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Posted by dani cass on January 27th, 2012

As the last of those Christmas sweets are eaten and the shops begin to fill with their Spring/Summer ranges, the online Christmas sales figures are beginning to trickle through and just like our waistlines after one too many mince pies they’re on the increase!

The latest figures for ecommerce sales during the month of December show an increase of 30% year on year, with sales for Christmas week being almost double compared to the previous year.

There were record levels of internet traffic with 2.18billion visits to online retailers in December, but, according to Experian Hitwise, this reached its peak with Boxing day achieving the biggest day ever for online retail in the UK with 96 million internet visits to retail sites, an increase of 19.5% on the previous year.

Much of the traffic to ecommerce websites came from search engines. A massive 43% of all visits came from search engine click throughs with Google providing 9 out of 10 of those visits.

While many big name high street stores have announced they are going into administration over the festive period, it seems that ecommerce is continuing to grow year on year. Even supermarkets are announcing their best online figures for grocery shopping during December, some reporting as much as 34% increase.

Companies with successful online stores are continuing to report growth, making an ecommerce website a fundamental part of any retail business. An ecommerce website offers many advantages including 24/7 access, the ability to compare products like for like to find the best buy and of course the convenience of having your items delivered to your door. For the ecommerce store owner there is also the added advantage of lower running costs, a very big advantage in the current economic climate!

Impact Web Solutions specialise in the design and development of Magento Commence stores which offer many great benefits to both the store owner and customer. Last month Magento reported in their blog that many Magento store owners were smashing their sales records in the run up to Christmas and that they were citing Magento as the reason for this success. The many extensions available allow store owners to add features that assist customers in making their purchases and increasing conversion rates.

As Magento specialists we also provide Magento search engine optimisation services to increase your visibility in search engines making your website easier to find. As I already mentioned, almost half of the visits to retails sites in December came from search engines so if your website isn’t on the first page of results, your customers will be going to your competitors who are.

If you want to find out more about how Magento can boost your online sales, visit our website at http://www.studio2online.co.uk/e-commerce.php or call us on 0116 2758456.

Dani
Impact Web Solutions
Magento Commerce Web Design