Christmas has always been a lucrative time for high street businesses, with a lot of them relying on this time of year for up to 50% of their yearly profits. This is also the case in the online domain and given the huge competitiveness of websites these days, there will inevitably be big winners and some losers this year. But which websites stand the greatest chance of turning a healthy product this Xmas?

Supermarket Sites. Recent reports have shown that supermarket websites have gained a further 25% of the toys and games market this year, following the collapse of smaller retailers both on the high street and online. There is a real risk that supermarket sites will begin to monopolise the markets as they continue to increase the amount of products and services they offer. However, you cannot fault their business model and they are set to do very well this year.

Affiliates. Over the past ten years the internet has seen a huge growth in the number and variety of affiliate sites. These sites tend to advertise the products of larger successful internet sites such as IWOOT, and the larger sites then pay the affiliates commission on each lead they receive. As these affiliate sites are often owned by skilled internet marketers, they frequently get large traffic numbers and can therefore make large profits themselves, especially over busy holiday periods.

Specialised Sites. Even though supermarket sites that offer every product under the sun will do well this Christmas, more niche sites that have carved out a space for themselves in different markets will prosper also. Sites such as I Want One of Those, who sell gadgets and boys toys, will do very well this year as they have a loyal following of customers and can offer more specialised items that the bigger sites simply cannot.