From the high street
retailers’ perspective Experian’s Footfall Index, which reflects
the number of people visiting shopping centres and city centre
stores, told a grim story, falling 2.3 percent in December 2008
compared with December 2007. By contrast, online sales soared
during the fourth quarter of 2008 with the top 10 online retail
websites recording on average a 37 percent increase in unique
visitors compared with the fourth quarter of 2007, reported Nielsen
Online.

Topping the list of retail websites in terms of unique visitors
was Amazon.com at 15.6 million per month, up 18 percent compared
with the fourth quarter of 2007. One other online-only retailer,
Play.com, was in the top 10 with 5.7 million unique visitors per
month.

A number of high street retailers recorded astounding growth
with clothing and furniture retailer Littlewoods leading the field
with an astounding 66 percent increase to 3.6 million unique
visitors per month.

“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,” commented Nielsen
Online’s communications director, Alex Burmaster.