A comparison of December 2001 with December last year shows the growth in popularity of retail on-line with most countries experiencing an increase of more than 40% in the number of unique visitors to retail web sites. According to Jupiter, visits to e-tail sites are growing faster than the increase in the overall internet population across Europe.
Amazon.de, Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.fr reached more than 10% of the internet population in Germany, the UK and France. France is the only country where three sites (Fnac.com, Alapage.com and Amazon.fr) have more than 10% reach. Other countries have generally one clear leader. In the UK, traditional high street retailers such as Argos.co.uk, Comet.co.uk and Whsmith.co.uk were very popular. In December 2001, BOL.com, Johnlewis.com and Marksandspencer.com made it into the top 10 retail sites.
Jupiter's valuation of the season's on-line shopping in Europe at €2.9 billion (£1.8 billion) represents an increase of 71% from 2000.