This week we released the latest issue of the IMRG-Experian Hitwise Hot Shops List which ranks the UK’s top 50 online retailers by Internet visits. As expected, Amazon, Apple and Argos remained unmoved at the top of the list and many of the fastest moving websites climbing up the rankings were travel related because of the peak winter season.

In January 2013 the UK made over 800 million visits to travel websites, a 42% increase from the visits made in December. The increase in interest fuelled the rise in the rankings for Thomas Cook (up 25 places from the previous quarter), Thomson (+15), Travel Republic (+12) and British Airways (+10). Budget airline Ryanair was the only travel brand not to increase its ranking in the top 50 this quarter, falling one place to 33 overall.

Post-Christmas shopping is usually dominated by big ticket items such as TVs, laptops, sofas, wardrobes and bathrooms so it was no surprise to see Currys, IKEA and PC World all rise in the rankings from last quarter whilst Homebase remained steady at 41 in the list.

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