UK website traffic monitoring firm ‘Hitwise’ has just published some up to date information about the ebb and flow of search volumes that include the words ‘discount voucher’ and ’sale’.

2009 has been the year of the discount voucher

This year the recession has meant that more people than ever have been looking for bargains online. And the more people who find discount vouchers and tell others, the more people become aware of the discount voucher system. It’s a positive feedback loop, which has translated to a great year for those specialising in this market.

The latest research shows that UK Internet searches for discount vouchers was up 40% year-on-year during the w/e 03/10/09 .

But what about that high street favourite: the ’sale’?

In contrast to the discount voucher system, sales are usually only short lived, and can provide a huge spike in traffic for those online retailers who have a high street presence.

As such ‘Sale’ traffic is usually very seasonal. There’s a massive peak starting on December the 26th, and other high points coinciding with the end of a particular season.

Traditionally the view is that retailers don’t need to have a sale between October and December. This ‘golden quarter’ is when consumers make purchases anyway, so shop owners can stick to their guns, charge premium prices, and maximise their profits.

Things are a bit different this year

Whilst it is of some debate as to whether the UK is still in recession, there’s no doubt that consumers online are still looking for a bargain. And that includes searching for ’sales’ at a time when there usually aren’t any around.

In 2008, sale searches dropped off a cliff at the end of the summer, and didn’t recover until just before Christmas. This year there has been a drop, but nothing like the scale of previous years. The number of ‘sale’ searches are much higher during this period in 2009 than 2008.

Here’s the graph from Hitwise:

This is a potential opportunity for online retailers to grab some traffic – and sales - from the search engines. Whilst no-one wants to cut their profits just to make sales, there’s no doubt that there are shoppers out there that are looking for a ’sale’ bargain rather then a discount voucher. If you are able to package your products into a ’sale’ then you have a strong chance of both getting more visitors, and then converting those visitors once they’re on your website.

Anyone planning to have an early sale this year? Leave us a comment below.