Hot Shops List looks back over two years' data
June 2008
After 24 months seven of the original top ten brands are still riding high...
The IMRG-Hitwise Hot Shops List is two years old and has taken the opportunity to take a look back over the last two years to see who have been the prime movers and shakers.
The latest top 50 sees twelve new entrants, 19 risers, 16 fallers and three that retain the same position, including Amazon UK who appeared at number one in the very first list and have stayed at number one in every list published since.
Seven of the original May 2006 top ten brands are still top ten. As well as Amazon UK, they are Apple Computer, Play.com, Tesco.com, Argos, Amazon.com and easyJet. The three new entrants are Tesco Direct, Marks & Spencer and Next.
Five of the top ten retailers now have physical stores, up from three in 2006, and twenty-eight of the top 50 have high street stores, up from twenty-three in 2006.
The fastest climbers are Tesco Direct, which didn't exist two years ago, Marks & Spencer and HMV. Asos has climbed thirty-two places and Asda has climbed eighteen.
Only Tesco Direct at number eight has made it from nowhere into the top ten. It is followed by Game at number 21, Ebuyer (24), Topshop (33), River Island (34), Sainsbury's (42), Symantec Store (42), Ikea (44) Odeon Cinemas (45), Boots (46), TravelRepublic.co.uk (48) and Maplin (49).
At the other end of the scale, those that have dropped off the list include MyTravel, bmibaby.com, XL.com, Tesco Electrical, Flybe.com, Packard Bell, Jet2, InterContinental Hotels, Monarch Airlines and Opodo.
Electrical and travel are the sectors most strongly represented on the list, with a dozen specialist vendors each. But clothing is the fastest growing online shopping sector, with eight representatives in the current list including two of the biggest risers and two new high street heavyweights as new entrants in the form of Topshop at number 33 and River Island at number 34.
"With the internet dominating retail growth and more than £60 billion worth of online sales at stake this year, it is surprising that so many of the traditional high street retailers are still failing to appear on the Hot Shops List, because that's where the action is," commented IMRG's CEO James Roper.
This article is written by Marcus Austin and sourced from: www.internetretailing.net
