I just spotted this great report describing the decline of Twitter for most of us, and of course the fact that a few users are making up for the rest of us.
Christmas shopping lives up to the hype
January 8, 2010 by billjames1Yes it looks like the major online & multi-channel retailers had another good Christmas, here are some highlights:
Marks & Spencer online sales grew 32% in the 13 weeks to 26th December. The retailer hailed Christmas trading a success after posting a 0.8% like-for-like sales growth over the festive period but warned that trading conditions during 2010 will remain challenging. The retailer reported a 1.2% comparable sales rise in general merchandise and food sales advanced 0.4% in fourth quarter of 2009.
John Lewis online Clearance sales were up 23% in its first three days. The retailer experienced its busiest ever hour online when it launched the online Clearance at 6pm on Christmas Eve. On Christmas Day online shoppers made a purchase every 10 seconds, but the volume of sales dropped between 1pm and 4pm as people enjoyed their Christmas lunch. On Boxing Day the retailer saw a record number of visitors to the web site, peaking between 11am and midday.
Amazon said that it had a busy Christmas with 2 million orders delivered on its busiest day which was December 7. At its peak it said it was shipping over 1.2m units in just 24 hours.
It’s TV but not as we know it
January 4, 2010 by billjames1Here is a nice set of predictions for the future of TV, giving a view on how in the next decade video will become more personal and democratic as new networks continue to break the traditional broadcast model.
Christmas 2009 online spending
December 24, 2009 by billjames1Here is a quick round up on Christmas Eve of stats for online spending so far this Christmas (2009)…
According to Hitwise – peak online spending days (UK)
- Cyber Monday’ (Dec 7) and Sunday December 6 were the joint busiest days for online retailers so far this year, meaning that the peak for Christmas online shopping has moved closer to the 25th. The busiest day for online retailers in 2008 was Sunday November 30.
- Department stores and supermarkets have been the biggest beneficiaries of the shift towards later online shopping this Christmas, though Amazon had the biggest increase in visits.
- According to MetaPack stats, Cyber Monday remains the highest shopping day in the UK with sales on Monday 14 decreasing by 2% on the 7th.
- On December 7, £1.4m was spent online at 13:43 in just one minute, with sales peaking at £33m between 13:00 and 14:00. (IMRG)
Average (UK) order size / value according to Coremetrics
- Coremetrics figures show that the value of the average order placed online is up by 94% this Christmas, compared to 2008.
- The number of goods that are purchased per transaction has also increased significantly, from 2.7 items in 2007 to 3.7 per order in 2009.
Last year the big surprise was a big online spending day on Christmas Day – let’s see what happens this time!
ITV and social media – not Friends Reunited
December 16, 2009 by billjames1ITV enjoyed huge success on Sunday night with the final of Simon Cowell’s X-Factor. Two interesting angles have emerged on how social media is being used in connection with this TV phenomonon…
1. A huge Facebook campaign was launched by the anti-X Factor contingent after the show to ensure the winner doesn’t top the Christmas charts – as a result Rage Against The Machine are the unlikely and foul mouthed favourites for a Christmas No1
2. ITV will be feeling good about the show anyway as their advertising revenue for the TV show is estimated at £18m and an additional £1m from telephone call-ins during the show. As such it must have been one of the most successful TV events in the UK. But importantly, it wasn’t just the TV ratings that were soaring: twitter and facebook also achieved substantial bursts of traffic discussing the progress of the contestants and celebrity guests during the show.
So ITV must feel they are getting the hang of this social media thingy – better than they did with Friends Reunited.
Mega Monday – first Monday of December again
December 14, 2009 by billjames1
Boxee launching to compete with Apple TV
December 8, 2009 by billjames1
This is an exciting new product designed to bring Internet TV to the TV screen. For me the TV is still the place I want to watch TV content – not my PC – call me old fashioned!
But it’s not yet clear if/when this will arrive in the UK…
Is this finally the consumer electronic device to bring online content to the living room?
Software creator Boxee announced the launch of its new dedicated hardware device aptly named the The Boxee Box. Designed by Astro Studios and built by D-Link, maker of networking equipment, the device is scheduled to hit shelves sometime in the 2nd quarter of 2010 for around $200 in the US.
Competitively priced against the AppleTV, The Boxee Box includes: one HDMI port, an SD card slot, two USB 2.0 ports, WiFi, and an ethernet jack, while supporting video content from a variety of online sources such as TED, Stanford, FORA.tv, Kid Mango, Next New Networks and more. There is still no word though on the internal hardware powering the device or if the device will be sold outside of the US market.
However access to the Beta will not be available to the public until 7 January 2010 where Boxee will make a further release announcement at CES.
A win for multi-channel retailers in postal strike
December 2, 2009 by billjames1
It looks like the benefit for customers of ordering online for collection from the store has paid dividends for at least one (and probably more) UK multi-channel retailer.
Argos has reported that customers have taken advantage of the Check & Reserve service to beat the recent postal strike, and my guess is this already popular proposition will see a sustained boost in demand even after the strikes…
——————————————————————————————————
Argos Press Release:
Argos Statistics Show Significant Growth In Multi-Channel Customers Over The Recent Postal Strike Period
Nov 30, 2009 10:29 CET
Today’s UK consumer has the resources and technical knowledge to cope with postal delivery issues.
Argos has revealed today that the volume of customers using their online Check & Reserve service was up almost 100% Year-on-Year (YoY) for home entertainment electrical products during the last week of the postal strikes in October.
Argos, the UK’s leading multi-channel retailer, believes this indicates that today’s UK consumer has the resources and technical knowledge to cope with postal delivery issues, that recent reports suggest have hindered pure play e-tailers. This insight follows IMRG’s e-Retail Sales Index report which states that the postal strikes adversely affected the growth of online retailer’s during the last week of October.
Argos.co.uk reservations of small consumer electrical goods such as iPods and digital photo frames more than doubled from levels recorded during the first week of October. Laptop reservations were four times higher on the same basis.
Compared to the same week last year, reservations for DAB digital radios were up over 140% YoY, DVD players increased by more than 70% YoY, with sat navs and TVs also receiving an uplift in reservations.
The statistics released by Argos also confirm that 40% of consumer electronic sales came through Check & Reserve during the previous week, covering 19-25 October 2009, which included the first two-day postal strike.
Argos pioneered the free online reservation service which has been in place since 2000. Argos customers are able to check real-time stock levels at their local stores before an instant 48-hour reservation is placed on their items, which can be stocked in stores, ready for customers to go collect at their convenience.
Argos customers are able to Check & Reserve products up until the close of business on Christmas Eve, providing the general merchandise retailer and its customers with the advantage of last minute Christmas purchases that online retailers are unable to manage.
Note to News Editors: For more information contact Media Relations, tel: 0845 120 4365, mobile: 0771 3064079
About Argos
Argos is a unique retailer recognised for choice, value and convenience. It sells general merchandise and products for the home from over 700 stores throughout the UK and Republic of Ireland, online and over the telephone. In the last financial year, Argos sales were £4.3 billion.
Argos serves over 130 million customers a year through its stores. On average, 18 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time.
Argos expects to add around 20 stores this year. Its Internet site, http://www.argos.co.uk/, was the most visited high street retailer online in the UK in 2008.
Argos is part of Home Retail Group, the UK’s leading home and general merchandise retailer.
Online sales surge for christmas
November 24, 2009 by billjames1We can expect another record for online sales this christmas – with Monday 8th December tipped to be the biggest day – expected to be up 15% on last year.
On the biggest day of christmas shopping online £320m is expected to be spent. Peak shopping time will be between 1pm and 2pm when shoppers are expected to spend £28m. This is double the amount spent by shoppers at last year’s peak christmas shopping hour, at midday on Monday December 11.
Online spending for the final quarter is expected to hit £13.16 billion and this year the big trend is hard-up shoppers on the search for bargains on the web. Total average online spend per person will be £215 and although this is a growth of 15%, it is slower than the rate of growth in 2007 when final quarter online sales jumped 54% on 2006.
Figures will be avialable from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index
Social shopping, follow the buzz
October 1, 2009 by billjames1User recommendations and crowd buzz are redefining the way some online shoppers behave…
Examples like Crowdstorm are a new way for consumers to find what to buy based on the buzz around products. Users recommend products, and the crowd defines the best products by recommending what they know and like. Popular products go to the top of the list, weak products disappear. It works rather like the popular news website Digg.
What is buzz? Well for social shopping sites it is measured by the amount of activity surrounding a product: how many times a product has been viewed, how many bloggers have written about it, and how many users have commented about it.
Friends can be added which helps build the crowd effect, and these friends can be people they already know or those they’ve met on the site and whose product recommendations they trust.
Expect in the future; users posting their own product images and videos, and top-rated members being invited to beta-test new products from big brands.
UK-based Crowdstorm was founded by Phil Wilkinson, who also set up online price comparison sites ShopGenie and Kelkoo, and aims to be one of the internet’s best sources of impartial product information.
Another social shopping network to have launched recently – but in the US – is ThisNext. Featuring slick design and sending visitors down one of three paths: Discover, Recommend and Shopcast. The discover section lets users browse products recommended by others. Clicking on a item allows them to add it to their wishlist, recommend it, or find out where to buy the product. Users can recommend products by creating themed lists (from ‘Japanese Snacks’ to ‘Things I Cannot Do Without’), or simply by clicking on an easy to install ‘Add to ThisNext’ browser button.
Appealing to the blogging crowd, ThisNext’s standout feature is shopcasting: bloggers can create small banners for their website. These so-called shopcast badges either display their own recommendations or those of the ThisNext community, broadcasting the products they love or must have.
