Online holiday shopping up sharply in UK and France, but not Germany

British and French consumers went online in large numbers during the recent holiday season, but not so Germany shoppers, according to comScore Inc., a web measurement firm that tracked online activity at retail shopping sites in the UK, France and Germany.

At its peak, consumer visits to online retail sites were up 38% compared to the pre-holiday period in the UK and 45% in France. But activity at German retailers web sites was up only 12% at the height of the holiday season. A national rail strike and shaky consumer confidence made for a tepid holiday shopping season in Germany, comScore says. The comScore study compared visits to online retail sites for Oct. 29-Dec. 23 to the pre-holiday period of Sept. 3-Oct. 28.

For both France and the UK, the peak online shopping week was Dec. 3-9; in Germany, the peak came one week later. "The typical pattern we note in all countries, including the U.S., is that online retail activity peaks in mid-December as consumers have to allow time for shipping and delivery of their purchases in most categories," says Bob Ivins, executive vice president of European markets for comScore.

Amazon sites led the way in visits during the holiday season in the UK. In France, the top spot went to multi-channel retailer Groupe PPR and in Germany to Otto Gruppe, a catalog and web retailer.

Here are the top five retail sites in the UK for the period Oct. 29-Dec. 23, with each e-retailer's average share of visits to online retail sites from UK users, according to comScore's World Metrix audience measurement service:

  • Amazon sites, 9%
  • Apple Inc., 6%
  • Home Retail Group, 5%
  • Tesco Stores, 4%
  • Play.com sites, 3%

Here are the top five retail sites in France for the period Oct. 29-Dec. 23, with each e-retailer's average share of visits to online retail sites from French users, according to comScore's World Metrix audience measurement service:

  • Group PPR, 11%
  • Apple Inc., 5%
  • Amazon sites, 4%
  • Otto Gruppe, 4%
  • CDiscount.com, 4%
Here are the top five retail sites in Germany for the period Oct. 29-Dec. 23, with each e-retailer's average share of visits to online retail sites from German users, according to comScore's World Metrix audience measurement service:
  • Otto Gruppe, 13%
  • Amazon sites, 9%
  • Arcandor AG, 5%
  • Apple Inc., 4%
  • O2online.de, 3%

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