Online supermarket Ocado has signed up for a 2-acre site in Wimbledon, which will extend the number of ‘distribution spokes’ it operates, and enhance the company’s central distribution system. The spokes are the points at which customer orders on articulated lorries arrive from the main Hatfield DC and are re-loaded into delivery vans for local dispatch.

Today there are clear differences about the way men and women are using the latest digital channels to shop, with women leaning more towards social and men more towards mobile. Research just out from shopper research agency Shoppercentric shows 38% of men own a smartphone (compared to 29 % of women) and 60% of women use Facebook (compared to 52% of men).

Tesco is reportedly investigating the potential of non-grocery products ordered on the Tesco Direct site being dropped off for collection by customers at Tesco Express and Tesco Metro stores around the country. Such a strategy would see the supermarket giant embrace multichannel more fully, making use of the vast network of around 1,400 local stores, and the existing store delivery infrastructure. Such a system would also free customers from the frustration of waiting in for deliveries to their homes.

Last March an IMRG/IMRWorld survey revealed that there were 600,000 jobs in, or supporting, e-retail in the UK. At the time 78% of the businesses surveyed said they expected to take on more personnel during the next year. In order for the IMRG to track the growth of the industry in this way, responses to the new survey are required, so Internet Retailing is asking its readers and supporters to participate.

Nick Wheeler, founder of Charles Tyrwhitt Shirts is speaking on Day One of the Internet Retailing Expo Insights Conference about the importance of building a business ‘one customer at a time’. “Ecommerce has absolutely revolutionised my business,” he says. “It is modern mail order and I realised early on that it would transform the way we work. We have hardly scratched the surface and already it accounts for 70% of our direct business.”

StyleCompare.co.uk has re-launched in the UK, and has ambitions to achieve one million unique monthly users by the end of 2011. Aggregating more than 45 retailers, 1,500 labels and 120,000 products – from fast-paced high street fashion, to luxury items from top designers – Style Compare helps customers find clothing, footwear and accessories with ultra-specific search tools. New signings which will appear this month include high street giant New Look, streetwear favourite Superdry, multi-channel leader John Lewis and luxury retailer Net-a-Porter, and there are plans to work with more independent designers in the future.

Retailers are increasingly seeing mobile as a business essential, but many remain unsure as to how to maximise its potential, according to the latest industry research from M-Retailing and mobile marketing company Sponge

High and Mighty, the menswear retailer that specialises in clothing and shoes for big and tall men, has relaunched its website to bolster multichannel sales. The aim is to give the brand a more premium feel and to provide customers with better usability. The company has set out a strategic plan to double its online sales over the next year.

Mr Porter, the designer menswear site from Net-a-porter Group, went live this week offering over 60 brands including Ralph Lauren, Burberry, Paul Smith and Gucci. The site makes its debut for the spring/summer 2011 season, and marks exactly a decade since Net-a-porter.com was launched by former journalist Natalie Massenet.

Trueshopping has a goal of bringing aspirational products at affordable prices direct to consumers. Since 2006 the company has grown exponentially and now operates 12 different websites under four brands into nine countries and in six different languages. Speaking at the Insights Conference on Day One of the Internet Retailing Expo, Lilley will be exploring the importance of choosing the right ecommerce platform, and evolving your business in line with growth.

For online retailers, 2011 is the year that they will need to focus on usability if they want to add value to their e-brand and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace. Up until now the focus has been on content, but the reality is that everyone has the right text and pictures, so making yourself standout from the crowd is becoming more difficult.

Almost a quarter (21% ) of all internet transactions involve some research in store according to new research from business consultancy Deloitte. In many cases, customers are researching in store with one retailer before purchasing online at a cheaper price with another. Deloitte predicts a trend for retailers to use retail space as showrooms for a much wider range of products available online, and suggests this will make the traditional ‘sales per sq ft’ metric obsolete.

Waitrose has announced the launch of a new ecommerce platform, costing more than £10m, as its online grocery service, formerly known as Waitrose Direct, becomes Waitrose.com next month. The investment will equip the retailer for rapid expansion in ecommerce sales over the next decade, in particular taking on Ocado in the London area. The new Waitrose website is on the Day (CQ5) platform, and has been designed by digital agency Grand Union.

The ubiquity of eBay on mobile has taken another step with the auction site inking a unique deal with uber-operator Telefonica that will see eBay become the first retail app pre-loaded on all of Telefonica’s smartphones worldwide, starting with O2 in the UK

Liverpool FC has become the first football club in the world to launch a fully transactional mobile store, letting fans visit the club’s online store, browse the full range of kit and other merchandise, and securely make purchases – all from their mobile phones

Responding to the growing demand from retailers for mobile technology they can use in store, Digby has launched an In-store Mobile Module that lets retailers engage and communicate with their customers from the moment they enter the store to the time they leave

We report from the show floor at Mobile World Congress on how Apps and HTML5, along with social media, are all providing challenges – and opportunities – to retailers worldwide

Passengers at Manchester Airport are saving money of last minute access to the airport’s Escape Lounge thanks to an innovative text marketing campaign being run by mobile messaging company Oxygen8

QVC has updated its free iPhone app giving customers access to its full range of more than 15,000 products and allowing them to use ‘Buy Now’ to place an order within the app using their existing account number and PIN

Eric Abensur, CEO at Venda, takes a tactical look at how retailers can weave m-commerce into their multichannel strategy, the challenges they may face and offers some advice on overcoming them