Thomas Cook biggest mover in Hitwise list

Thomas Cook, British Airways and Thomson Holidays were the biggest movers in the IMRG Hitwise list, which lists the top 50 e-retailers according to how much web traffic they attracted in the first quarter of 2010. Thomas Cook moved up 31 places from 46 to 15, British Airways moved up 11 places to 31 and Thomson rose…

Thomas Cook, British Airways and Thomson Holidays were the biggest movers in the IMRG Hitwise list, which lists the top 50 e-retailers according to how much web traffic they attracted in the first quarter of 2010.


Thomas Cook moved up 31 places from 46 to 15, British Airways moved up 11 places to 31 and Thomson rose 10 spots to one above Expedia at number 11.


EasyJet, which has been as high at five in the past but fell to number 12 in the last quarter, re-entered the top 10 at number 10.


IMRG’s chief executive James Roper said: “This latest list records retail traffic when online sales were growing at their lowest rate since records began, a decade ago.”


Experian Hitwise’s director of research Robin Goad said: “With Christmas and sales shopping mostly out of the way and snow covering much of the country during January British consumers turned their attention to planning and booking their summer holidays.


“Seven travel companies moved up the rankings, and EasyJet re-entered the top 10 – the big travel agencies did particularly well.


“There was minimal movement elsewhere in the top 10 and the top four (Amazon.co.uk, Argos, Play and Apple) remain unchanged.


“The big retailers that managed to extend their sales beyond the immediate post-Christmas week fared well, while LoveFilm also benefited from the poor weather.”


IMRG’s chief executive James Roper said: “We expect significant fresh movement on the HSL this year as the economy begins to recover, pushing more trade online, and the next generation of innovations, such as mobile apps, kick in.”