Tag: Retailing

Base rate held but many savers still to benefit from previous rate rises

Posted by | Jun 7, 2007 | |

As the Bank of England base rate stays at 5.5 per cent today, the Post Office® reveals it is the only major high-street savings provider1 in the UK to have passed on every interest rate rise in full to all of its variable rate customers in the last year.

Last week, on Monday 4 June, Post Office® customers saw their Instant Saver interest rate rise to 5.75 per cent. This followed the 0.25 per cent base rate rise in May.

And Instant Saver customers will benefit for even longer by the Post Office®’s promise to pass on base rate rises in full until January 2010. This makes Post Office® Instant Saver the UK’s best instant access savings account.

Post Office® Instant Saver also guarantees to remain within 1.0% of the Bank of England base rate for the life of the account and offers six free withdrawals a year with a flat fee of just GBP 1 for future withdrawals.

Instant Saver is available at all of the UK’s 14,000 Post Office® branches, by telephone and online. Withdrawals can be made both at branches and ATMs, offering unrivalled choice and convenience.

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Online retailers need to innovate more: eBay’s Briggs

Posted by | Jun 6, 2007 | |

The online retail space is growing with bandwidth expansion, and retailers need to match the growth with innovative ideas, according to a panel here at yesterday’s Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition.

In his presentation titled “How eBay will Continue Reshaping the E-Retialing Industry,” Gary Briggs, chief marketing officer at eBay, challenged his counterparts in attendance at the show to think more outside the box.

“Online retail is rapidly maturing but we are not doing enough to innovate,” Mr. Briggs said. “I am offering a call to action to the industry to innovate more.”

One problem with the retail industry today is that online is not given the credit for what it is, according to Mr. Briggs. Online spending is often much less than traditional retail spend.

Also, retailers are not coming up with their own ideas but merely copying others.

“There is a lot more to offer than just free shipping,” Mr. Briggs said. “Free shipping is important but when I go to Web sites and look at how the marketing is done, there has to be more than free shipping to compete.”

Mr. Briggs said the way to innovate is for the brand to give up control and listen more to the consumer.

One example is the introduction of eBay Motors. EBay noticed a trend of users selling cars on its site, but it did not have a category for it on www.ebay,com. Users were listing cars in categories like toys and this was not increasing the sales. Since eBay added eBay Motors, the online retail giant has sold 2.5 million cars a year.

“Our system of innovation is more than what is inside the four walls of our company,” Mr. Briggs said. “We are trying to let the users help us shape how we create our Web site and offer products to customers.”

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H.H. Sheikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum opens InRetail and the Office Exhibition 2007

Posted by | Jun 4, 2007 | |

H.H. Sheikh Ahmad Bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation and Chairman of the Emirates Group today opened two of the Middle East’s most anticipated annual events, InRetail and The Office Exhibition – both running from 3rd to 5th June at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre. His Excellency toured the stands with interest, as he witnessed the most cutting edge breakthroughs in office design and retail technology, both key drivers of the economic growth in the region.

InRetail brings together the leading professionals from every segment of the retail industry, from retail interior design, shopfitting and merchandising, to the most recent state-of-the-art in-store technologies, and the latest developments in customer relationship management, marketing and logistics.

The Office Exhibition also, offers a comprehensive range of office systems, including high-end furnishings, interior design, storage systems as well as lighting and turnkey services.

Both shows are also running their renowned programme of seminars throughout their three-day duration, where the leading specialists will talk about the latest industry trends and developments.

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Fujitsu focuses on the future at Retail Solutions 2007

Posted by | Jun 4, 2007 | |

Fujitsu Services will be taking a look at the future of retailing at this year’s Retail Solutions show, at the NEC in Birmingham from 5-7 June.

This year’s Retail Solutions exhibition sees the launch of the Store of the Future, a purpose-built shop showcasing the technologies that will be deployed across the high-street over the next few years, with technology provided by Fujitsu. Commenting on the Store of the Future, Dr Mark Dorgan, European retail partner at Fujitsu Services said: “The customer experience is growing in importance and the pressure is on for retailers to provide an innovative shopping experience. The Store of the Future will demonstrate a number of new and future technologies available to help retailers deliver a more integrated multi-channel shopping experience.”

The Future Food area in the store will focus on ‘empowering the consumer’ and will see technologies such as self-checkout, electronic shelf-edge labelling, digital media networks and contactless payment solutions on show.

The Future Department Store area will take visitors through a new paradigm in personal assisted shopping, showcasing devices such as palm vein technology, smart changing room technologies (e.g. automatically requesting complementary items or alternative sizes) and RFID tags. The focus will be on enabling retailers to improve the customer experience by offering enhanced service in-store and thereby increasing basket size and growing loyalty.

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Pubs to run UK post offices

Posted by | Jun 3, 2007 | |

More than 500 pubs are being earmarked to run post offices inside them.

The move would offset the Royal Mail’s axing of 2,500 post offices over the next two years.

Industry Secretary Alistair Darling sees pubs as ideal locations for “outreach post offices” to be set up in remote communities.

Royal Mail chiefs have been involved in talks with campaigners to match pub sites with areas where closures are likely.

The Pub Is The Hub coordinator John Longdon said: “It’s great the Government has recognised the role pubs can play in the community.”

Hilary Scott, who runs a post office from her pub in Wistow, North Yorks, said: “The post office brings in new people – our pub has become a real focal point.”

The Communication Workers Union said they are confident a secret ballot of their 130,000 members will show a huge vote for strike action on Thursday.

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