Department stores are becoming the clear shopping destinations of choice for online consumers, occupying 10 of the top 15 spaces in the IMRG Hitwise Hot Shops List, which measures traffic to retail sites released today.

The November Hot Shops List confirms Amazon UK as the dominant brand among department stores, accounting for 40% of site visits to the sector. Amazon’s closest rival in the List, Argos, attracts around 8% of the sector’s visits:

Apparel & Accessories retailers also feature prominently in the List, with 7 making the top 50. This sector has been one of the big drivers of growth in the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index over the past decade, and it seems that shopping for clothing online remains a key behaviour for UK consumers:

According to Andrew McClelland, Managing Director at IMRG one of the key strengths of internet shopping is that every product imaginable is available through a single virtual space. However, the huge popularity of department stores suggests that consumers still like to have some degree of centralisation to help guide their browsing, and these sites provide that. Having succeeded in drawing traffic to the site, the real focus shifts away from product range on to the customer, providing them with the highest quality experience possible and ensuring that they come to regard the site as their primary destination of choice when next shopping online.

We tend to agree; department stores are playing an increasingly important role in online retail and remain one of the strongest growth areas within the retail industry as a whole. Amazon UK has been the market leader of this category for a number of years now and has been the top retailer in the Hot Shops list for as long as we have been doing it. As UK Internet usage evolves Britain is spending a greater proportion of its time shopping, with 10% of all time online spent on retail websites, up from 8% last year. With this increase in online shopping activity comes opportunity for brands to engage with their customers to improve the user experience, which will ultimately lead to more sales.

This quarter’s five fastest movers in the Hot Shops List top 50 were Toys R Us (+28) indicating that consumers were planning ahead for Christmas in October and ASDA Direct (+16), with ASDA, Boots and Ticketmaster UK all moving up 14 places.

The full Hot Shops List top 50 for November 2012 can be viewed below: