To print: Click here or Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

This story was printed from silicon.com, located at http://www.silicon.com/

Story URL: http://www.silicon.com/retailandleisure/0,3800011842,39371598,00.htm

Bricks and clicks beat web-only retailers
High street has Christmas presence when it comes to traffic

By Julian Goldsmith

Published: Friday 02 January 2009

Bricks and clicks retailers appear to have had the upper hand over pure-play internet stores in terms of web traffic this Christmas.

silicon.com Retail & Leisure

Get the latest retail and leisure news straight to your inbox. Sign up for the R&L newsletter today!

According to research by credit checking and information services company Experian, high street retailers with a web shopfront got 68 per cent more internet traffic than their online-only rivals during the Christmas period.

The news comes against a background of a drop in high street footfall of 3.1 per cent in December, the company said.

According to Experian, the boost for bricks and clicks retailers was due to shoppers researching products online before going on to make purchases on the high street.

Fashion retailers, supermarkets and department stores were the favoured destinations for those browsing on the web before buying on the high street, with the most searched for products being TVs, iPods and netbooks.