Each year in the lead-up to Christmas, we track what products are searched for the most, and what are trending up or down.

Continuing in its top spot again this year, the Apple iPhone was the most requested product in 2011. iPhone-related searches have increased by 36% compared to last year. Searches for the new iPhone 4S have rapidly increased since it was released in recently. However, the Samsung Galaxy S phone competes with rival iPhone 4 and 4S in the number of searches, and have surged almost 600% since last year.

The fastest growing search keyword on PriceMe is “iPad”. Searches related to iPads (including iPad 2) have increased 1,800% since last year, with interest in tablets in general increasing by some 260% ! Other members of the tablet family such as ebook readers, are also trending upwards. Searches for Kindle have grown by 240% and ebook readers in general by 40%.

“There’s always a few surprises when we measure what our users are looking at” says Chris Palmer, Marketing Director at PriceMe. “This year the number of searches for fridges has increased by 45% year on year, with bar fridges being a particularly hot item during RWC” “Whiteware is often seen as a “barometer” product that consumers purchase when they’re feeling confident about the economy” says Palmer. Similarly, searches for microwave ovens were up 101%  and lawnmowers jumping from almost zero last year to being in the top 30 products searched this year!

One of the hottest search terms overall was for the mega-hit video game Modern Warfare 3. Overall interest in PS3 video games has remained constant over the year, while searches for PSP games have increased by 92%. Other hot game searches are Skyrim (from Elder Scrolls) and traditional Lego.

What’s Hot

Apple iPad  +  1,800

Samsung Galaxy S  +  600%

Amazon Kindle  +  240%

Microwave ovens (general)  +  101%

PSP video games  +  92%

Fridges (general)  +  45%

eBook readers (general)  +  40%

Apple iPhone  +  36%

What’s Cold

Freeview (TV) products  -  53%

Apple iPods -  31%

Expresso machines (general)  -  29%

Trampolines  -  26%

Kinect  games -  25%

Methodology

Search activity was compared on PriceMe for the period 1^st -16^th November 2011 and 2010, using Google Analytics as a measuring tool. Differences between search volume over the two periods has been accounted for in the analysis. A total of 40,813 searches were analysed.

The team at PriceMe wish you a happy and relaxed Christmas and hope you have a safe and prosperous year ahead in 2011.

We have enjoyed providing our service to you during 2010, and look forward to exceeding your expectations as a shopping partner and customer acquisition channel for your business over the coming year. Online shopping continues to grow at a rapid pace in Australia, and PriceMe has grown with that increased activity during the last year.

PriceMe’s increased visitor numbers caused us some server performance problems in September/October (some would say we’re a victim of our own success !). Our servers ran out of available memory due to visitor spikes and high loads, resulting in server outages and at times a slow site. We have now upgraded our infrastructure with more powerful servers that can now cope with higher traffic loads. The set-up was also improved, so that we can more efficiently capture intra-day product data updates. The new infrastructure was rolled out in mid-October, and has proven to be reliable and fast.

We are very much looking forward to meeting the challenges that 2011 will no doubt bring to the retail sector. Online shopping is one of the star areas of retailing and we feel very privileged to be a leading provider of information technology to this important and vibrant industry sector.

Once again – all the best to you and your family for the new year and we look forward to helping you grow your online business over the next 12 months and beyond.

The PriceMe Team

We have just released an updated and improved version of PriceMe’s iPhone application has now been updated.

The new version 1.2 has been redesign, so that it’s easier and faster to click through to a merchant. This change should make the app. better. We also enhanced various aspects of user usability, including the chooser wheel for categories.

We’re planning to continually improve the application. The next version will contain maps (useful to locate offline merchants and online stores with pick-up). User and expert reviews might also be included.

Please let us know what you think about the iPhone application and how we can make PriceMe better.

The beginning of the year it’s a good time to look back and summarise the  year that just passed – 2009. Online shopping continued to grow in Australia, and shoppers bough a wide range of products in large quantities.  But which five products and brands were the hottest and most search for in 2009? Let’s have a quick look in this blog post.

iPod Touch 32GB

Apple was one of the top performers in 2009. The iPod Touch series was the most sought after MP3 Players. Shoppers bought various iPod Touch MP3 players such as 8GB, 16GB and 32GB.

TomTom GPS

Tom Tom scored high with shoppers in 2009, beating out peers like Navman and Laser.

Sony LCD TVs

2008 was a mega year for LCD TVs, and 2009 turned out just the same.  The Sony Bravia remaining the top performing product line. Medium sized TVs, especially the 32 inch and 40 inch ones, sold the best. LED TVs emerged as one of the hottest trends last year. Samsung basically created this trend, and has taken an early lead.

Nikon D90

2009 might have been a great year for Sony, but the king of the cameras was a Nikon SLR camera: the D90!

Which products do you think will make the top 5 list in 2010?

PriceMe is launching in Australia.

PriceMe operates New Zealand’s leading shopping comparison site priceme.co.nz as well as a site in China, and we’ll now also offer product and price comparison services to online shoppers in Australia.  Our goal is to quickly grow the number of merchants listed on the site and become a valuable source of shopping information for savvy consumers in Australia.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like to list on the PriceMe website or if you have some question regarding our business. We would like to hear from you.