The August Hot Shops List which Hitwise compiles with IMRG was released this week, with fashion retailers Next and Matalan particularly impressing this quarter.

The fastest movers since May were Travel Republic (up 18 places), Odeon Cinemas (+14), First Choice (+12), Travelodge (+12) and Cineworld (+9).

Although not one of the fastest movers, Next took a significant step forward by moving up two places to third in the Hot Shops List, overtaking both Tesco and Play.com for the first time in three years.

Matalan meanwhile reached its highest ever position in the Hot Shops List this quarter by jumping up to 40th place. Earlier trading statements from the company revealed that online sales had doubled in Q1 2011, and certainly this was reflected in our data with a quadrupling of online traffic in the last three years.

In July Matalan had its best ever month of online traffic, accounting for 2.14% of all visits to our Apparel and Accessories category. Next and Matalan have made the biggest impact online this quarter but all eyes are now turning towards Christmas and retail planning for the busiest period of the year. We will be running a special Retail Christmas Planning webinar on Friday 19 August at noon which is completely free to sign up to and will give further insights into Hitwise can help you plan effectively for Christmas 2011.
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