DaisyStreet.co.uk: Manchester's New Boohoo

So who is the latest Boohoo.com to come out of Manchester?

DaisyStreet.co.uk has been quietly making waves in the back streets of the UK's teen fashion scene for the last couple of years. But it was only last month that it's two twenty-something directors registered the company's name - Daisy Street Limited.

For the last two-and-a-half years Tejpal and Manveer Singh Grewal have been operating the firm through the holding company Virtual Insanity Limited.

We think the company is a magnitude of size smaller than Boohoo and that other fashion-obsessed daughter of the city Missguided.co.uk. But we also think its ambitions are no less big.

DaisyStreet.co.uk: blossoming

'Daisystreet.co.uk is an up and coming, blossoming etailer showcasing the freshest fashion online,' it says on its website.

'From the latest catwalk trends, to providing your essential wardrobe staples Daisystreet.co.uk has it all. We allow you to open the door to fast and affordable fashion, before it hits the high street and the masses,' it adds.

Sound familiar?

Like its larger rivals its is also offering express shipping to the US, Australia and Europe. It is also offering free postage on orders over £40 and Saturday delivery for orders made on Friday by 5pm. We're not convinced about the sub-clause suggesting customers should pay for postage and packaging on returns, but maybe that is a work in progress.

It has a pretty keenly priced offer at the moment on a small selection of dresses for less than £5 and tops from £1.99. But we thought at first glance that the price structure is a little less ordered than Boohoo.com but then that could well just be a symptom of the Sale.

But given the flurry of interest around Boohoo.com's potential stock market listing and the stratospheric valuation for its £100 million-or-so-turnover the registering of the name with Companies House perhaps suggests Tejpal, Manveer and the other family members involved with the firm have their eye on greater things. Perhaps even outside investment or, in the longer term, stock market plans of their own.

Addicted To Tablets: Half Of Britons Now Part Of The iPad Generation

Half of British people own or have access to a tablet computer as the iPad generation flocks to the new technology many times faster than it did to desktop computers.

The uptake of tablets has been driven by the release of budget devices retailers such as Tesco's Hudl and Argos' MyTablet and other low-cost devices such as the Kindle Fire, according to Deloitte. All three are available for less than £120.

According to Deloitte between 12 million and 13 million tablets have been sold this year, an increase of 50 per cent on 2012. This means that, by the end of January, 50 per cent of Britons will own or have access to a tablet computer compared to 36 per cent in summer.

Apple's iPad was first released in 2010. Since then it has driven both the electricals products market and the use of mobile devices for shopping on the internet.

According to IBM tablets drove 28 per cent of all online traffic on Boxing Day compared with 29.9 per cent driven by Smartphones. However, tablets pulled in 29.4 per cent of all online sales, nearly twice that of smartphone users at 15.8 per cent.

Deloitte said the number of smaller, cheaper tablets will overtake larger ones worldwide in the new year. It estimates the number of devices below 8.5 inches corner-to-corner will reach 165 million by the end of March compared to 160 million larger devices.

Paul Lee, Deloitte's head of technology, media and telecoms, said retailers would need to adapt to the smaller tablets as many size do not cope well with smaller screen sizes at present.

He told the Daily Telegraph ahead of the release of the firm's 2014 predictions: 'Tablets have gained popularity work extraordinary speed and manufacturers will have to work harder to stay on to stay on top of the market.'

He added: 'There appear to be more users and use cases for tablets than many had imagined. Getting the balance of form, function and price right will likely be a moving target during 2014, especially at the lower end of the market.'

Amazon: Playing By Different Rules

Amazon has been forcing the pace this year - and its rivals are unlikely to see it relax into a casual jog over the next 12 months.

It's not just prices that the company is wringing out. It's making ordering online so attractive that you'd almost be embarrassed to admit you had bought something from a shop.

At the moment, Amazon can reach about 15 per cent of Americans with its same-day delivery offer. But it is building another five warehouses and, once it secures space in the top 20 metro areas, its same-day offer would be within striking distance of 50 per cent of the population, according to analysis by supply chain consultant MWPVL.

Amazon has already spent about $14 billion in the last three years on new warehouses and is adding 5,000 full-time warehouse workers to its existing 20,000, according to Bloomberg.

It is even finding ways to deliver on Sundays via the US postal system and is adding robots, extra storage space and even refrigeration units to its 90 facilities to improve efficiency and delivery times.

The service is hardly expensive when weighed against the cost of fuel. Customers pay an extra $8.99 (£5.45) and as little as $3.99 for customers who have signed to its $79 a year, two-day Amazon Prime service.

But the strategy is not without its detractors. This morning the Financial Times newspaper complains that Amazon 'gets to play by different rules'.

'If the profitability of most companies declined steadily as the year wore on, alarmed investors would desert their shares,' it complains on behalf of investors.

To us this sounds a little like behind-the-scenes sour grapes from rival firms struggling to cope with the new reality that stores are too big and too, well, last decade.

Amazon made a net loss in the three months to the end of October but, even so, the share price is up 57 per cent this year. The move into a loss was seen by many as Amazon taking an even more aggressive stance as it invests in new technology - not least the Kindle - but also warehouses and, of course, prices.

The reason is that its sales, compared to most retailers, defy gravity and are estimated by ChannelAdviser to have increased 25 per cent over the festive season. Total sales are expected to reach $75 billion this year: about £45.5 billion.

The hope on Wall Street, says the FT, is that at some point Amazon will convert sales into profit - presumably once it has thoroughly undermined all its bricks and mortar competition to the point of no return.

Although, the FT notes, no one has yet been confident enough to press Jeff Bezos for a firm answer on when he thinks that might be.

We wonder whether the question, however, should be when its rivals will admit they might have to rethink profit returns while they find ways to stem the rising tide.

MyOptique Raises £8 Million As Founder Steps Down

Glasses Direct group MyOptique has raised £8 million to fund new acquisitions and international growth.

The firm, which owns Glasses Direct, Sunglasses Shop and LensOn, raised the new funds from existing partners Index Ventures, Highland Partners and Acton Capital Partners. New backers included Cipio Partners, which bought out the majority of Murray Wells' shares, and GP Bullhound Sidecar.

It follows the last fund raising of £10 million in December 2012 and a further £20 million raised between 2007 and 2011.

The deal also marks the departure of founder and chairman Jamie Murray Wells who will leave the business to concentrate on his work at Google. He has been industry manager for retail since June and was this month promoted to industry head, retail.

The group has also appointed founder and chairman of Amery Capital Maurice Helfgott as non-executive chairman.

Back in June it emerged that MyOptique had appointed advisers at GP Bullhound - which the Sunday Telegraph described as 'one of the most active advisers in the digital sector' - to examine its options which were understood to include a float. A stock market listing would have valued the business at around £100 million, the newspaper reported in at the time.

The report also said MyOptique's chief executive Kevin Cornils had instructed Egon Zehnder to identify a non-executive chairman to take over from Murray Wells should a listing take place.

The group said in the statement announcing this month's deal that it had this year achieved profitability for the second year in a row. It expects to complete the financial year ending February 2014 with over £35 million in sales.

Cornils said in the statement: '2013 has been a busy year for us at the MyOptique Group, so it’s great to see the support of our existing and new investors. We now have a full service optical business that spans eight European markets, have served over 800,000 customers, shipping an order every 40 seconds.'

Within the Amery Capital portfolio Helfgott currently serves as chairman of clothing retailer Long Tall Sally where he led the acquisition and restructuring of the business. He is also chairman of the luxury brand Oliver Sweeney. He started his career as a trainee at Marks & Spencer and became executive director food then the same role in clothing and home.

UK's December Internet Sales Rise 21% So Far After Boxing Day Boost

Sales over the internet have risen a fifth so far this month after many retailers began their Boxing Day sales as early as Christmas Eve.

According to figures from IBM Digital Analytics, sales this month so far have grown 21 per cent helped by a 40.4 per cent increase on Boxing Day.

Mobile traffic on Boxing Day increased to 58 per cent of the total, an increase of 42 per cent over the same day last year.

Sales completed via mobile devices were also strong, rising 63 per cent and exceeding 45 per cent of total online sales. 

Smartphones drove 29.9 per cent of all online traffic versus tablets at 28 per cent. But tablets pulled in 29.4 per cent of all online sales, nearly twice that of smartphone users at 15.8 per cent.

Average order value on tablets was £83.55 and £78.06 on mobile phones.

James Lovell, Smarter Commerce retail solutions consultant at IBM Europe, said: 'This is the first time that traffic on mobile devices has outstripped the PC. Mobile has rapidly become the dominant channel and now retailers really need to look at the role that each device is going to play within the overall customer journey and decision making process.'

Sofa.com Shakes Up A 'Turgid' Industry As It Eyes Sale

The founders of home furnishings website Sofa.com are certainly not taking things easy.

The company has appointed advisers as it considers a refinancing or sale of the business to raise cash for expansion.

Founders Rohan Blacker and Pat Reeves earlier this month called in financial advisory firm Altium to explore options for the seven year-old business to help fund expansion.

Blacker, who previously set up food delivery firm Deliverance with Rohan, which was sold for £5.5 million in 2004 to Active Private Equity, told City AM: 'I think we are a very exciting proposition for the right people.'

The company filed accounts several weeks ago showing that turnover increased 35 per cent to £17.6 million in the year to February 28. Pretax profit rose from £985,320 to £1.6 million, the documents show.

He said since the year ending February sales have 'continued to march forward in very much the right direction.'

'We span ecommerce and traditional retail quite nicely with £21 million-odd sales from one relatively small off pitch showroom [in Chelsea] and a profitable online business that continues to grow,' he said.

It also has a showroom in New York and a franchise business in Holland.

He told the Mail on Sunday today: 'The UK sofa sector is worth about £3 billion a year. When we launched in 2005 the industry was turgid, customers had to wait weeks, sometimes months, for their sofa to arrive, and there was no right to return or heavy penalties for doing so.'

The pair set up the Deliverance meal ordering service around London a decade ago but Blacker said: 'Deliverance was really complicated logistically. We employed more than 200 people, many foreign, so there were visa issues, and every day we were feeding 1,500 people in a two-hour period. We were also managing hundreds of suppliers. We loved it, but learned what we didn't want in our next business.’

He said the business, which relies on other firms to manufacture their furniture, has a turnover of more than £20 million and is growing by 'between 20 per cent and 50 per cent' per year.

Rocket Internet's Next Stop: Africa

Germany's Rocket Internet has announced a series of partnerships with South Africa's largest mobile operator MTN Group.

On December 17, the two firms said they would develop a series of internet businesses in Africa with Millicom International Cellular through a joint venture Africa Internet Holding.

In the second, announced three days later, Johannesburg-based MTN and Berlin's Rocket Internet announced an ambitious plan to accelerate online retail and other digital services in the Middle East.

The second of the two ventures will see each of the two take a 50 per cent stake in Middle East Internet Holding. MTN is expected to invest about €300 million over the next four years into the two projects.

The World Bank Africa Development Indicator estimates 62 per cent of Africa's internet users are in Kenya and Nigeria. The Seychelles has the highest number of internet users per 100 people.

MTN's CEO Sifiso Dabengwa said of the Middle Eastern deal would 'accelerate and further develop the nascent ecommerce market in the region'.

Rocket Internet's co-founder Oliver Samwer said: 'With joint forces, Middle East Internet Holding will develop its already existing ventures even better and will launch new companies even faster and more successfully.'

In July, Rocket Internet said it had raised an additional $500 million from two of its existing investors Kinnevik and Access to fund new and existing ventures with a focus on Latin America and Asia.

Amazon Angers German Unions Again As 600 Workers Leave

Amazon has 'terminated' the contracts of 600 of its German workers just two days before Christmas in a move that has angered unions, according to German news site N24.de.

The workers from its Brieselang warehouse, all on fixed term contracts at the centre which has been open since November, were given notice and asked to leave immediately, according to the report.

The decision has prompted an angry response from unions which said Amazon was pursuing a 'wild west' attitude to hiring and firing in the country.

Labour representatives are in the midst of a pay dispute with Amazon which has intensified over the past two weeks. Workers at its Bad Hersfeld and Leipzig plant initially walked out on December 16 in the latest round of strikes.

'Amazon once again shows his true colors,' Verdi board member Stefanie Nutzenberger told N24.de. 'These workers were all of a sudden shown the door after they have displayed the highest performance under pressure during the pre-Christmas period.'

New Look's Ecom Director Shivani Tejuja Leaves

New Look's successful ecommerce and multichannel director Shivani Tejuja has left less than a year after being promoted to the position.

Tejuja - who has been very visible this year, appearing at conferences talking about the firm's successes - left one week before Christmas and becomes the second director to leave the business after the resignation of chief financial officer Alastair Miller last month.

Her role is understood to have been made redundant with Mark Axon, UK and Ireland retail operations director taking responsibility for the ecommerce division.

He takes the role of sales director in the new year as part of chief executive Anders Kristiansen's plan to streamline the management.

Tejuja has previously held management roles at Starbucks, Amazon and Expedia.

In October, she appeared at a conference explaining how she had worked to integrate the ecommerce division more firmly into the main retail operation - and joked how that might look like she was organising herself out of a job.

UPS Delivery Crisis Hits Customers Across the US

It was bound to happen eventually - and probably will do so again.

Delivery firms working on tight margins and one or two-day guarantees need some pretty accurate forecasting to plan for a six-week spike that you simply wouldn't believe.

In fact, forecasters at UPS didn't believe it. They planned for 132 million deliveries in the week before Christmas Day and, the company admitted, 'obviously we exceeded that'.

The company had hired 55,000 season workers - roughly the same as the past two years. But the surge in demand this year meant the US Postal System, which had initially predicted packages would rise 12 per cent, began operating on Sunday to accommodate the 19 per cent rise.

At the same time Amazon said that 1 million new customers joined its $79-a-year Amazon Prime service in the week before Christmas to enjoy its late delivery-guaranteed ‘free two-day shipping’ service.

Amazon said it dispatched all its orders on time and added that it was 'reviewing the performance of its delivery carriers.'

Amazon has taken immediate action - a lesson to all online retailers - by handing back any delivery charges associated with the offending packages and giving customers $20 gift vouchers.

Certainly bad weather didn't help UPS and other carriers complained of high volumes.

But there has been speculation that mobile ordering is to blame - that it is harder to build up a shopping cart using a mobile phone and that customers of retailers like Amazon might prefer to simply place multiple orders - the cost is often the same on Amazon.

Amazon said this week that more than half its customers shopped on a mobile phone or tablet ordering an average of 426 items a second on Cyber Monday - 36.8 million items in total on the day.

Custora Pulse said, overall across the country, one in three items were ordered from tablets or phones this year compared to one in four items last year.

But, more worryingly, researchers at StellaService tested 25 retailers and their cut-off dates. It ordered three packages from each firm, one to each of three regions. It said a third of the retailers failed to deliver packages on time including ones from Macys.com, Gap.com, Kohls.com, Nordstrom.com and BarnesAndNoble.com.

Selfridges Says 400,000 Shoppers Visited Its Website On Christmas Day

Luxury department store Selfridges said online sales on Christmas Day rose 110 per cent with more than three times the number of shoppers visiting as those at its Boxing Day sale yesterday.

The retailer said over 400,000 people visited it site on Christmas Day compared to over
120,000 expected at its shop for yesterday's cut-priced sale event.

It said peak buying times on the day were before lunch and after 5pm and nearly 10 per cent of transactions were on mobile phones.

The department store described pre-Christmas trading as 'strong'. Sales in the first hour of its Boxing Day sale hit £1.9 million and the retailer said in a statement released at lunchtime yesterday that was on track to have a record day across its four UK stores and its web site.

The retailer said it was the first to launch a January Sale on Boxing Day at its Trafford store in 1998 and then in London in 2003.

John Lewis Christmas Day Web Traffic Rises 19% As Tablet Visits Surge

Christmas Day traffic to JohnLewis.com increased by almost a fifth as visits from tablet users surged.

Shoppers receiving tablet computers as Christmas presents helped visits from smartphones and mobile devices increase to 76 per cent of traffic. Total sales increased 19 per cent compared to Christmas Day 2012.

The numbers compared to recent statistics from the company suggesting that just over half of shoppers visiting its site were from mobile users. The trend continued during the first hour of its online clearance Sale on Christmas Eve - which began at 5 pm on Tuesday - when sales were up 13 per cent and 56 per cent of shoppers arrived via mobile devices.

'With tablets being the must-have product throughout the year it was clear that mobile would step up, but yesterday surpassed even our expectations. People were sitting down to Downton Abbey with their tablet on their lap and doing a little early sales shopping this Christmas,' said Mark Lewis, John Lewis online director.

'The tipping point has now passed and we expect mobile to be the way the majority of people shop online from now on. It will only grow from here and we will be working hard to ensure we meet our customers' expectations, be that new technology or the seamless experience across multiple channels. Shopping is becoming much more of a social experience with people browsing, purchasing and sharing ideas with others using their mobile phones and tablets,' he said.

Comment: No More Excuses - 2014 Will Be The Year Of Customer Service For Online Retailers

Looking back over this year it is abundantly clear that we have arrived - the online retail world is here, it's a part of the fabric of the UK's shopping culture.

There is no looking back and most people in retail are getting their heads around that.

Or at least that's what they're telling us.

Let's be honest, the past two years have been a bit of a 'land grab' from high street retailers seeking to annex their bit of ecommerce market share in the online world. To a greater degree, it has worked. Some of them have even managed to give pure-plays a run for their money and the popularity of click-and-collect has been a godsend for the high street.

But we can't help feeling there are some serious issues facing the clicks-and-bricks retail sector. One of which is that the poor service culture that we have become used to in the UK is seeping through to the online world. But the online world can be much less forgiving.

Let's take some examples. 

Several times in the past month we have been bounced back from the Argos website with the message explaining that they are experiencing high volumes of traffic. Really? Higher than eBay? Than Amazon? Why do I care? Why should I not just go to one of your rivals?

For a digital retailer, whom we have been told over and over by management is planning for a digital future, how can they not cope with high traffics volumes? And not once but on multiple occasions?

It shouldn't even be an issue for a retailer like Argos and to us just serves to show the rhetoric doesn't match the customer experience.

Secondly, the 'flash' sale - a blanket sale designed to clear through slow moving stock with some serious discounts.

Again, in the offline world you might get away with this. But online - when I can walk into your shop ever minute of every hour of every day to check prices and see that products I bought last week are now on sale in all the same colours and prices I bought them in but for 20 per cent or 30 per cent less - it's a much less forgiving environment.

Put yourself in your customers shoes - how would you feel? In the case of Marks & Spencer, when your primary interest in holding the sale - let's be honest - is to drive top-line sales growth to give a good show for the City and save the board embarrassment, are you sure you are not putting red faces among the management team before those of your shoppers?

Ok, we all know that a Debenhams Sale is always round the corner - you take your pick and take your chances - but we expect a different set of rules from the likes of Marks & Spencer. They need to hold their nerve or face the consequences -  a loss of trust in a very fickle world.

Sure, clear stock when it is not moving - line by line - but never collapse into sale until it is all really over and that should never be until a week before Christmas unless things really are falling apart. 

We also heard a few anecdotal stories from John Lewis customers about deliveries not turning up - both at their homes and through the click-and-collect service. How is it possible for drivers - ones sent by John Lewis at that - not to be able to call individual customers and explain they are either running late or unlikely to show up? 

Finally, and perhaps to show that poor service is not just the domain of clicks-and-bricks, the unforgivable and sorry tale of Zavvi and those PS Vita consoles which we documented here. Threatening to sue your customers for your own mistake is really beyond the pale - and Zavvi's owner The Hut Group really should know better.

So why are retailers in the age of the internet and, let's be honest, what can at times be fairly rabid social media coverage of those errors, still bungling?

Cutting corners is not a uniquely retail fault but it is something that retailers have always felt comfortable with. How many of us have been made to feel by shop staff in the past year that we are the perpetrator when complaining about poor product or poor service rather than the victim.

But poor training, poor service and low investment in these areas are a symptom not just of the recession but of an acceptance that bad service at times is acceptable because the cost of getting it right 100 per cent of the time is too high. The idea is you get it right 80 per cent of the time and wing it the other 20 per cent accepting that staff will cover the blunder. Or that there will probably be casualties along the way, most of whom won't make too much of a fuss.

However, we feel that the standard - and particularly those displayed by the old-school, bricks and mortar retailers, who have grown up in the 80-per-cent-will-do school of customer service - are being found out and that those few per cent of disgruntled shoppers can become a very vocal minority.

And let's not forget, customer service includes living up to the benchmarks set by others who will make you look bad every time you fail to measure up on all the fronts mentioned above and more.

This Christmas has been a landslide victory for those operating online and an army of new shoppers have joined those who have long seen the benefits. But none of those people are going to become less demanding in the next 12 months.

So, no more excuses. It is time to measure up and become a true friend of the internet shopper or find yourself losing potentially loyal customers like a tap you can't turn off.

And these days, that is a cost you simply cannot afford.

Merry Christmas And A Happy New Year

Thanks for all your support through the year.

Power cuts and floods permitting, we'll be back tomorrow with more news from the ecommerce sector. Until then, have a fantastic day and keep up your support.

All the best,

Dr Fang and the team

Etailers Get Christmas Eve Boost

The number of visits to ecommerce websites is expected to reach 105 million today, a rise of 22 per cent compared to last year.

Research by financial transaction analysts Experian predicts Christmas Eve will see the biggest increase over the next few days.

The increase is likely to have been boosted by last night’s weather which will have dissuaded shoppers from leaving their homes today other than for necessary journeys. Although power cuts in parts of the south of England cut off internet access for many prospective shoppers.

Experian said the number of visits on Christmas Day are expect to rise 9 per cent to 117 million and on Boxing Day by 5 per cent to 118 million.

The biggest day so far was on what Experian described as 'Middle Cyber Monday' when online retail visits reached 120 million. Visits hit 115 million on Cyber Monday - December 2 - making it the fourth biggest day, according to Experian's current estimates.

Overstocks Will Become First Major Ecommerce Site To Accept Bitcoin

US-based etailer Overstock.com plans to begin selling goods in exchange for virtual currency Bitcoin from next year, according to chief executive Patrick Byrne.

The retailer has become the biggest ecommerce firm to open up their cash registers to the currency after other digital firms such as user-generated news site Reddit, online dating site OkCupid, gaming console start-up Ouya and space-flight travel firm Virgin Galactic all agreed to begin dealing in the currency.

Byrne told newspapers including the Financial Times and that the company will accept Bitcoin as soon as April and, if not, in the second half of next year at the latest.

He told the LA Times: 'I think we'll pick up… the market share of the people who’d prefer to pay in Bitcoin, with an honest currency.'

He described his decision as 'also philosophical, part and parcel with my belief in a limited government - that if you want a limited government you can't give it power to expand the monetary base.'

Byrne told the FT that he was an adherent of the Austrian School of economics which proposes that fiat currencies, created by central banks, would destabilise the global economy.

But he also said he plans to exchange the currency back to US dollars on a daily basis - protecting his firm from the violent fluctuations in it value.

One website described Bitcoin as having an 'infamous volatility' - with prices veering from $500 to $1,200 this month alone - which means those holding it may only be doing so for its value alone and that companies accepting it may be faced with holding currency that could fall sharply in value within a single day.

Byrne told the Financial Times: 'I think a healthy monetary system at the end of the day isn't an upside down pyramid based on the whim of a government official but is based on something that they can't control.'

The FT said there are currently 12.15 million Bitcoins in circulation and, when there are 21 million, no more will be created.

Amazon Says Christmas Day Shopping Will Peak At 8:32pm

Amazon has predicted that Wednesday will be its busiest Christmas Day with orders peaking in the evening as shoppers settle in with tablets and smartphones to hunt for deals.

The retailer said sales on Christmas Day have risen five-fold in the past five years. It said it expects shopping on its site to peak around 8:32pm as customers begin bargain hunting early which watching Christmas television specials.

Christopher North, managing director of Amazon UK said: 'Christmas Day is our biggest day of the year for MP3 downloads and Kindle book purchases as people look to enjoy the new devices they have received on Christmas morning straightaway.'

He continued: 'By the evening customers are ready to get a head start on their sales shopping with everything from home essentials to fashion to big ticket technology proving popular.'

John Lewis Online Sales Rise 31% As Shoppers Rush To Click and Collect

John Lewis online sales increased by 31 per cent in the week ending Saturday December 21, exceeding 30 per cent for only the second time this festive season.

The department store is benefiting from the increased availability of its click and collect service to shoppers through Waitrose stores, which is owned by the John Lewis Partnership. The final order for Christmas Eve collection will be taken at 7pm tonight for collection after 2pm tomorrow.

John Lewis exceeded sales of 30 per cent during 'Black Friday' week ending Saturday November 30, when sales online rose 35.7 per cent.

That was the highest rise in online sales since February 9 when JohnLewis.com sales increased 36.4 per cent.

John Lewis said its Clearance sale will begin at 5pm on Christmas Eve and in shops on December 27.

Online Stores Facing Financial Problems Rises 28% Amid A Rush Of Start-Ups

The number of online retailers facing 'significant' financial problems has risen by nearly a third, almost double the rate of increase among stores-based businesses.

The number of pure-play retailers with difficulties increased 28 per cent from 1,421 to 1,816 as the number of people trying to set up their own online business rose, according to the research from restructuring specialists Begbies Traynor.

Begbies Traynor partner Julie Palmer told the Financial Times: 'A flush of online start-ups, which are typically at higher risk of failure in the early stages of their life-cycles, has driven a significant rise in financial problems in non-store retailers.'

The number was dwarfed by the total number of stores-based retailers facing problems which rose 15 per cent to 15,792. More than 150 retailers face 'critical' financial woes, an 8 per cent rise compared to the final quarter of 2012.

But Begbies Traynor also said that some larger online and multi-channel competitors were putting pressure on smaller rivals because they were able to offer lower prices, click-and-collect options and pay for better search rankings.

Retailers have been discounting more heavily than usual this Christmas on and off-line in a bid to attract shoppers struggling with the higher cost of living and low wage increases. They are expected to continue to do so over the coming days.

Missguided Targets Mobile As Two Thirds Of Shoppers Use Smartphones

Online fashion site Missguided.co.uk is targeting smartphone users with its email marketing campaigns after it found that the phone is its customers primary hardware for accessing emails.

Research by the company revealed that 65 per cent of its shoppers used their smartphones to open emails and 11 per cent used tablets.

Miussguided used Responsys, an email service provider, to create a dynamic module template which took three to four weeks, according to the Econsultancy.com website.

The result has been a 'vast improvement,' according to Missguided's affiliate and email marketing manager Cath Higgs, and has prompted response rates higher than the retail benchmark.

Higgs said Missguided does not have a mobile site which restricts the success of its mobile-optimised emails. But plans to implement one are expected to produce a 'considerable uplift' in conversion rates from emails.

For more on Missguided, see our Online Retail Stars of 2013 Report: Missguided.co.uk.

Waterstones Chief: 'I Wouldn't Wish Amazon On My Worst Enemy'

The managing director of Waterstones bookshops James Daunt has said he expects to make a profit this year despite fierce competition from Amazon.

In an interview with the Sunday Times today, Daunt said improvements in the way the shops are run, fewer discounts and a better focus on more high-brow books has hauled the chain back on track.

But he complained - despite selling Amazon's Kindle in dedicated areas in its shops - that Amazon continues to have a clear tax advantage and opined that Waterstones, which has 287 shops, should have made more effort to develop a Kindle-style reader.

'I don't hate them in any way,' Daunt said of Amazon. 'They are an extra-ordinarily powerful competitor and one you wouldn't wish on your worst enemy. But we do something different and therefore selling the Kindle is not something I have a problem with.'

He told the newspaper he regrets that Waterstones did not develop its own version but accepts that, at the time, its former parent group HMV had its own problems.

HMV, which went bust and has been acquired by a restructuring group, has been accused by some of using Waterstones as a cash cow for years as it pumped money into turning around its main chain.

But Daunt, who acknowledges that the moment to develop a Kindle-style strategy has probably passed - said: 'Even if we did, we would still have a problem because we would have VAT of 20% on our ebooks and [Amazon] has got VAT of zip - 5 per cent, in theory, through Luxembourg; in practice, a lot less than that.'

Daunt said he had high hopes for Christmas trading but 'doesn't have the leeway' to mess up.

'Poor' Website Performance Revealed Among Fashion Retailers

H&M and Next have the fastest and most reliable sites, according to a study, but most fashion retail sites fall short of benchmark response times.

Four out of five sites failed to measure up to the 'ideal' response time of under two seconds with pages on some sites taking an average more than five seconds to down load.

The research by Keynote, designed to gauge the experience of busy Christmas shoppers, measured 17 fashion sites for the responsiveness and for availability during the week ending December 19.

The best overall, with 100 per cent availability and response times - the time it takes pages to load - of 0.93 seconds and 1.44 seconds respectively, were H&M and Next.

A total of 16 sites had improved their response times from the previous week but only three retailers including H&M, Next and Size had average load times of less than two seconds. Only five in total, including River Island and Urban Outfitters had average load times of less than three seconds.

TopShop, Burton, Miss Selfridge, Uniqlo, New Look and All Saints, in descending order of responsiveness, all had response times of between four and five seconds and Monsoon narrowly made its way under four seconds with a response time of 3.94 seconds.

'When considering the performance of the high street stores online compared to other industries, however, the average response times are relatively poor. Only three out of the 17 sites managed to load in under the ideal two seconds and some sites took nearly five seconds – far too long for most consumers,' said Robert Castley, performance management expert at Keynote.

'High street stores need to remember that while their direct competitors are other fashion retailers, the likes of supermarkets are increasingly diversifying and if they offer a speedier and more reliable site, consumers won’t hesitate to switch,' he said.

Of the 16 that improved their response times over the previous week, Office, Dorothy Perkins and French Connection showed the biggest gains.

Ten of the 17 sites also scored 100 per cent for availability with only one, footwear retailer Size, below 99 per cent at 98.24 per cent.

Castley said despite responsiveness issues, it was 'great to see high street stores becoming faster week after week and maintaining their reliability' meaning customers were 'more likely to return'.

Lenstore.co.uk Sells Up To Vision Express

The owners of contact lens retailer Lenstore.co.uk have sold their business to Vision Express to give the business a the high street presence.

Husband and wife team Mitesh Patel and Olga Nuryaeva set up the Wimbledon-based business in 2008 after leaving their well-paid consultancy jobs. 

The business reported sales of £5.1 million in the year to January with profit of £500,000 and expects to report annual turnover increased to £10 million by end of next month.

Lenstore sends out regular supplies of contact lenses and has around 150,000 customers. The sale to Vision Express, which has 300 stores and is owned by France's GrandVision, was for an undisclosed sum. Vision Express aims to open 60 stores next year.

'We decided contact lens wearers needed the option to buy in stores as well as online,' Patel told the Sunday Times.

Missguided Woos Nicole Scherzinger For Signature Range

Online fashion retailer Missguided.co.uk has held talks with X-Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger to front a signature fashion range.

The rapidly growing etailer, similar in size to Boohoo.com and expected to make around £100 million in sales this year, has already been in contact with the singer about 'getting her own line', according to the Daily Mirror today.

A source told the Mirror it is likely Scherzinger will not return to the X-Factor next year and that she wants to 'venture into new areas.'

'Missguided think she could be great for the brand and fashion is something she wants to get into. She wants to get into. She wants to continue working in the UK as she loves it here and feels like an honorary Brit. She's obviously going to be continuing with her music and this will be another strong to her bow,' the source added.

The newspaper said the range would include 'some risque items' and the source said to 'expect a lot of sexy, tight-fitting dresses and plenty of sparkles'.

For more on Missguided, see our Online Retail Stars of 2013 Report: Missguided.co.uk.

Very.co.uk Owner Shop Direct Says Mobile Traffic Overtakes Desktop For The First Time

Shop Direct, the owner of sites including isme.com and Very.co.uk, said traffic from smartphones and tablets have outstripped desktop computers for the first time.

The online giant, whose internet and catalogue sales are around £1.7 billion, said mobile visits to its six 'digital department store' websites in the six weeks to December 7 were 50.4 per cent of total traffic.

Traffic from tablets increased 120 per cent in the period and 105.2 per cent from smartphones compared to the same period last year.

The six sites, which also include Littlewoods.com, received a daily average of 1.3 million visits during the period -  a 23 per cent rise on last year.

The number of orders made on mobile devices almost doubled - increasing by 97 per cent. The value of mobile orders rose 91.6 per cent.

Group retail and strategy director Gareth Jones said: 'We knew that this Christmas would be massive for mobile but all signs indicate that it's going to smash our early expectations.'

'To have topped 50 per cent of traffic from mobile before we got into the peak weeks of December highlights the increasing power of these devices and of shoppers in dictating the retail agenda. We haven't actively pushed customers onto mobile – they've adopted these devices willingly for their convenience and ease of use.'

Jones said: 'It's not just a case of people switching from desktop to mobile in the evening either, although that of course plays a part. In fact, the biggest growth in mobile traffic that we've seen has occurred between 6.00am and 12.00pm, which would indicate a real shift in customer behaviour.'

He said: 'More and more of our customers are now snacking on their mobile devices on the way into work in the morning. They tend to use this time to browse, compare and share products with their friends. Afternoons and evenings then tend to be the times that most people go on to transact.'

Black Friday 'played a significant part' in the mobile growth over recent weeks as customers checked sites throughout the day for new deals, he said. 

He continued:'But traffic levels are showing no sign of slowing, which is particularly pleasing. Where this goes next Christmas, with wearable technology and other new innovations coming down the track, will be fascinating to see.

Almost 30% Of Cyber Monday Spending Was Online

Almost a third of money spent on Cyber Monday was online as shoppers favoured the internet to find fast deals on clothing and electronics.

According to analysis by Barclaycard, online spending accounted for 29.5 per cent of all spending on Monday December 2. Online spending rose 9.7 per cent and total spending increased 4.3 per cent.

The online growth on the day was led by spending on family clothing, which increased by 26 per cent, electronics by 20.4 per cent and gaming up 39 per cent after the release of Microsoft's X-Box One and Sony's PS4 consoles.

Chris Wood, Barclaycard managing director, said: 'This year's Christmas shopping has got off to a good start as consumers go shopping with a bit more confidence than they did last year.'


He said: 'We continue to see shoppers practice fiscal responsibility and keep up their search for value by shifting more of their shopping online and waiting for discount days such as Black Friday and Mega Monday.'

'The search for value is a pursuit that is paying off. We've seen average spend per transaction consistently come down, with shoppers now paying 5.4 per cent less per transaction than they did three years ago,' he said.

Meanwhile, in separate figures, Barclays said an estimated £1 billion would be dispensed from cash machines yesterday as shoppers prepared for the last push.

Over 15 million adults (31 per cent) plan to shop today and spend an average of £196 each. A quarter of those asked said they would use today to shop for the 'final few items'' 16 per cent said they would only be shopping for 'stocking fillers and extra presents' and 16 per cent said they had done their present shopping but needed to buy food and decorations.

However, 15 per cent said they had bought a few presents but still had 'the majority' left to buy and 9 per cent said this would be 'their first day' of Christmas shopping. Another 6 per cent said they had finished but wanted to go shopping to 'revel in the Christmas spirit.'

Morrisons.com Goes Live With A Bid To 'Set New Standards' For Food Delivery

Morrisons.com has gone live and is accepting orders for the first time ahead of its main launch next month.

In the past few days the supermarket has been contacting customers who have registered with the site to prepare for the launch and from today is taking orders for delivery for January 10 onwards.

Morrisons said it hopes to 'set new standards' for food delivery in the UK. It has adopted the strap line 'From Market Street to Your Street' and hopes to replicate in-store services such as butchers, bakers and fishmongers by allowing customers to tailor requests such as how thickly their steak is cut.

The chain, which has signed an agreement with food delivery firm Ocado to run the operation, has been testing the service with a small number of shoppers over the past month for a warehouse in Dordon near Tamworth.

It will begin serving a population area of around 3 million people across the Midlands including Warwickshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Derbyshire, Leicester and parts of Nottinghamshire.

It will be extended through the year to other areas in northern England, including Leeds, and to the south into London. It hopes to cover 50 per cent of the country by the beginning of 2015.

Morrisons is the last of the 'big four' supermarkets - which also include Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda - to begin offering a delivery service. But unlike its bigger rivals, which mostly pick and pack orders in stores using extra staff, it plans to offer the service from an automated warehouse built by Ocado.

Ocado also delivers its own label and Waitrose products from Ocado-branded vans while the vans used for the Morrisons service will be branded as Morrisons. It will provide all the logistical and IT systems needed to support Morrisons' deliveries.

Dalton Philips, the chief executive of Morrisons, said: 'This fresh food offer will be the closest thing on the internet to being in a store and selecting food yourself. Customers do have concerns about buying fresh food online and today we believe we've come up with the answer.'

Almost a third, 32 per cent, of Morrisons customers buy food online from rival supermarkets and it is hoping to encourage them to switch in the coming months.

Morrisons has included a facility on the site that allows shoppers to 'import' their favourite lists from MySupermarket.com which will immediately compare prices of an individual shoppers regular order with other chains. The function includes its main rivals but also Ocado.

However, Morrisons is also hoping to improve on existing services run by competitors by emphasising its fresh food credentials and extra services such as allowing shoppers to immediately hand back food to delivery drivers which they don't think is up to scratch.

Morrisons has launched with one-hour time slots because customers have complained that two-hour slots are too long to wait. It is also simplifying delivery charges with a £1, £3 or £5 charge depending on whether the order is at peak, off-peak or standard times. 

It said in a statement that it will have 'predicatable charges that do not vary as demand changes'.

Web Sales Rise To 12% Of All Retail As Fashion Spending Drifts Online

Online sales surged again last month boosted by spending on clothing and at department stores such as Debenhams and John Lewis.

The Office of National Statistics said total sales last month increased 15.1 per cent to a weekly average of £809.9 million. Online retail spending now represents 11.9 per cent of all retail spending, up 1.4 percentage points on the same month last year.

The ONS figures, unlike the IMRG's online spending figures, are a pure measure of retail sales and do not include spending on flights, holidays, tickets for events and other services. 

November online sales at department stores increased 31.3 per cent and now represent 11.4 per cent of sales in the category, according to the ONS. Sales of textile, clothing and footwear increased 28.9 per cent to 11.1 per cent of sales across online and bricks-and-mortar stores.

The ONS said feedback from bricks-and-mortar retailers suggested investment in their internet sites has boosted sales but at the same time detracted from sales in stores.

Online food sales rose 11.7 per cent and now represent 3.6 per cent of total food sales.

Total retail spending increased 2 per cent in November compared to the same month last year. Sales increased just 0.3 per cent on October.

The ONS covers 95 per cent of all known turnover across the retail sector with data from 5,000 businesses across England, Wales and Scotland from supermarkets to market stores and online. Retail accounts for about 5.7 per cent of GDP.

Amazon Workers Strike Intensifies During Busiest Period

Amazon workers in Germany have hit the company where it hurts - by striking in the busiest period of the year.

The strike by the online retailers distribution centre workers, which originally flared up in Spring, entered its fourth day yesterday in a dispute over wages and working conditions. Germany is the second largest of Amazon's territories with 14 per cent of its 61 billion global sales.

Workers at Amazon's largest distribution centre in Bad Hersfeld walked out on Monday and have already voted to continue the strike until Saturday. Officials at the Ver.di union said 600 workers at the centre were involved in the dispute which is seeking comparable pay for warehouse workers as retail staff in the country receive.

'There was a clear decision in favor of extending the strike,' Ver.di union official Manuel Sauer said, according to the Wall Street Journal. The official said workers will meet on Saturday to discuss further action.

Ver.di wants Amazon to allow collective bargaining on pay by the workers, which is standard practice between employees and employers at many other German companies. The dispute has also caused a storm of negative publicity in the country for the company not least over the treatment of some workers by staff at a third-party security firm.

But Amazon has dismissed the premise of the workers argument that warehouse staff deserve retail wages.

'Our people stow, pick and pack,' a spokesperson for Amazon in Germany told the Financial Times. 'It is not like Harrods where you have customers in front of you and need a special level of education to do that. Many [workers] had no proper education. Some have not even properly finished school.'

Amazon insisted to the FT that the number of workers on strike is too low to affect its trade over the busy Christmas season. The company estimates that 1,115 people were on strike on Monday out of more than 9,000 full-time employees. It has also hired an additional 14,000 temporary workers to help with the spike in demand at the end of the year.

Even Amazon Falls Short As Customer Satisfaction Slips

Shoppers are less happy with their experience of online shopping than they were last year following the first ever dip in satisfaction rates, according to new research.

The research by the ForeSee Experience Index shows Amazon.co.uk as the clear leader with a satisfaction score of 84 - the only retailer surveyed to exceed an Index score of 80.

The average across 40 retailers and 10,000 respondents was 73 compared to 74 last year, the first decline in the seven years the survey has been done.

However, ForeSee said that Amazon's high score was blighted by the fact that its Index rating had slipped by two points - a decline in satisfaction and an indication that action may be required to prevent standards slipping further in the next 12 months.

John Lewis, Apple, Marks & Spencer and Asda Direct all ranked in the next five. But, within that, John Lewis fell by one point to 79 per cent, slipping below ForeSee's 80-point benchmark for excellence for the first time in three years.

Shoppers were asked about their experiences with sites, including whether they would recommend a particular retailer or were likely to buy from it again.

The report said that satisfaction rates have slowed over the past five years and the drop may represent growing competition among retailers and rising expectations among shoppers.

'Satisfaction shows a slight decline. This is the first fall in online satisfaction since the survey launched in 2007 albeit by a single point. This follows a consistent, single-point, year-on-year increase between 2009 and 2013 which was markedly lower than the four point jump recorded between 2008 and 2009,' ForeSee said in the report.

'It is possible the fall in 2013, not to mention slowing growth in satisfaction for the preceding few years, is an outcome of the higher expectations of an increasingly sophisticated and hard-to-please marketplace,' it said.

It continued: 'Although a one-point decline might not seem important, the direct effect that satisfaction has on revenues and profitability means that even this slight reversal of fortune has the potential for significant negative impact.'

Research among US retailers has shown that a one-point increase in satisfaction translates into a 10.6 per cent increase in revenues generated on the web, suggesting a potentially major loss of value for UK online retailers should this decline persist, ForeSee warned.

The biggest increase in the past year was from Ikea, rising 3 points to 76, matching Asda. Whereas the biggest improvements since the survey began have come from Asda, Debenhams and River Island, although River Island still ranks low with a score of 73.

Asos Launches Style Advice With Google Helpouts

Online fashion giant Asos has launched a personal style advice service to help shoppers decide on new outfits.

The new application has been launched through Google Helpouts which allows shoppers to engage in one-on-one video conversations with a stylist via webcam. 

Each session lasts 15 minutes and the stylists are available from Monday to Friday between 9am and 9pm.

Shoppers will also be able to book an appointment in advance using Twitter and the hashtag #ASOSHelpout.

Bathrooms.com Launches French Site With £10m Sales Plan

Online retailer Bathrooms.com, whose financial backers include Lord Rothschild, has launched a French language website in its first overseas foray.

The site, run by former UBS executive Ian Monk, plans to begin shipping to the country via a French depot and a French language site fr.Bathrooms.com. The launch is the first step in a plan that will see further sites in Europe and the US.

Bathrooms.com said there is a 'gap in the affordable interior design market' in France and could hit £10 million by the end of next year.

'We have spent a long time researching overseas markets. We know that the French market is around the same size as the UK and as such see the potential for us to match our UK run rate of £10 million in 12 months. With our experience and expertise we believe we can make the same impact that has taken us eight years to make in the UK in just 18 months in France,' Monk told KBBdaily.com.

Monk said: 'We have been growing at circa 50-60 per cent year on year, so our aims are to break in to the French market then expand to other countries in Europe. As a firm we will then be looking at a projected 300 per cent year-on-year growth. We have taken the values that UK consumers demand which are good design and good quality at prices everyone can afford and provide them overseas.'

The orders will initially be fulfilled by UK warehouses with a promise of the same two-day delivery window as in the UK. But Monk said he also plans to open a separate depot in France which will received several shipments a week from the UK.

'We felt we could put a foot into the continent without having to create too much of a logistical structure. We import about 80 per cent of our product from the Far East, with 20 per cent from the UK. However, we're working more with UK partner and manufacturers here,' he told GrowthBusiness.co.uk, explaining how the supply chain to France would work.

'We could have spent another six to nine months getting everything perfect before we went out there but we chose to get out there quickly, learning as we go and adapting over time,' he said.

The business has collected a list of keywords searched in the UK and translated them into French to help push the launch. Monk said the cost of customer acquisition in Europe is lower than in the UK and added that French consumers are paying 50 per cent to 100 per cent for products of a comparable quality of its own.

Bathrooms.com said it is determined to uphold the same high standard of customer care of that in the UK. Staff increases across suppliers will result in an extra 10 manufacturing jobs in the UK over the next six months as the result.

Lord Jacob Rothschild took a £7.5 million stake in the business last April via his Augmentum Capital fund valuing the retailer at £20 million. At the time Monk, who reportedly set up the business to stop his wife getting bored, said he planned to double sales from £5 million in 12 months. Dawn Capital is also an investor and, at the time, Monk controlled 35 per cent of the business.

Boden Courts Tablet Users With Website Design Overhaul

Clothing retailer Boden has increased sales by as much as 19 per cent following a review of its operations and website design for tablets.

The retailer tested several possible several variations of a new menu design across three of its regions and found the winning design improved sales by an average of 14.3 per cent, with sales in the most improved region 18.6 per cent.

The boost was part of a review of operations across its territories using HP Optimost, HP Autonomy's multivariate testing (MVT) technology.

Paul Knutton, ecommerce manager at Boden, which operates in the UK, Germany, Australia, the US and France, said: 'How our customers interact with us is constantly evolving. To make it easier for our customers to buy from us, we need to better understand their online behaviour, use that insight to quickly make improvements to our journeys and then measure the impact on conversion.'

'All this needs to happen across an ever-growing number of devices and operating systems. HP Optimost helps make that possible,' he said, without saying which countries had benefited from the uplift.

HP Optimost tests combinations of web elements including layout, graphics, text and calls to action.

Rafiq Mohammadi, general manager, Marketing Optimisation, HP Autonomy, said: 'HP Optimost offers businesses a way to make simple improvements to their web platforms which can produce dramatic results. Retailers will find that design changes which seem small can unlock huge amounts of hidden value.'

UK Online Sales Hit £10 Billion For The First Time

Monthly online sales exceeded £10 billion for the first time in November as retailer's new focus on Black Friday proved a success.

Heavy promotions around Black Friday for the first time in the UK - traditionally a big event in the US because it is the day after Thanksgiving and the day retailers go from a loss to a profit -  helped increase monthly sales by 20 per cent to £10.1 billion.

Black Friday discounts on electrical products by retailers including John Lewis and the launch of the new iPad and iPhone products by Apple lifted consumer electronics sales by 63 per cent, according to the data, released by, the IMRG Capgemini e-Retil Sales Index.

The increased was also 30 per cent greater than October. The survey revealed that online sales at bricks and mortar retailers increased 23 per cent year-on-year compared to rise of 16 per cent at pure-play internet retailers.

The British Retail Consortium said earlier this month that total retail sales increased 2.3 per cent - slower than October and below the level of inflation. The BRC also said like-for-like retail sales - stripping out sales from new space in the past year and a truer reflection of the health of retail businesses - increased just 0.6 per cent.

The Black Friday phenomenon was hailed as a success by Asda, a sub-division of Wal-Mart giant and one of the retailers responsible for importing the even this year. The event is also increasingly driven by global suppliers as much as retailers who organise their supply chain, offer retailers discounts and develop and time the release of products to coincide with the day.

Mark Lewis, online director at John Lewis, said: “November was a strong month for johnlewis.com, breaking several records.

'We more than doubled our previous record for a single day’s trade on johnlewis.com on 'Black Friday', with mobile orders more than three times the record for a single day and ended that week 19.4 per cent higher than our previous biggest week,' he said.

Sales via mobile devices at John Lewis are up by more than 100 per cent so far this year compared to 2012 as shoppers continue to change the way they shop and online sales now account for 33 per cent of John Lewis overall trade, compared to 25 per cent last year.