Retail and Hot Gadgets Update

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Lindsay O’Gorman

Marketing Executive, Experian Hitwise

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EXPERIAN HITWISE RETAIL AND HOT GADGETS UPDATE

Apple iPhone and iPod Touch the most searched for products this Christmas

Hair straightners and hamsters also feature in the top 10

Searches for toys increased by 18.9% and MP3 players up by 35.1% in the run-up to Christmas

London, 15 December 2009 – Experian Hitwise, the leading online competitive intelligence service, today reveals that UK Internet visits to consumer electronics websites increased by 16.5% between October 2009 and November 2009 as the gift buying season started in earnest. This was the largest month-on-month increase in UK Internet traffic to consumer electronics websites this year. Searches for toys and hobbies reached their peak during the week ending December 5^th, when they accounted for 13.6% of all online searches for products in the UK.

“UK Internet visits to consumer electronics retail websites always increase in the run-up to Christmas and this year they peaked during the week ending December 5^th – a week closer to Christmas than compared to the last couple of years,” commented Robin Goad, Research Director at Experian Hitwise. “UK consumers are clearly holding out more for bargains this year and have been prepared to order online later. The week ending December 5^th was also the peak in online product searches, so searches for products during that week are a great indicator as to the hottest gifts this Christmas.”

Hair straightners and hamsters are among the most searched for products this Christmas

The Apple iPhone is currently the most searched for product in the UK, picking up 1.75% of all product searches and 14.01% of all mobile phone searches during the week ending December 5th. The second most searched for product was the Apple iPod Touch, with 1.29% of all product searches. Apple’s iPod Nano was the 9^th most searched for product in the run-up to Christmas, with 0.5% of all product searches.

Microsoft seems to be winning the battle of the game consoles, with the Xbox 360 sitting pretty as the third most searched for product with 1.24% of all searches, above the Nintendo Wii (which has been top for the last couple of years), Sony Playstation 3, and Nintendo DS. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the most searched for video game with 0.70% of all product searches following its fanfare launch in November.

GHD hair straightners made it onto the list in seventh position after a 31.6% increase in searches, beating the Babyliss For Men Easycut to be the most searched for grooming product for Christmas. Zhu Zhu’s Go Go Hamsters was the most searched for toy and the tenth most popular product overall, picking up 0.45% of all product searches last week.

Searches for toys increased by 18.9% and MP3 players up by 35.1% in the run-up to Christmas

Mobile Phones were the most searched for product for the week ending December 5^th, picking up 14.4% of all product searches. Toys and Hobbies - helped by Go Go Pets, Ben 10 and Lego - became the second most searched for product category after an 18.9% increase in searches over the month. The third most searched for type of product was Video Games, a category which has also experienced a recent increase in popularity thanks to the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

MP3 players also had a boost, with a 31.6% increase in searches over the month, helped by increases in searches for Sandisk, Creative and Sony offerings in addition to market leader Apple with its ever present iPod. The fastest growing product category in the top 10 by searches over the month was grooming products, with searches increasing by 72.3% since October.

About Experian Hitwise

Experian Hitwise is the leading global online competitive intelligence service, helping clients protect and grow their market share through the application of internet measurement data. Experian Hitwise measures the largest sample of internet users - 25 million worldwide, including 8 million in the UK. This sample size allows clients to understand internet behaviour and competitive activity through data that is unmatched in timeliness, depth and breadth.

Experian Hitwise (FTS:EXPN), www.experianplc.com, operates in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Canada and Brazil. More information about Experian Hitwise is available at www.hitwise.co.uk.

For up-to-date analysis of online trends, please visit the Experian Hitwise research blog at www.ilovedata.com and the Experian Hitwise Data Centre at www.hitwise.com/datacentre.

About Experian

Experian is the leading global information services company, providing data and analytical tools to clients in more than 65 countries. The company helps businesses to manage credit risk, prevent fraud, target marketing offers and automate decision making. Experian also helps individuals to manage their credit relationships and protect against identity theft.

Experian plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (EXPN) and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 index. Total revenue for the year ended 31 March 2009 was $3.9 billion. Experian employs approximately 15,000 people in 40 countries and has its corporate headquarters in Dublin, Ireland, with operational headquarters in Nottingham, UK; Costa Mesa, California; and São Paulo, Brazil. 

For more information, visit http://www.experianplc.com.