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Online shopping falls for third week
Mark Prigg, Technology Correspondent4 Nov 2008
ONLINE shopping sales have dropped for the third week in a row for the first time.
Internet stores had initially benefited from the economic crisis, as shoppers turned online to find the best prices but that has changed as spending stops altogether, new figures revealed today.
"This is a clear indication that the credit crunch is now hitting online," said Robin Goad of Hitwise, the internet monitoring company which carried out the research. "This could be just the beginning of a major downturn."
Today's figures, found an eight per cent drop in the number of visits to shopping sites across the UK over the last three weeks.
"This is something we just haven't seen before," said Mr Goad. "However, we think we will see a rise over Christmas, but January is going to be very interesting - particularly as earlier this year, the first week of January saw the biggest ever online sales."
Supermarket sites are bucking the trend, however, with traffic up 10 per cent year on year .
Reader views (3)
Online shopping addicts have eventually come to realise that theirbank details are being collected and used by criminals overseas
- Keith Price, Luton, England, 05/11/2008 19:12
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Some supermarkets trying to get customers to shop online need to look at their delivery charges policy. I received an email from Sainsbury today offering £7.50 off my shopping bill if I bought my shopping online (minimum £50 purchase). I went online, ticked which delivery period I wanted (which showed "£4.50") and was quoted £6 delivery charge, which to me, means a reduction on my £50 of just £1.50 once the delivery charge is accounted for. Not much of an incentive to shop online is it.
- Yvonne, Doncaster, UK, 05/11/2008 15:25
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On line shopping still has a way to come! I tried to use it a few weeks ago and in the final stages it all went wrong. This resulted in me having to ring two expensive '08' numbers to sort thing out. To add insult to injury the call centre told me that I could not order over the telephone as it was a special internet only price. Pretty useless if the system is flawed. They have lost me as a customer forever and I look forward to reading of their demise!
- Conspiracy Theorist, London, 05/11/2008 13:16
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