As the deadline approaches for applications for the September 2011 intake onto the MSc in InternetRetailing, the students from the first two intakes had an Experience Day in London, with c-level hosts to gain insights into mobile, gaming and publishing angles on multichannel retail. Kind hosts at Moshi Monsters, Sponge Group, Google and The Telegraph made an exciting and insightful day into a real experience. Ian Jindal outlines the day.

Would your website cope if one of your products became an overnight retail phenomenon? Bob Dowson, director at website monitoring and load testing specialist, Site Confidence, considers how online merchants can plan for the unexpected.

Fast international growth helped fashion retailer ASOS to unveil strong sales figures this week. Analyst Tarlok Teji said the company had benefited from selling well in emerging markets.

Fast growth in ecommerce is likely to mean that the UK’s online retailing industry more than doubles its workforce to 1.5m in the next four years, the IMRG e-Jobs Index has found. But the study also found growth in the last year was less buoyant than last year’s report suggested.

Supergroup, owner of the Superdry and Cult brands, says 8% of its sales are now online. The internet channel, it said, helps it to build market opportunities overseas ahead of store openings. Elsewhere M&S and Thorntons both unveiled ecommerce growth.

Consumer engagement with mobile commerce has exploded, with as many as 91% of UK consumers having used their mobile device for commerce, to either research or purchase a product. The equivalent figure for Brazil is 79%, while the level did not dip below 72% in any of the markets surveyed

A new study by ExactTarget finds that more than half of US consumers who’ve made at least one purchase on their smartphone have done so based on a marketing message delivered via mobile email

YouGov Smartphone Mobile Internet Experience (SMIX) research reveals that incidence of smartphone ownership has stalled, remaining virtually unchanged in the past six months with just over a third of UK adults (35%) using a smartphone. In the previous quarter this was in the same area at 33%

Facebook Advertising, Best Practice for Retailers – June 9 2011
By Chloe Rigby
At a time when Facebook is becoming an increasingly important channel for retailers to communicate with their customers, there’s a growing imperative to find …

A quarter of UK mobile internet users now utilise mobile banking services, according to online consumerresearch by mobile web and app specialists Antenna. With the number of mobile-internet enabled handsets continuing to grow worldwide, banks that address the demand for both mobile apps and mobile web usage will have the sharpest competitive edge in the battle to attract new customers

The cost to the UK economy of e-commerce fraud is expected to grow by £30 million by 2015 as mobile phones and social networking sites create new opportunities for criminals, PayPoint.net claims. According to the report the impact of e-commerce fraud on the UK economy is likely to rise by 18%, from £165.2 million in 2011 to £195.3 million in 2015

Amazon.co.uk is creating 900 jobs by opening its seventh fulfilment centre in Rugeley, Staffordshire – an ex-mining town where there has been high unemployment for many years. Amazon is also poised to open a new customer service centre in Edinburgh next month, offering technical support to people who have bought its Kindle. This operation will create 500 permanent and 400 temporary positions, the company says.

While store sales growth only edged forward by 1.5% during June, web and catalogue sales clocked up a healthy 11.5% increase on June 201, according to the latest BRC-KPMG Sales Monitor. This is encouraging news for the ecommerce sector, following slightly slower year-on-year sales growth in the non-store sector during April and May. Last year’s June growth figure for online, mail and phone order sales was 17.3%.

Luxury spa chain Champneys Health Resorts is aiming to enhance its interaction with its high class target audience and increase revenues through a mobile-based marketing campaign, which will include a range of initiatives from competitions and promotional offers to booking confirmation and reminders

The Post Office has launched its first cross-platform mobile application that allows customers to find their nearest Post Office branch, identify a postcode or address and perform currency conversions using Post Office Travel Money exchange rates

Just when online marketers were getting a handle on website personalisation and conversion rate optimisation for their websites, the extreme growth of mobile commerce has thrown a new challenge into the mix. Mark Simpson, Founder and President of Maxymiser explains

Road and rail users will be able to share information about their journey and update each other about delays thanks to a £1.6m research project at Lancaster University. Our Travel is a new type of travel information system based on social networking and direct information from transport workers

The blogosphere is buzzing with rumours that Facebook is close to launching its own music download service, potentially generating a major new revenue stream for the social networking giant. A software developer and researcher described in his blog how he spotted evidence of an unannounced Facebook music service called Vibes in a line of code.

Aiming to help UK etailers combat fraud and protect user identities, BT has announced the launch of a new authentication service.
Called BT Managed Authentication, the service has been developed for etailers selling high value goods, and online providers which tend to attract large numbers of regular customers, accessing specific applications.

Currys and PC World parent company Dixons Retail has partnered with Panasonic to launch its first Facebook marketing campaign. The ‘Your Moment’ campaign has launched online and offers people the chance to win Panasonic cameras and camcorders and a top prize of £5,000 by uploading their favourite ‘summer moment’.