The latest Hitwise-IMRG ranking for the 50 most popular UK online retailers has put four travel brands in the top ten. In July, Thomson Holidays, Expedia, EasyJet and Lastminute.com appeared in fifth, sixth, seventh and tenth positions respectively, topped by Amazon, Argos, Tesco and Play.com. The biggest movers amongst the leading travel brands were Thomson…
Travel brands perform well online in July
The latest Hitwise–IMRG ranking for the 50 most popular UK online retailers has put four travel brands in the top ten.
In July, Thomson Holidays, Expedia, EasyJet and Lastminute.com appeared in fifth, sixth, seventh and tenth positions respectively, topped by Amazon, Argos, Tesco and Play.com.
The biggest movers amongst the leading travel brands were Thomson Holidays, moving six places into fifth position ahead of Expedia, and Lastminute.com’s jump of five positions.
The top 50 contained a total of 18 travel brands, reflecting the seasonality of consumer browsing, but the TravelRepublic online travel agency appeared in the list for the first time.
IMRG chief executive James Roper said: “Against a backdrop of huge growth in online sales, up 80% on last year to £4+ billion in July, the stability of retailers’ positions on the list is extraordinary, and tells me two things: these market leaders are satisfying their customers pretty well, and competitors are having little or no effect on their progress.
“The really odd thing is that nothing about e-retailing is static – the customer base, expectations, propositions, technology – its all evolving rapidly all the time.
“Beneath this apparently serene and stable market is frantic activity keeping it so.”
Hitwise director of research Robin Goad added: “The growth of travel sites is primarily a seasonal adjustment, but a 50% year on year increase in traffic helped TravelRepublic enter the top 50 for the first time.”
