With Christmas over and the New Year in full swing it’s time for us to reflect on Christmas 2010 and the key trends in retail this year.

The two biggest factors which affected online retail this Christmas were the December snow falls and the January VAT increase. With consumers squeezed on both sides of Christmas, the period between 25 December 2010 and 4 January 2011 was the busiest post-Christmas shopping frenzy we’ve ever seen online.

Last year you may remember there was also a January VAT increase as VAT returned to 17.5% up from the temporary 15% rate. This caused a 13% post-Christmas spike in retail as consumers bought big ticket items such as laptops and flatscreen TVs before the VAT hike. You can see the difference the VAT made between 2008 and 2009 with a marginal 2% growth in 2008 but a more urgent spike in 2009. This year, the combination of VAT increase and the reduced shopping time pre-Christmas due to the snow lead to a massive 23% increase in traffic to online retailers.
Last week we held a post-Christmas retail webinar which discussed in detail the effect that the snow and VAT had on online retail, as well as a whole bunch other things. This webinar is available to download but one chart I wanted to share was our Christmas retail traffic chart which captures both online and offline traffic through Hitwise and Experian Footfall.

What this chart emphasises is the difference in online and offline shopping behaviours. Online the shopping peak was on 26 and 27 December whereas offline the peak was on 21 and 23 December, and even January sales couldn’t eclipse the numbers of people hitting the shops in the last vital days before Christmas Eve. You can find out a lot more on the webinar.
In the year ahead we have much to look forward to online, including the impact of the royal wedding and the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand. Of course, there will be plenty of blogs in between and you can follow us on Twitter for the most recent updates on Hitwise data.
Here’s to a great 2011.