European Online Holiday Shopping Off To Strong Start

European online Christmas shopping season got off to a strong start this year in the U.K., France and Germany, according to a new report from comScore.

Visits to retail sites were up 18 percent during the first week of November compared to an average week during the prior two months, and increased even more throughout the month to reach a 41 percent growth rate during the week ending November 29.

France saw solid gains, resulting in the same 41 percent growth rate during the last week of November, while Germany showed slight lower growth at 16 percent.

"That we're seeing such strong growth in visitation to retail sites in three of Europe's leading countries prior to the December pre-Christmas rush is, hopefully, a positive sign for the overall European economy," said comScore chairman, Gian Fulgoni.

"Right now the U.K. and France appear to be demonstrating the highest rate of traffic growth to retail sites, outperforming the U.S. by a considerable margin. While German growth has been slightly slower, the heavy part of the country's online shopping season should begin in earnest during the first week of December."

During the month of November, average weekly visits to online retail sites grew 35 percent in the U.K. compared to the prior two months. Among the top 5 online retailers as ranked by average weekly visits, Play.com sites experienced the largest growth at 62 percent, closely followed by the Home Retail Group (61%) and Tesco (50%).

Visits to online retail sites in France were up 36 percent during the first week of the month and remained steady during November. Groupe PriceMinister has the fastest growth rate at 188 percent, followed by Amazon and Cdiscount, both at 40 percent.

In Germany, visits to online retail sites got off to a slightly slower start than in France and the U.K., but still showed 17 percent average weekly growth. Amazon was the fastest growing retail site during November, up 46 percent, followed by Neckermann Gruppe (up18%).
 

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YouTube Most Popular Video Site In France

France saw widespread growth in online video viewing during the past year, as audience size and video engagement both increased significantly, according to a new report from comScore.

The number of online video viewers in France increased 36 percent to 34.6 million, while the number videos viewed grew 141 percent to 5.4 billion. The average time spent viewing videos online nearly doubled to 11.7 hours per viewer in September.

"The online video market in France has rapidly expanded during the past year as Internet users demonstrate their preference for the sight, sound and motion of video for consuming online content," said Delphine Gatignol, comScore business development manager in France.

"While the Internet is still widely used for functional reasons, increasingly it has become an entertainment channel and the continued emergence of online video is a significant driver behind this trend."

Driven by the popularity of YouTube (which accounted for 99 percent of all videos viewed on the property), Google sites ranked as the top video content property in September with 22.9 million viewers and 1.8 billion total videos viewed, representing a 33.5 percent share of the French online video market.
French video site Dailymotion landed in the second spot with 394 million videos viewed, followed by Groupe TF1 (162 million videos), Megavideo (160 million videos), and Facebook (145 million videos).

Other highlights from September include:
   

 

• Viewers spent the longest time per video on Megaupload.com where they averaged 29.3 minutes per video.   
• The heaviest viewers of online video are males between the ages of 15-24 who watched approximately 21 hours of online video per person in September.   
• 22.9 million viewers watched 1.8 billion videos on YouTube.com (79 videos per viewer). 
• Females age 55 and older watched an average of 67 videos on YouTube.com in France, compared with males age 55 and older who watched 47 videos on the property during the month
   

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eBay Fined $2.6 Million Over LVMH Sales

If a French court has its way, eBay will soon have to fork over $2.6 million.  The fine stems from a ban on the sale (or purchase) of LVMH goods, and actually ties to a case that ended in eBay being told to pay LVMH $61 million.

LVMH, which is the entity behind luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Tag Heuer, and De Beers, won a major case against eBay in June of last year.  LVMH claimed to be concerned about the sale of counterfeit merchandise, and eBay was supposed to keep all related items off its French site as a result.

Apparently eBay wasn't completely successful, however (misspelled listings may have created problems), hence the latest fine.

Now, Alex von Schirmeister, the general manager of eBay in France, has stated, "We believe that the higher courts will overturn this ruling and ensure that eCommerce companies such as eBay will continue to provide a platform for buyers and sellers to trade authentic goods.

von Schirmeister also said, "The fine itself is disproportionate given that eBay complied with the Injunction.  It is out of step with our legal victories in France, UK, Germany, Belgium and the U.S."

Look for further developments down the road, then, as eBay appeals the ruling.

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eBay Fined $2.6 Million Over LVMH Sales

If a French court has its way, eBay will soon have to fork over $2.6 million.  The fine stems from a ban on the sale (or purchase) of LVMH goods, and actually ties to a case that ended in eBay being told to pay LVMH $61 million.

LVMH, which is the entity behind luxury brands like Louis Vuitton, Tag Heuer, and De Beers, won a major case against eBay in June of last year.  LVMH claimed to be concerned about the sale of counterfeit merchandise, and eBay was supposed to keep all related items off its French site as a result.

Apparently eBay wasn't completely successful, however (misspelled listings may have created problems), hence the latest fine.

Now, Alex von Schirmeister, the general manager of eBay in France, has stated, "We believe that the higher courts will overturn this ruling and ensure that eCommerce companies such as eBay will continue to provide a platform for buyers and sellers to trade authentic goods.

von Schirmeister also said, "The fine itself is disproportionate given that eBay complied with the Injunction.  It is out of step with our legal victories in France, UK, Germany, Belgium and the U.S."

Look for further developments down the road, then, as eBay appeals the ruling.

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