September's monthly figures from Nielsen//NetRatings show more than 13m users visited shopping guide websites across the key European markets of Germany, the UK, France, Spain and Italy.
Stephan Musikan, vice-president of media sales and marketing at Ciao!, said: "The Nielsen//NetRatings figures are extremely important for us in an international context.
"We believe our top popularity as a shopping guide website is due to our strong focus on content and quality, which appeals to consumers' tastes and helps them to make purchase decisions. In addition, all our shopping portals are managed by a native-speaking Ciao! team, so that both the product reviews and the linked retailer sites are tailored to fit the needs of the consumers in each individual country. Video reviews, which we began offering on all our shopping portals in September, have been a particularly popular addition to our offering. These allow the pros and cons of products to be demonstrated while the item is directly in use."
Daniel Keller, vice-president of technology and operations at Ciao!, said: "We are constantly working to further improve our website concerning technology features and usability, in order to meet the high demands of the European e-commerce market.
"The new technology platform we launched in May this year helps us improve search and navigation on products and our merchant offers, and also allows us to introduce new product categories. The Nielsen//NetRatings figures show that our consumer portal is considered a practical online shopping platform in the various countries, which accounts for its popularity."
Ciao! offers users more than 3m products and consumer reviews under product categories, including cars, computers, digital cameras, mobile phones, travel, electronics and household appliances.
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