UK consumers are increasingly turning to the Internet to help them deal with the financial pressures and insecurities brought on by the global credit crunch. The latest research from Hitwise, an Experian company, highlights three key areas in which UK online behaviour has started to adapt.

UK consumers changing online behaviour to cope with credit crunch. These include:

• Consumers turning to search engines and price comparison sites to find the cheapest prices online;

• Property searches have fallen, but traffic to House and Garden retailers has reached a new high as people look to cocoon themselves in their existing homes;

• Brits are shunning ethical consumerism in favour of energy efficiency.

“This is the first real economic downturn to have occurred during the Internet age, and Hitwise data provides some fascinating insights into how people are reacting,” commented Robin Goad, Research Director for Hitwise in the UK. “As you would expect, people are using the Internet to find cheaper goods and services, but also to find information on everything from the reasons behind the credit crunch to money saving DIY tips.”

1. Consumers are searching for cheaper prices online

UK consumers are increasingly using price comparison and other discount websites to find the cheapest deals online. Following a 2 year decrease in traffic levels, UK Internet visits to retail price comparison sites increased by 20% between July 2007 and 2008. Similarly, searches for the summer sales have trebled this year compared with last, while consumers searching for discount vouchers have led to a 130% increase in traffic to specialist voucher websites.

Get the full story at hitwise.co.uk