Amazon has scored the highest for “desirability and competitive pricing” in a global poll conducted as part of Millward Brown’s Value-D study, and is the only retailer to make the top five. The online retailer is balancing its brand perception with its pricing strategy effectively, according to a new report from the brand research company entitled: ‘Value-D: balancing Desire and Price for brand success’. Lidl the value food retailer, just makes it into the list at number ten.

By getting the fundamentals right, Ocado aims to improve its customer service contact without any significant increase in cost. “Good customer service generates loyalty and engagement, which in turn feeds growth and expansion,” says Jon Rudoe, head of retail & customer at Ocado. This will keep Ocado on track in the coming years says Rudoe.

N Brown, the web and catalogue clothing specialist is launching a new brand called Fabrici, catering for 50+ women who enjoy shopping on the web. The new brand has a size range of 12-32 and will be available online at www.fabrici.com and via catalogues from Monday 21 March.
Fabrici is being launched following a study conducted by N Brown which identified a new group of potential customers not currently catered for by the current portfolio of brands

Online bike store Chain Reaction Cycles has selected eGain® Mail™ – customer interaction software – to improve its email management. The solution will be used to enhance the quality, consistency and efficiency of email communication with Chain Reaction Cycle’s global customer base. The company claims to be the world’s largest online bike store, and recognises that customer service is vital to maintain its position in the competitive online retail market.

In a UK supermarket first, Waitrose.com is covering the cost of planting thousands of wild cherry, hazel and silver birch woodlands across the UK, in a new CSR initiative. Conservation charity The Woodland Trust has partnered with Waitrose for the scheme which will result in 35,000 native British trees being planted during 2011. The initiative will counter possible accusations from environmentalists of additional delivery vans emitting high levels of C02 as the service expands.

Ian Jindal gives an overview of our new Expo, running 23 and 24 March at the NEC, Birmingham – 2’30″ of rundown on the why and what to go with the when. The ‘who’ of course is you!

Tesco has launched an official Facebook page as part of its strategy to expand its social media community. The page brings together Tesco’s existing Facebook pages and the aim is to further developthe online relationships with customers. Marketing activities tailored to Facebook fans are in the pipeline including exclusive offers and promotions.

Naked Wines really is naked, in the sense that there’s maximum transparency and openness between customers and winemakers. According to founder Rowan Gormley, who will be the closing keynote speaker at Internet Retailing Insights on 24 March, it’s a model that wouldn’t be practically possible without the fast, low-cost and social nature of the web.

Morrisons has taken a 10% stake in FreshDirect, a profitable American online grocer. The £32m investment is the first stage in Morrisons’ strategy to launch a UK online food operation, focusing on quality fresh food, inspirational ready meals, and customer service. FreshDirect will also receive a minority interest in Morrisons’ planned online food launch, which will be in London. The Morrisons.com business will launch within two years, for both grocery and non-food products, the company has confirmed.

John Lewis is looking to extend its online home delivery service to 27 countries by this August the partnership has announced. The company is ploughing £233m of investment into new store, systems and online initiatives, it has announced, the most far-reaching of which is a plan to deliver goods ordered online to 11 European countries, including Ireland, France and Germany, from June, and a further 16 beyond Europe by August – including Singapore, the US, New Zealand and Australia.

Argos has suffered a dip in sales, leading to parent company Home Retail Group lowering its year-end forecast. Argos reported like-for-like sales down 4.6% and total sales down 3.1% for the final eight-week trading period for the year ending February 26.
Home Retail Group said the video gaming market has continued to be weak and the audio market was also challenging. Laptops and tablets saw a strong performance and the white goods and toys categories remained in growth.

Scottish fashion brand Lyle and Scott is to launch a social-media commerce store enabling customers to shop through Facebook. The application, developed by BT Fresca, follows Lyle and Scott’s recently relaunched mobile-optimised website.
Lyle and Scott has a 130-year history and is known for its quality jackets, polo shirts, skirts and knitwear. Its golden eagle logo is now widely recognised in the UK and beyond. The online store was relaunched in 2010 and the now serves the UK, France, Germany, Sweden.

Today’s digitally empowered channel-hopping consumers want an end-to-end premium shopping experience that delivers – regardless of where, when or how they browse and shop. For retailers, meeting and exceeding this demand is all about customer-centricity – delivering the personalised and connected experiences that foster deep and lasting customer relationships. Dilip Popat, global industry director, retail and distribution, Microsoft Business Solutions, takes a look at why unifying core systems is key to achieving a customer-centric and ‘connected’ retail business.

A study carried out exclusively for M-Retailing by Compuwear Gomez has found that many retailer’s mobile websites are too jam packed with information and images and as a consequence take far too long to download to be competitive

Businesses rushing headlong into m-commerce without considering sensible long term investment are risking a severe blow to revenues when their lax systems fail.

One in every eight mobile users worldwide will either have a ticket delivered to their mobile phone, or buy a ticket with their phone by 2015, with bar cinemas and coded boarding passes for airlines leading the way, claims a new study by Juniper Research

One in four British consumers are now using the mobile internet every day, nearly twice as many as a year ago, according to the 2011 Mobile Internet Attitudes Report, but user experience has to be improved for mobile to reach its true potential

The Western European mobile phone market grew 3.2% year-on-year to 58.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2010, with smartphones leading the way, representing 44% of the total – and Android is fast becoming the OS of choice across Europe

Shoe shop Schuh is augmenting its multichannel strategy with a foray into mobile through the tried and trusted route of a transactional iOS app, with an m-web site to follow soon

Sales on the high street during February proved to be the weakest for almost two years, reflecting the impact of price inflation and shaky consumer confidence. The latest figures from the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor show like-for-like sales down by 0.4% and total sales (including new space) up by a slim 1.1%. Double digit growth was achieved in the home shopping sector but only just. Internet, mail order and phone order sales rose 10.4% in February, which was the smallest gain since August 2009.