Bill James' blog

New & cool – crowdsourced designs for laptops

billjames1 — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 15:20:50 +0000

Computer manufacturer Dell has unveiled a series of 11 new laptop designs courtesy of the Threadless community.

Threadless is best known as a t-shirt design business, to which more 80,000 artists and designers put forward their design ideas. They are voted on and the most popular are printed and sold online through its online shop.

I’ve been following other business ideas based on crowdsource design like this other one for VW here at Springwise

Ironbill loves change

billjames1 — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:16:20 +0000

Two very out of the ordinary and exciting things occurred in my life this week:

On Sunday I completed Ironman France – yes for the first time and in the age group of 45+ I swam 3.8k, biked 180k & then ran (well actually I shuffled) 42k. I didn’t break any records or even produce a particularly impressive time but I did have family around me to share the achievement and I did learn that when you set your mind to it you can do virtually anything. Set an ambitious goal | Plan for it | Prepare for it | Go for it!

Today, Thursday was the day our firm declared publicly the move we’ve been planning & preparing for a little while in the background. We became Transform www.betransformative.com and we love change!

Check out http://bit.ly/aB6z79 for more info…

Do you love change?

Twitter is a fad for most…

billjames1 — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 15:53:19 +0000

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

billjames1 — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 11:04:22 +0000

Yes 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

billjames1 — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 11:21:32 +0000

Here 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

billjames1 — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:24:48 +0000

Here 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

billjames1 — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:43:02 +0000

ITV 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

billjames1 — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 18:40:36 +0000

I had a little side bet going and it looks like I will be ‘in pocket’…

Monday 7th December appears to have been this years Mega Monday – I will watch out for data to back this up and report ASAP

Boxee launching to compete with Apple TV

billjames1 — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:06:35 +0000

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

billjames1 — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 15:12:11 +0000

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.