Christmas has always been a lucrative time for high street businesses, with a lot of them relying on this time of year for up to 50% of their yearly profits. The same can also be said for those businesses trading online, and this year sees the highest level of competition ever among websites in terms of visibility and sales. But which sites are best placed this year to make the most money?
Supermarket Sites. Recent reports have shown that supermarket websites have gained a further 25% of the toys and games market this year, following the collapse of smaller retailers both on the high street and online. Many experts have warned that these ’super-sites’ will eventually completely monopolise the markets as they eat up and put out of business the smaller independent sites. However, you cannot fault their business model and they are set to do very well this year.
Affiliates. Over the past ten years the internet has seen a huge growth in the number and variety of affiliate sites. These sites tend to advertise the products of larger successful internet sites such as IWOOT, and the larger sites then pay the affiliates commission on each lead they receive. As these affiliate sites are often owned by skilled internet marketers, they frequently get large traffic numbers and can therefore make large profits themselves, especially over busy holiday periods.
Specialised Sites. As people can find more and more specialised products and services online, niche sites that have marketed themselves well, promise to clean up in certain markets this year. Sites such as I Want One of Those, who sell gadgets and boys toys, will do very well this year as they have a loyal following of customers and can offer more specialised items that the bigger sites simply cannot.
