Amazon, Argos and Apple continue to lead the quarterly index of the UK’s top 50 retailers, as ranked by the IMRG and comScore.
Amazon continues to take the number one position, but Argos has moved up one place to number two, while Apple has slipped a place to number 3. Tesco continues in fourth place while AVG, seller of antivirus and computer tune-up products, has moved up four places to complete the top five of the IMRG’s Top 50 ranking, which is based on traffic to UK retailer sites. Figures for the quarterly report are derived from measurements taken in February.
The top four retain their positions when mobile traffic is measured, but fifth-placed AVG drops out of the listing altogether.
Other trends saw travel companies perform well, while several apparel retailers slipped down the list. Ryanair, Expedia and Travelodge each rose six places with British Airways up slightly, although Lastminute.com bucked that trend as the biggest faller this time, dropping 14 places.
Fashion brands dropped down the list including New Look and River Island, both down 8 places, as well as Asos (-5) and Next (-1). The fastest risers also included Wickes (+10), House of Fraser and Thomson (+8) were among the fastest risers.
Tina Spooner, chief information officer at IMRG said: “It appears the apparel sector suffered last month with a number of fashion brands lower down the list compared with the same month last year – online clothing sales were also weak during February with year-on-year growth reaching just 4%, compared with 20% in February 2014. However, if we look at smartphone and tablet traffic there are some fashion brands – such as ASOS and Very – that continue to perform very strongly on those devices.”
Mike Read, managing director of comScore UK, said: “comScore’s latest mobile data shows that consumers average nearly four hours engaging with retailers on their mobile devices each month, making smartphones and tablets critical channels for retailers to reach shoppers throughout all parts of the buying cycle.”
