LONDON, Oct 31 (Reuters) - Britain's online retailers have suffered a monthly traffic fall for the first time since records began three years ago, researchers Experian said on Friday.
Experian division Hitwise said UK internet traffic to online retailers fell 0.5 percent in October compared with the same month in 2007, suggesting the consumer spending downturn has begun to affect the previously fast-growing online sector.
Although weekly online traffic has declined year-on-year in the past, this was the first time it had fallen across a full month.
"Up until now, online retail has been surviving the economic downturn, but this month's data proves that the sector is not immune," Hitwise director of research Robin Goad told Reuters.
He said sub-sectors such as supermarkets were still benefiting, with internet traffic to the major grocers up 10 percent year on year. And soaring demand for secondhand goods proved a boost for classified retailers, who enjoyed a 47 percent jump over the same period.
Credit information company Experian's headline European Retail FootFall index fell 2.2 percent in October, its seventh consecutive monthly year-on-year fall.
Its report warned that worse may be to come, as the impact of new shopping centre openings makes it even harder to shift maximum levels of stock. Europe's largest city-centre shopping mall, Westfield, opened in London on Thursday. (Reporting by John Bowker; Editing by Quentin Bryar)