After much pre-launch hype – not least here at the M-Retailing bunker – Chiltern Railways has (finally!) launched its pioneering integrated mobile ticketing system on the line out of Marylebone in London that enables passengers to buy, instantly receive and validate tickets through an app on their mobile phone

It’s not all rosy in the world of mobile, security is also an issue and a study by AdaptiveMobile finds that spam SMS marketing messages are becoming a growing problem with numbers having dramatically risen over the past ten months

The nirvana of mobile payments in store without all the hoo-ha of having to roll out an expensive redemption network and PoS technology could be at hand, with the launch of DigiMo, a network agnostic mobile payment service that requires no hard or software

A free trade marketplace for wine is being launched this week in the UK buy online wine retailer Naked Wines. Claiming to be a world first, Naked MarketPlace will transform the way in which wine is bought and sold in the UK because customers can benefit from winemakers pitching their wines directly.

BeCommerce, the industry association for distance-selling in Belgium, has announced the launch of a new Index that will track online sales and identify e-commerce trends in the country.

Boden has extended choice and convenience for customers returning goods by signing up to the Collect+ network of 3,500 local shops, all within the PayPoint network. The retailer said the service already accounts for 20% of all Boden’s free returns volume.

Price comparison site Shopping.com is evolving to meet the needs of an increasingly important customer group – female online shoppers. We ask Russ Carroll, UK managing director of the site, what that means in practice.

Small businesses are making a collective £36bn a year from online trading, according to a new report for online advice site knowthenet.org.uk. But while 51% of small businesses are making money from the net, 46% don’t make any at all – a situation that has to change, says knowthenet.

The majority of online strategies assume that all potential customers are of equal value to the company. Hosein Moghaddas, VP & MD International of GSI Commerce, argues that this assumption could be costing companies millions in lost sales.

Electricals group Dixons Retail has indicated a shift to multichannel retailing is working for it, with growth in multichannel sales compensating for a fall in ecommerce revenues. But overall group sales are still down by 2% in its latest financial year.

SuperGroup, owner of the Superdry and Cult fashion labels, saw ecommerce take off in its latest financial year. The company said online sales had more than doubled in its latest financial year.

Sainsbury’s says its online business is growing fast, in both its grocery and non-food divisions. Online grocery sales rose by more than 20% in its latest financial year, while non-food internet sales are also up.

Ocado, the online grocer, said its business was growing fast and profitably in a statement released ahead of its annual general meeting. The company is building a second customer fulfillment centre and has leased a warehouse for its planned non-food business.

Figleaves owner N Brown Group today said it would focus on the potential of ecommerce to help grow its business in the year ahead. The company hailed record results for the seventh year in a row, and said 45% of sales were now made over the internet.

Shutl, the company that allows retailers to offer 90 minute delivery to its customers, is planning for European expansion after winning £650,000 from investors.

A string of bank holidays and a Royal Wedding helped to boost online sales in April, figures from the British Retail Consortium showed today. But the organisation warned consumer confidence was still weak.

Livebookings has developed a new reservations platform to help restaurants deal with the high level of demand they get following promotions on daily deals sites such as Groupon.

Business intelligence company Experian Hitwise has launched a new search service for marketers in the UK.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has issued advice on how companies can comply with changes to the law on cookies that come into force later this month. UK retailers will be among the organisations affected by the updated European legislation.

This is my editorial from the March 2011 edition of InternetRetailing Magazine. You can see the digital copy online on our March 2011 Digital Edition.
With both sustainability and customer service in the air at Etail …