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Average session duration: 7 mins 17 secs

Methodology - Data produced by Hitwise, which claims to monitor 32 per cent of all UK internet traffic through its partnerships with ISPs (www.hitwise.co.uk)

FAST MOVER: ONLINE RETAIL

As the shops get ready for a busy Christmas, Hitwise reports that the online retail sector is seeing its highest ever traffic levels, with market share at 10.23 per cent of all UK visits in September.

Year-on-year, online retail's share of visits has increased by 27 per cent. The average time spent on shopping sites has increased by 36 seconds, to 7 minutes and 17 seconds.

Search marketing, which has established itself as the preferred method of getting new users, has been a key driver in the sector's growth.

Shopping sites gained almost a third of their visits from 'general' search engines in the past 12 months. With the recent launch of Google's UK shopping service, Froogle, the rise of shopping-specific search engines looks set to continue.

Based on the growth that occurred between August and December last year, Hitwise predicts that the sector will increase to take a 13 per cent share of all visits; a 30 per cent increase year-on-year.

If this forecast proves accurate, more than one in every eight visits by UK users will be to a retail web site - a promising sign of another bumper Christmas online.