websites received one third of their traffic from Search Engines during the week ending 14 November 2009, demonstrating the importance of search engine referrals.

  Social Networking and Forums, Email Services. Portal Frontpages and News and Media were all under-indexed traffic sources for Shopping and Classifieds websites, highlighting opportunities for retailers to attract customers from more diverse sources. Retailers should continue to monitor the industry benchmark for traffic leads, as well the sources of 'new' vs. 'returning' visitors to their competitors.

  

  

  

• What retail categories are Gen Ys searching for online?

  Posted: 2009-10-30 01:10:19 UTC

  In my last post I looked at search terms by 18-24 year old Australian users, and indicated how they were more likely to search for bricks and mortar brands than online players; with an overall tendency to search by brands compared to products.

  As expected, some of the retail categories that these brand and product search terms fell into conformed to some gender stereotypes. For example, ‘Apparel’ related terms attracted the highest percentage of search traffic by 18-24 year old female users (25%), while ‘Electronics’ terms were heavily represented by 18-24 year old male users (28%).

  

  · 18-24 year old females, compared to males, were more likely to search in these retail categories: Apparel, Grocery, House and Garden, Ticketing, Sports (e.g. ‘Nike’), Rewards, Books, Health and Beauty, Mall (e.g. ‘Chadstone shopping centre’), Comparison Shopping (e.g. ‘Shopbot’), Toys, Video and Discount (e.g. ‘Best and Less’).

  · 18-24 year old males, compared to females, were more likely to search for brands and products in Electronics, Department Stores, Music, Classifieds, Auctions, Automotive, Mobile, Games, Computers, Hardware, Household, Stationery and Notebooks.

  ·Apparel brands searched on by 18-24 year old females included, ‘forever new’, ‘supre’, ‘valley girl’, ‘dotti’ and ‘sportsgirl’. Product terms included, ‘engagement rings’, ‘sunglasses’ and ‘dresses’.

  · Electronics brands searched on by 18-24 year old males included, ‘apple’, ‘jb hifi’, ‘hp’ and ‘dell’. Product terms included, ‘iphone’, ‘nokia n97’, ‘laptops’, ‘mac’ and ‘tomtom’. Brand names on notebooks included, ‘dell laptops’, ‘toshiba laptops’, ‘hp laptops’ and ‘sony vaio’.

  Greater price-sensitivity by female shoppers

  It was also interesting to observe that 18-24 year old females had a stronger tendency than males to search on terms related to Comparison Shopping, Rewards and Discount categories. This means that retailers should ensure they are well-represented on comparison shopping websites and reward schemes for products targeted at females.

  Retailers can use search behaviour on retail categories to help prioritise which products they market to different age and gender groups across all of their marketing activities. Keyword lists can also be fine-tuned by delving further into the search tail by each segment.

  This post and the previous one are based on Experian Hitwise Custom data. To find out more, email csm@hitwise.com.

  

  

• How do Gen Ys search online when they do shopping research?

  Posted: 2009-10-27 04:40:46 UTC

  Now that we’re into the lead up to Christmas shopping, there has been some commentary on what tactics retailers will apply to make the most of online shopping, including social media. Given this could potentially become a crowded space, retailers have an opportunity to gain a competitive advantage by using search data to deepen their understanding of target customers.

  Recently we looked at the search traffic of 18-24 year old users in Australia to get a preview of their shopping preferences (based on head of household demographics data, 4 weeks ending 26/9/09). We also broke down searches by gender to see which brands and products resounded with each group.

  Some general behaviour we noted:

  ·Bricks and mortar searches much more dominant than online brands. 18-24 year old females and males were both more likely to search for bricks and mortar brands, accounting for 73% and 70% of searches respectively.

  ·18-24 year old females are more brand-conscious than males. 85% of top shopping searches by females were for brand names only, compared to 82% for males.

  ·18-24 year old males are more product-oriented in their searches than females. Product terms accounted for 16% of searches by males compared to 12% for females.

  So what does this mean for retailers?

  Given the high volume of searches for bricks and mortar brands, traditional retailers need a strong online presence to ensure they’re capturing pre-qualified consumer interest. On the flip-slide, online brands need to do a better job of increasing their brand awareness amongst Gen Ys.

  Retailers should also prioritise branding campaigns (above-the-line and display etc.) for attracting 18-24 year old female customers, while Pay-Per-Click budgets should be ramped up for products targeted at 18-24 year old males.

  (These principles may well apply across older age groups, but are outside of this study for the meantime.)

  

  Later this week I will publish the top searches by retail categories for 18-24 year old users. Stay tuned.
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  

  

• Kindle searches spike 300% in Australia

  Posted: 2009-10-19 04:28:09 UTC

  The recent announcement that the Kindle will be available to Australian consumers resulted in a 300% lift in searches during the week ending 10 October 2009, with searches maintaining their momentum the following week. Australian interest in the Kindle has long been apparent this year, outstripping searches for other ebook readers including the ‘sony reader’, ‘cybook’ and ‘iliad’.

  

  Opportunity to attract more search traffic from ‘ebooks’

  Searches for ‘ebooks’ similarly surged off the back of the Kindle announcement with ebook specialist retailers benefiting from most of the traffic. eBooks.com was the leading website to receive traffic from ‘ebooks’, accounting for 47.76% of clicks, followed by e-book.com.au with 11.08% (4 weeks ending 17 October 2009). Dymocks was the leading traditional retailer receiving search traffic on ‘ebooks’ (13th position overall), while Amazon.com ranked ahead at 8th position. Given the substantial and consistent volume of searches on ‘ebooks’, there is an opportunity for more book retailers to optimise their websites for this term.

  

  Consumers are searching for free ebooks

  One of the interesting developments in the publishing industry we’ll see next year is the launch of Google Editions, an online book store. As you can see below, searches for ‘free ebooks’ were top of mind amongst Australian users, signaling that one of the challenges for Google and Amazon will be getting consumers used to paying for their ebooks - in a similar fashion to the online music industry before the itunes era. Also of interest were searches for 'free pdf ebooks' and ‘ebooks for iphone’, suggesting that users won’t necessarily get locked into a specific platform when browsing for ebooks.

  

  Personally, as someone who (shamefully) spends more time these days buying books than actually reading them cover to cover, I’m hoping I’ll spend a lot less money when I can gleam over the latest ebook titles instead.

  

  

• Early-adopters in NZ looking to shop on funky T-shirt websites

  Posted: 2009-10-12 02:12:02 UTC

  Last week we launched Hitwise Lifestyle, our online segmentation and targeting tool, in the New Zealand market. Hitwise Lifestyle is built on Mosaic, a geodemographic classification system developed by Pacific Micromarketing and Experian. Each of New Zealand's 1.4 million residential households is allocated into 42 Types within 11 Groups based on a wide range of statistical and independently-researched sources.

  One of the key Mosaic Lifestyle Groups is ‘Urban Intelligence'. Accounting for 4.8% of New Zealand households, Urban Intelligence is comprised of tech-savvy young professionals, with high household incomes and strong spending habits (Download our full report on Urban Intelligence).

  The retail behaviour of this group is of particular interest leading up to Christmas. While Shopping & Classifieds - Auctions is a significant online industry in NZ, it is under-indexed in visits by Urban Intelligence. Retail verticals that did perform strongly in attracting visits from Urban Intelligence included Apparel and Accessories, Grocery and Alcohol, Health and Beauty, Flowers and Gifts and Department Stores. Below is a table with the leading Apparel and Accessories websites visited by Urban Intelligence:

  

  · Designer t-shirt online shop, 1-Daytee was the leading Apparel and Accessories website visited by Urban Intelligence, 12 weeks ending 3 October 2009. US t-shirt company, Threadless.com also ranked amongst the top sites, and attracted 1 in 10 visits from Urban Intelligence.

  · Given that the Apparel and Accessories industry is usually dominated by female Internet users, it was interesting to see that visits to 1-Daytee and Threadless.com were comprised of 59.1% and 56.6% male users respectively.

  Urban Intelligence highly engaged with overseas News and Media sites

  An important application of Hitwise Lifestyle is understanding the content preferences of a particular segment to inform media spending decisions. Urban Intelligence, for example, has the highest engagement with News and Media websites compared to all Mosaic Groups; 16% above the online average for the 12 weeks ending 3 October 2009.

  Of further interest is the strong percentage of visits that overseas News and Media websites attract from Urban Intelligence, reflecting this segment's high education levels. As the below table demonstrates, visits to Guardian.co.uk were comprised of 12.53% by Urban Intelligence households, while Sohu.com News attracted 9.91%, The New York Times 9.37%, CNN.com International – US Edition 9.37%, BBC Homepage 8.1% and BBC News 7.89%.

  

  Click here to learn more about Hitwise Lifestyle.

  

  

• Government sites receive more traffic from Social Nets than News and Media

  Posted: 2009-09-21 01:20:48 UTC

  During a recent presentation at the AMI Government Marketing and Communications Conference, I noted that Government websites received more traffic from Social Networking and Forums than the online News and Media industry for the first time during August 2009 in Australia. While this is partly the result of the rapid growth in visits to Social Networking websites overall, I believe this reflects a much wider engagement by Government agencies in the Social Networking space in the past couple of years. Indeed, there were many local examples of Government initiatives on Facebook and Twitter at the conference, ranging from the Country Fire Authority to the Victorian Police.

  

  Social Nets increasingly becoming an ‘authority’ traffic source

  This brought my attention to wider changes we’re seeing in online traffic distribution – with many ‘traditional’ categories, such as Banks & Financial Institutions, Shopping and Travel much more reliant on Social Networking traffic than they were two years ago. Banking websites in particular received an increase of 110.5% in traffic referrals from Social Nets, comparing August 2007 and August 2009. In contrast, content-driven industries such as Entertainment have always been heavily reliant on Social Networking traffic, with referrals outstripping News and Media traffic from before September 2006.

  The increase in referrals from Social Networking websites has been largely at the expense of other traffic drivers, including Email Services, Portals and News and Media websites. The implication here is that Social Networks will increasingly become the preferred online channel for organisations to distribute their PR; and in particular, traditional News and Media websites face an uphill battle with Social Networks in providing the most immediate, if not relevant, third-party source of information on organisations.

  

  One last important aside, visits to Social Networking websites are fast catching up to Search Engines, accounting for 11.38% and 12.55% share of visits respectively in August 2009 (Hat tip to our Senior Account Manager, Kimberleigh Stowe for pointing this out). Watch for the announcement on when visits to Social Nets overtake Search Engines in Australia :)

  

  

• Costco Australia launch - Who is feeling the biggest online impact?

  Posted: 2009-09-07 05:05:53 UTC

  The opening of US retailer and membership warehouse club, Costco in Melbourne attracted a healthy amount of fanfare online, with the term “costco” increasing 8-fold during the week ending 22 August 2009, compared to the previous week. The Costco Australia website made a strong debut in the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds – Department Stores category, ranking at 12th position during the week ending 22 August 2009, behind Kmart Australia at 10th position, but ahead of Myer (at 14th position) and David Jones (16th position).

  Commentators have noted that the launch of Costco will affect the whole retail ecosystem here, including large retailers and small businesses. Indeed, the original concept behind Costco was a ‘hypermarket’, a combination of discount supermarket and department store. With this in mind, I thought I would take an early look at Costco’s online competitive traffic to see where consumers were doing the most comparison shopping. Below are the Shopping & Classifieds websites that consumers visited before Costco Australia during August 2009.

  

  ALDI Australia notably featured as the 4th highest Shopping & Classifieds website referring traffic to Costco Australia, with a returning visitor rate of 57.8%. IKEA was another major bricks and mortar retailer sending traffic to Costco, while Officeworks Business Direct represented competition within the B2B space. There were also a number of bargain shopping websites in Costco’s upstream traffic, including OzBargain, Buckscooping (which has a list of Costco prices) and Catch Of The Day – emphasising the appeal of Costco to discount-savvy shoppers.

  Costco attracts similar online audience to Myer

  An early indication of Costco’s Lifestyle Mosaic profile reveals the highest-representation of visits from multicultural households (“Metro Multiculture”) followed by young families (“Pushing the Boundaries”). Another way of assessing which retailers will potentially compete against Costco is via the Hitwise Lifestyle similarity tool, which profiles websites that attract a similar audience to Costco Australia.

  

  Myer attracted the most similar Mosaic profile to Costco Australia, with a matching index of 0.88 (1 being an identical match). Classifieds websites, Gumtree Melbourne and Cracker also had a similar audience to Costco, underscoring the breadth of Costco’s potential impact on consumer behaviour. As Costco opens more stores and grows in Australia, we’ll be keeping a track of its online performance, particularly within the grocery space leading up to Christmas.

  

  

• What are Western Australian users doing online? Localising content

  Posted: 2009-06-29 12:22:38 UTC

  Following on from an excellent post by Robin on local Internet data in the UK, I thought I would share an Australian example of our ability to create mini-panels based on users with specific characteristics - in this case users in Western Australia. Like the rest of the population, WA users had the highest volume of visits to Search Engines and Social Networking and Forums. It’s useful however to understand where WA users differ from the rest of the population, particularly for creating content serving the local community. The below table provides a top-line view of the industries that WA users are more likely to engage in compared to other Australians.

  

  Sports categories featured prominently in the industries that WA users were most likely to visit, with Soccer attracting the highest index of 164 (100 is the online average), ahead of AFL – Football with an index of 149. Sporting codes that attracted low visits by WA users were Snow Sports (makes sense geographically) Athletics and Motorsport.

  Regional targeting can be cross-tabbed with other metrics, such as Search terms and website visits. This can be useful for brands wishing to benchmark the local awareness of their services, or for advertisers looking for the most targeted websites to reach local audiences. The below table highlights leading search terms used by WA users. I have filtered the list to terms with an index higher than 120 so that you can get an idea of localised behaviour.

  

  A quick glance shows that ‘myspace’ attracted high search volumes by WA users, and was 24% more likely to be used than in other Australian states. Classifieds brand, ‘Quokka’ notably stood out with an index of 803, while ‘perth now’ had an index of 666. The most popular generic term on the list was ‘perth weather’, surprising, as I always thought the answer to that was always “fine” :)

  Follow Hitwise APAC on Twitter

  

  

• Government website visits up 10.4% in Australia year-on-year in March 2009

  Posted: 2009-05-07 01:31:17 UTC

  We've just published a new Hitwise Australia Online Government report, demonstrating that government website visits were up 10.4% year-on-year in March 209. This growth suggests that the community is finding online government services increasingly useful. Australian visits to government websites also outstripped US and UK usage in March 2009.

  However, Government agencies need to ensure that the online delivery of their services is meeting the needs of the community, particularly as the Internet becomes a primary point of contact between organisations and users.

  As times get tough during the economic downturn, government will play an increasingly important role in providing vital services to the community. The effective delivery of these services through the online channel can result in cost-savings for government and potentially improve community well-being.

  Key findings from the report, including a case study on how the Australian community reacted online to the Victorian bushfires in 2009, are as follows:

  • Government Agencies should benchmark their websites against similar departments and industry players. The Bureau of Meteorology was the leading Government – National website with an overwhelming 44.8% share of visits in March 2009, and was also the leading News and Media website ahead of major publishers.

  • Victorian Bushfires searches dropped off 4 weeks after the crisis. Search analysis can help inform governments of the peak window for community awareness around a given event. Agencies can use also search data to measure awareness of government services.

  • Search Engine Optimisation should be used by government websites to compete effectively with the commercial sector. Searches around the Victorian bushfires also demonstrate that the community was more likely to turn to News and Media websites than online government services for vital updates, appeal information, and education around bushfire safety.
  
  • Agencies can determine who they can use for information dissemination based on websites that receive the most traffic on searches. The leading media players to receive informational bushfire searches during the height of the Victorian Bushfires were ABC News Online, Google News Australia and The Age.

  • Social Media can be used by government to connect with a broad spectrum of the community. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Wikipedia all ranked amongst the top websites visited by Australians in March 2009, with each network displaying different audience strengths.

  You can also register here to listen to Government webinar next week - presented by Hitwise Research Director, Alan Long and myself.

  

  

• What gadgets are early adopters searching for?

  Posted: 2009-04-28 02:06:54 UTC

  Later this week I’ll be sharing some insights at the Australian Retail Symposium 2009 on how specific demographic segments search for retail brands and products. I’ve looked at searches by Australian households in our Hitwise Lifestyle segment, ‘Young Ambition’, who are early adopters of technology and are likely to research products over the Internet. Here’s a sample of their leading electronics search terms during March 2009:

  

  • ‘mobile phones’ was the leading product-related search term, but ‘Young Ambition’ were much more likely to search for ‘mobile phone reviews’ with an index of 485 compared to the online population average (100).

  • ‘iphone accessories’ attracted higher volumes of search than ‘iphone,’ suggesting that ‘Young Ambition’ are seasoned iPhone users and are now looking for the latest accessories.

  • ‘Omnia’ and the ‘LG Web Slider’ are providing strong competition to the iPhone amongst ‘Young Ambition’ households, with high search volumes compared to the online population.

  • ‘navman’ and ‘tomtom’ searches were over-represented amongst ‘Young Ambition’ during Christmas 2008 but were under-represented during March 2009. This suggests that navigation products are becoming less of a fad amongst early adopters.

  • ‘headphones’, 'cameras' and ‘laptops’ were other leading product search terms. ‘Sennheiser’ related terms also appeared in the long-tail of ‘Young Ambition’ searches.

  Retailers can gain an understanding of the products and brands that resound with specific consumer groups by drilling into their search behaviour. Stay tuned for a similar analysis on high-end shoppers and suburban families.

  

  

• Bushfire Searches: 4 week window of peak community interest

  Posted: 2009-04-22 23:37:29 UTC

  The Victorian bushfires in February 2009 demonstrated how Australians turned to the Internet to get vital information surrounding a crisis. Search data reflected strong community awareness of the Victorian Country Fire Authority, with ‘cfa’ the fastest moving search term driving traffic to all websites in February 2009. Searches that included ‘bushfires’ were three times greater than searches including ‘cfa’ during the height of the crisis, week ending 14 February 2009. The below figure demonstrates the peak of bushfire searches following Black Saturday and how quickly they dropped off.

  

  · ‘Bushfires’ searches decreased by 76.5% the week ending 21 February 2009 compared to week ending 14 February 2009, and dropped a futher 44.3% a fortnight later.

  · There was 4-week window for peak community awareness following the Victorian Bushfire tragedy. 6 weeks after the height of the crisis, search activity on ‘bushfires’ dropped to search levels preceding the crisis.

  Bushfire Searches became more specific during and after crisis

  A detailed study into the bushfire searches provide insight into what types of information requirements emerge at key periods during a crisis. Hitwise found that bushfire searches fell into the following 5 types:

  1. ‘Appeal’ searches around fundraising efforts e.g. ‘redcross bushfire appeal’
  2. ‘Education’ searches around historical knowledge and future planning e.g. ‘bushfire survival’
  3. ‘General’ searches e.g. ‘victorian bushfires’
  4. ‘Informational’ searches around news and geographical updates e.g. ‘bushfire map’
  5. ‘Services’ searches around government and commercial agencies e.g. ‘cfa bushfires’

  

  · ‘Informational’ searches were strong throughout, with timeliness the key in providing community updates. The top 5 websites to receive ‘Informational’ searches during the height of the crisis (week ending 14 February 2009) were the Victoria Country Fire Authority, ABC News Online, Google News Australia, Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment, and The Age.

  ·The community were willing to provide support immediately with ‘Appeal’ searches prevalent during the week ending 14 February 2009. ‘Appeal’ searches however dropped off significantly 5 weeks after the crisis.

  · News and Media websites attracted the most traffic from all types of bushfire searches apart from ‘Services’ following the crisis. However News and Media websites received a smaller allocation of paid traffic on ‘bushfire’ Searches (5.8%) than Government websites (8.7%) during the week ending 14 March 2009, suggesting that organic traffic was a more important driver of traffic.

  ·The proportion of ‘Education’ searches peaked 5 weeks following the crisis, suggesting ongoing demand for information to avoid a repeat of the disaster. Wikipedia was the top website to receive ‘Educational’ during the crisis (week ending 14 March 2009). While Government websites received a significant portion of search traffic with 8.9%, it is clear agencies need to compete with a range of sources in providing reliable and authoritative information to the public.

  Making sure government websites are optimised for searches on key issues

  Government agencies can use online behaviour surrounding the Victorian bushfire case study to understand the needs of the community, when information is crucial for saving lives. By investing in best practice Search Engine Optimisation, such as using keyword research to determine the language of the community, government agencies can ensure they are a key source of information. Government agencies can also work with leading online news outlets for information dissemination.

  We will be releasing an Online Government report very soon that includes the bushfire case study so stay tuned. Hitwise Research Director, Alan Long and Product Director for Search Marketing Services, Stuart McKeown will also be speaking at this AMI event on 30 April: Best practices for government, community organisations and consumer marketing.

  

  

• Bricks and Mortar Retailers in Australia are winning the online battle

  Posted: 2009-03-02 01:07:11 UTC

  Last week we released our latest Hitwise APAC report, Retail Review Christmas 2008 – Insights for Retail Planning. A key takeout from the report was the significant shift towards Bricks and Mortar Retailers during Christmas 2008, as traditional brands began to leverage online for connecting directly with consumers (Alan first spotted this trend in Australia late last year).

  According to Hitwise, visits to Bricks and Mortar Retailers by Australian Internet users attracted year-on-year growth of 19.2% in December 2008, while visits to Online Retailers declined by 7.7%. There are several reasons for this movement: the ‘flight to quality’ or attractiveness of brands that consumers know and trust during an economic downturn; the drop in the Australian dollar; and the improved online marketing performance by some traditional brands. Online is being revisited as a key channel for brands to differentiate themselves against competitors.

  Another major trend in 2008 was the heightened importance of post-Christmas sales, which are now occurring over a longer period. Boxing Day remained a key retail opportunity, attracting the most daily visits in 2008 by Australian Internet users. Bricks and Mortar Retailers particularly benefited from traffic on Boxing Day 2008, attracting year-on-year growth in visits of 29%.

  Other major findings from the report include:

  •Appliances and Electronics is the fastest growing retail category: Appliances and Electronics websites enjoyed the strongest growth in the retail sector over Christmas, with Australian visits increasing by 27.2% amongst all websites comparing December 2007 and December 2008. This growth is underpinned by a significant investment in paid search (see my previous retail update).

  •Shoppers hunt for second-hand products during downturn: Australian visits to the Classifieds category increased 24.9% in December 2008 compared to December 2007.

  •Top retail brands are increasing their share of the search pie: The top 100 retail brands in December 2008 in Australia grew in search volume by 27.9%, while in New Zealand and Singapore the top brands grew by 21.1% and 10.6% respectively.

  •Bricks and Mortar Retailers are attracting affluent shoppers online: Bricks and Mortar Retailers in Australia were 28% more likely than Online Retailers to attract visits from the Mosaic Lifestyle Group, ‘Young Ambition’; Educated and high-earning young singles and sharers in the inner suburbs.

  I thought I would also share this Treemap that we presented during our retail webinar last week. In the research team, we’re always on the lookout for different visualisation techniques for Hitwise data. In this case, we found Treemaps particularly effective for communicating dual metrics on a macro level. In the map below, the size of each rectangle represents Australian market share of visits within the Shopping & Classifieds industry. More ‘blue’ rectangles represent sub-categories with high growth, while more ‘orange’ rectangles represent sectors with higher rates of decline.

  Click image to enlarge:

  

  This analysis shows that Auctions is by far the largest sub-category within the Hitwise Shopping & Classifieds industry, accounting for over a third of visits in January 2009. Rewards and Directories, which includes comparison shopping websites, accounted for about 10%, highlighting its importance as an affiliate sector. ‘Blue’ or fast moving industries included Appliances and Electronics, Classifieds, Apparel and Accessories, and House and Garden. ‘Orange’ or declining industries included Ticketing and Music.

  You can also check out Heather’s retail map in the US. I’d be keen to hear your feedback on Treemaps and any other suggestions you have for data visualisation.

  

  

• Maps and Cheap Cruises Growing Online in Australia

  Posted: 2009-02-22 23:38:13 UTC

  Travel - Maps was the fastest growing travel sector in Australia during January 2009, with visits increasing 39.3% year-on-year according to Hitwise. It was also one of the fastest growing industries amongst all websites.

  Google Maps (.com and .com.au) directly contributed to the growth of the Maps industry, jumping from a combined market share in visits of 44.7% in January 2008 to 74.7% in January 2009. 'Google Maps' was also the fastest moving search term driving traffic to the Travel industry year-on-year in January 2009, highlighting increasing consumer awareness of the service.

  The launch of Street View had a big impact on visits to Maps in August 2008, with the enhanced mapping service receiving significant traffic referrals from major news publishers. Since August 2008, the Maps industry has increased and consolidated its lead over visits to Travel – Agencies. Maps websites attracted 1.4x more visits than Agencies in January 2009.

  The significant growth in visits to the Maps industry is a signal to all businesses dependent on tourism that their contact information needs to be well-optimised on search for mapping services.

  

  Cruises Industry Defies Downturn

  Another significant trend in the travel industry in Australia was growth to the Travel - Cruises industry of 15.2% year-on-year in January 2009. Heather Hopkins wrote last year about searches for cruise deals soaring in the US downturn market, and we're seeing a similar pattern in Australia. Searches that include 'cheap cruises', increased by 20% comparing the 4 weeks ending 31 January 2009 against the same time period last year. Many of the recent search variations on 'cheap cruises' included local destinations, such as Cairns, Perth and the Whitsundays. Searches on locations further abroad included the Mediterranean, Pacific Islands and Africa.

  

  The top 10 websites in the Cruises industry all contributed to industry growth, with visits to the two fastest-moving players, Princess Cruises and VactionsToGo.com increasing by 104.2% and 69.6% respectively against all sites (yoy in Jan 09). P&O Cruises Australia was the leading site in January 2009 with 14.81% market share of visits, while Australian cruises aggregators, Ozcruising and Best Cruises also performed strongly ranking at 4th and 5th position respectively.

  General travel agencies should consider giving prominence to deals for cruises on their websites given the increased interest by Australian consumers and significant competition by cruises specialists.

  

  

• Plurk attracts more Visits than Twitter in Singapore

  Posted: 2009-02-10 06:40:51 UTC

  We've given a fair amount of coverage to how Twitter has tracked recently in Australia, the US and UK, but it's always interesting to compare regional differences. I was surprised to find that Plurk, a microblogging website that displays updates on a timeline, first overtook visits to Twitter during July 2008 in Singapore. Plurk furthermore attracted 1.5x more visits than Twitter during the week ending 7 February 2009.

  

  Blogger was the leading source of traffic to Plurk, accounting for 13.9% of upstream traffic, week ending 7 February 2009, and was also the main point of difference in referrals between Plurk and Twitter (difference of 11.9%). The strong influence of traffic referrals by Blogger is underpinned by its ranking as the 7th most visited website overall by Singapore Internet users.

  Lifestyle – Blogs and Personal Websites overall were responsible for 18.8% of traffic to Plurk. This traffic movement suggests that Singapore users are becoming less likely to devote their time to writing full-length posts, preferring the quick format and immediate response that microblogging offers.

  I'd be interested to hear from Singapore readers as to why they prefer Plurk over Twitter.

  

  

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