Latest Post

Beginners guide to Search Engine Optimisation

Search Engine Optimisation, (aka ‘SEO’, ‘organic’ or ‘natural’ search) involves a variety of techniques which are used to improve your natural search engine rankings (i.e. the listings on search engine results pages which are not paid for). This differs from Paid-search marketing, (aka ‘Pay Per Click’, ‘paid search’ or ‘sponsored links’) which is the process [...]

Featured Post

Quick Tips: Content Ideas for Email Marketing Campaigns

One of the most common questions from companies engaged in Email Marketing is “Help! What do I write about in my email campaigns?” While they are the subject experts on their products and services, the secret is to ‘package’ the ‘story’ in a way that their customers want to hear, and follow some simple time [...]

Business Bytes

• February 23, 2010 at 8:44

  European M-Retailing revenues will have overtaken the US by the end of 2010, as part of a growth vector that will see mobile shopping accounting for $119 billion by 2015, according to a report by ABI Research.

  European and US revenues, however, are dwarfed by Japan’s existing trade – mobile revenues were $20billion in 2009, with growth still forecast.

  A significant part of the growth comes from the sub-$20 transactions, particularly around gaming and non-product transactions (p0rn? gambling? travel?), but there’s still a sizeable level of transactions over mobile-optimised ecommerce platforms.

  read post
• February 16, 2010 at 8:45

  Asda has given a new look to its monthly magazine on a new website -Asdamagazine.com.

  The new site includes video content and offers a full online magazine appearance that could provide a new blueprint for retailers looking to offer a broad range of content to online customers.

  read post
• February 12, 2010 at 9:01

  The new Solihull branch of designer fashion store Serene Order is aiming to offer its A-list customers a seamlessly fused mix of both online and in-store retailing at its new boutique.

  Serene Order’s new store includes an innovative Catwalk Click service. This enables customers to view the latest catwalk shows on large TV screens in the store’s ground floor lounge, before moving up to the first floor where they can browse and order the collections they have just viewed downstairs from the sereneorder.com website. Orders are then quickly delivered to the store’s fitting rooms ready for trying-on.

  read post
• February 12, 2010 at 8:56

  The majority of UK retailers are failing to exploit the opportunity to integrate social media marketing into their operation to increase sales and generate loyalty, a new benchmarking study from dotCommerce reveals.

  The study of 100 UK retailers reveals that, while 42% have some kind of social media presence, just 12% are using more than one social media channel and only 32% of retailers with a Twitter or Facebook account promote these on their website.

  The report also uncovers the differences in social media activity between larger and smaller retailers. Larger retailers are more likely to have a Twitter or Facebook account, with 42% on Twitter compared to just 12% of smaller brands. However, when it comes to blogs, smaller companies are leading the way as 10% have a blog, compared to only 6% of bigger ecommerce players.

  read post
• February 5, 2010 at 9:04

  More than one in seven legitimate marketing emails sent in Europe are not being delivered to consumer inboxes, a new study has revealed. In the second half of 2009, 15% of European permission-based commercial emails either went straight to recipients’ spam folders or weren’t delivered at all.

  The findings come from Return Path’s Email Deliverability Benchmark Report, which measured inbox placement rates across North America and Europe. Return Path collected data on the success of more than half a million email campaigns between July and December 2009 to gain a comprehensive picture of true delivery rates.

  The most difficult ISPs for marketers were Demon, BT, AOL, Orange and Yahoo! A quarter (24.7%) of marketing emails sent to Demon mailboxes went undelivered, while of those sent to BT clients, more than 21% failed to reach the inbox.

  read post
• January 12, 2010 at 9:50

  UK retail sales values were 4.2% higher on a like-for-like basis in December 2009 than the year before, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), but non-food non-store sales rose by over a quarter.

  Non-food non-store sales were 26.5% higher than a year ago, compared with a 16.9% rise in November. “Some benefited from shoppers buying online when snow prevented them getting out,” according to the BRC.

  read post
• January 12, 2010 at 9:48

  Tesco Direct saw sales increase by 50% during the six weeks to 9 January, the retailer has reported in its Christmas & New Year trading statement.

  “Online sales were very strong in both food and non-food with total online sales growth approaching 20% in the six weeks,” says Tesco. “In grocery we delivered over 100 million items to almost 1.5 million customers in the run up to Christmas, with very good levels of availability. Source Internet Retailing.

  read post
• January 12, 2010 at 9:45

  House of Fraser has reported online sales up 91% on a year ago in its Christmas trading statement. Overall sales for the eight weeks to 2 January were up 7.1% on a like-for-like basis.

  The boom in online sales was helped by a 50% increase in the brands offered online, the department store chain explains. Cosmetics, knitwear and boots were the most in demand items. Source Internet Retailing

  read post
• January 8, 2010 at 9:56

  Four in ten consumers (41.3%) plan to spend more online next Christmas due to a positive online experience this year, according to the latest consumer insight research from eDigitalResearch.

  The survey found that 75% of respondents went online on Christmas Day or Boxing Day. Fifteen percent placed an order online on Christmas Day and 23% did so on Boxing Day.

  read post
• January 8, 2010 at 9:54

  Internet sales were up 32% in the last quarter of 2009, Marks & Spencer has reported in its Q3 interim management statement. Overall, group sales were up 2.6%.

  “We expect the trading conditions over the coming year to remain challenging as a result of continuing economic uncertainty, says Sir Stuart Rose, chairman of Marks and Spencer. We believe however, that customers will continue to seek out real value and quality for which we are justly famous.”

  read post