Figures released by Experian Hitwise report a rise in traffic to online shopping and classifieds sites, particularly as we head towards Christmas.

Providing year on year figures for November 2010 and November 2011, the data reveals a significant increase in Australian traffic to online shopping and classifieds sites. The data also revealed a spike in traffic in November 2011, possibly heralding a positive Christmas shopping forecast online.

The rankings also reveal a few conspicuously absent major Australian retailers.

Top 15

The top 15 sites in terms of Australian traffic are:

1. eBay (Australia)
2. eBay
3. Amazon
4. DealCent
5. Catch of the Day
6. Groupon (Australia)
7. Apple Store
8. FlyBuys
9. Apple (Australia)
10. Oz Sale
11. JB Hi-Fi (Australia)
12. Big W
13. Gumtree (Melbourne)
14. Trading Post Online
15. Gumtree (Sydney)

Going up

ASOS, Dan Murphy's, FlyBuys, Gumtree Australia, LivingSocial, NexTag, Ouffer, Our Deal, ScoopOn and Systweak showed the greatest growth in Australian visitation year on year.

Going down

Bigpond, Cudo, Get Price, HP, Ticketec and Trading Post appear to have suffered  decrease in traffic over the year.

eBay ahead

Ebay continues to lead the market, with a significant share of traffic. eBay Australia leads with a 19.3% share, with next closest competitor, eBay.com, at 2.54%. Despite still attracting the greatest share of traffic, both sites have experienced decreased traffic year on year.

Rush online

Visitation by Australians to shopping and classified sites has spiked over the past few weeks, with Australians making 113,347,184 visits to online shopping and classified sites (compared to 103,746,257 visits in the same period last year, an increase of almost ten million year on year).

Considering the Australian population has only increased 1.4% over the same period, this spike could be an indicator of a healthy festive shopping season, alternatively, it could be an indicator of a move from in store to online shopping, rather than a growth in overall sales.

More sites set on you

In November 2010, Experian’s Shopping and Classifieds website category indexed some 28,415 sites which Australians visited. In November 2011, the number of sites in the category rose to 35,285 (an increase of 6,870, or 11%).

Major Australian retailers lagging

Whilst Australian department stores and major retailers have begun to offer digital commerce opportunities for consumers, the offering is limited, and so is the traffic.

Big W appears at number 12 and other majors lag significantly behind, notably: Kmart ( position 31), Harvey Norman (32), Target (36), Bunnings (42), Woolworths (60) and Coles (63). Myer appears at position 71 and David Jones doesn’t rank in the top 100 at all.

In the absence of opportunities to shop with retailers based locally, Australian shoppers continue to shop elsewhere.