Category: Retail

Retail

Two reasons why people don’t buy online

Online retailers are failing to focus on two key issues which are persistent barriers to Internet shoppers. A new study of online buyers has found that taken together these two issues are stopping more than half the people who use the Internet from buying anything online. We may well have

Retail

Why is everyone shopping online today?

As you sit at your computer reading this, tens of thousands of people are shopping online. Indeed, today it is expected that at its peak online shopping will reach a whopping £4,000 per second. Shoppers are likely to be parting with an amazing £350m online today. But why? Why are

Retail

Bleating from Borders belies the boring truth

So, Borders has gone into administration in the UK after a dreadful trading period.  Apparently they have “cash flow” problems meaning they are potentially unable to meet their financial demands. According to several reports, it’s the Internet’s fault. But this simply is not true. Nine out of ten books bought

Retail

How to sell more online by making it easy to see your products

Do you want to sell more from your website? OK, silly question, I know. But one of the difficulties anyone selling stuff online has is that they cannot really control the sales environment. People tend to buy more when they are comfortable. But your sales environment might be someone’s office,

Retail

Postal strike shows online retailers don’t think deeply enough

Your local postie is dong you a favour if you are in online retail. Every day their cheery face brightens your morning as you open the door to be handed your letters and parcels. They have been an essential part of the UK community for over a century. Yet their

Retail

Some of your online products should be marked “sold out”

Online retailers are missing a trick if they don’t have products which are “sold out” from time to time. That’s the conclusion of research from the University of Alberta which looked at buyer behaviour when a product was not available. Traditional wisdom is that the lack of availability of a

Retail

Japanese supermarket makes buying easy for your online shoppers

Japanese shoppers are finding it easier to buy from a new kind of online store that replicates what they see in their local supermarket. The Okuwa Company owns over 140 supermarkets in southern Japan but has recently seen a boost to its online sales thanks to supplying its customers with

Retail

Internet shoppers don’t like shopping

Shoppers don’t like shopping; for most of us it’s a chore that has to be done. On the Internet it seems that we dislike shopping even more than we do in the “real world”. Why? Because so many shopping carts get abandoned. Imagine for a moment that you are a

Retail

Online retailers are in a mess

Online retailers are in a state. For weeks now they have been buoyed along by the theory that thanks to the recession people will flock to the Internet to buy things. Predictions even include the notion that online sales will rise by 11% this year – in spite of the

Your Easter break could cost you

Are you in the middle of your Easter break? Having a nice relaxing time? Eating lots of chocolate and maybe going to church? That’s great – but take care; while you are off on your four-day break, your competitors are grabbing your customers and getting them to spend money with

Internet shopping is in chaos: is it the end of online retail?

Internet shopping is in a right old mess at the moment. Online retailers are being battered by conflicting information and a stunning court decision made today which could see the very existence of many Internet shops threatened. This week, retailers were warming to the news that people were planning to

Internet shoppers plan to spend less in 2009

Internet shoppers are planning to spend less in 2009 than they did last year, when they forked out a staggering £20bn for online products and services. According to a new study, almost half of people currently shopping online say they will be spending less via the Internet in the coming

Fear is a powerful motivator preventing online shopping

With all the hullaballoo after Christmas telling us that online shopping was a huge success bringing in hundreds of millions, it hasn’t taken long for a dose of reality to hit us firmly between the eyes. A new survey by the electronic payments company, Cybersource, suggests that two thirds of

Internet retailers fail to learn

Online retailers have failed to listen to their customers. The latest research on Internet retailers shows that they have changed almost nothing on their web sites – even though they were told a year ago what consumers wanted. For instance, customers want 0800 or toll-free numbers on the web site.

Online retailers do not know if their techniques work

Internet retailers are trying all sorts of techniques to sell stuff online without any real knowledge as to whether their techniques are likely to work. That’s the conclusion you can draw form research conducted by Cormetrics which reveals that few people selling via the Internet actually analyse what they are

Top 10 online retailers show Internet hopefuls what to do

Internet shoppers were hungry for bargains on Christmas Day it seems. Indeed, John Lewis reported a 12-fold increase in visits to its web site this Christmas, compared with 2007. But that may well be because they launched an online sale immediately after their physical stores closed their doors on Christmas