People who have previously shopped with a specific online retailer during the festive season are more likely to return in future years and make another purchase than those who are new to a given brand, according to a report from Monetate.

On average, sites that offer safe shopping online can expect to see conversion rates of two per cent during the peak period of activity just before Christmas, but this proportion more than doubles to 4.2 per cent in the case of returning customers being taken into account.

Analysts argue that this makes it even more important for retailers to try and shore up relationships with those who have shopped with them in the past, especially as the holiday season approaches.

This also means that it makes sense to think about any efforts to engage consumers this year as also paying dividends further down the line rather than just offering the short-term benefit of winning one-off sales.

The study sought to identify differences between conversion rates according to the source from which customers clicked through to the retail site in question, with Google found to have a lower impact in this respect than smaller search engines like Bing and Yahoo.

Bing was significantly better at making sure that returning customers converted year after year, with an eight per cent rate recorded in relation to retained visitors.

There was also good news for social media sites like Facebook and Instagram, as it seems that their impact and influence over consumers is increasing, with consistent bumps to average conversion rates from these platforms recorded over the past couple of years.

The upshot is that experts believe targeting smaller audiences in order to ensure higher initial conversion rates will lead to better long-term results than taking a broader, less specific approach.