Nielsen December 2016: retail booms online, Nine.com.au now #2 in new category

• News.com.au retains top place in Nielsen digital news rankings • Strong growth in unique audiences to department store and retailer websites • Westfield, Super Cheap Auto and Liquorland among the biggest growth players

As the year drew to a close and Christmas loomed, more consumers turned to the internet to visit retail-related sites, according to December data released today by Nielsen.

Nielsen Digital Ratings (Monthly) has reported strong month-on-month growth in unique audiences during December 2016. This was especially true for major retailers such as David Jones (+50%) and Myer (+31%).

Looking across all websites with a unique audience greater than one million, Westfield (+85%), Super Cheap Auto (+75%) and Liquorland (+60%) reported the highest percentage growth in unique audiences when comparing December 2016 to the prior month.

Strong growth in unique audiences from smartphone devices contributed heavily to overall uplift in audiences to these retail-related brands.

Current Events and Global News

News.com.au retained the top position in Nielsen’s digital rankings with a unique audience of 5.3 million.

Nine.com.au lifted to second place with a unique audience of 4.3 million and ABC News ranked third with a unique audience of 4.2 million. Smh.com.au retained its fourth place with a unique audience of 3.6 million.

Daily Mail Australia (2.7 million), The Guardian (2.6 million), Yahoo7 News (2.5 million), BBC (2.4 million) and Herald Sun (2.2 million) all retained their November 2016 positions in the audience rankings from position 5 through to 9, respectively.

The Age moved up a position to 10th place with a unique audience of just over 2 million – see table below.