Andy Piscina, UK sales director of hybris software takes a look at the evolving online customer recognition landscape and its effect on customer engagement. He explores why leading e-retailers are turning to automated personalisation solutions to build stronger customer relationships and maximise revenues

Britons spent an average of £81 each – or £5bn in total – last month, the latest IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index shows.

Today what matters in retailing isn’t a battle between online and high street shopping, but how successfully the two channels join up, argues Frank Lord, VP, EMEA at ATG.

Shoppers who spend most time looking for online bargains end up spending more than those who pay full price, a new PayPal report finds.

Online shopping came of age in the recession, says a wide-reaching new study from the IMRG and the British Population Study. That’s set to remain the case, it says, as the age of austerity sets in.

In our weekly focus on our upcoming conference Internet Retailing 2010, today we take a look at Track Two, Reaping What you Sow, with its back-to-basics focus on the investment that makes best practice e-commerce work to peak performance.

Affiliate marketing is built on the idea that the last click wins the credit for converting a customer. But, argues Kevin Edwards, strategy director at Digital Window, this overlooks the very real contribution of other marketing methods to the result. Is it time this changed?

Low prices may tempt British shoppers online, but it’s the quality of service and delivery on expectations that keeps them coming back, says new research from eCommera.

Internet searches for brown goods such as computers, televisions, and MP3 players fell by almost a quarter in June, according to new research from Greenlight.

Martin Child, managing director of Webloyalty, explains how online retailers can gain a share of a £220m revenue opportunity.

UK internet users made 6.1m searches for white goods in May, new research from Greenlight shows. The report found a varied spread of winners in paid and natural search as well as in social media interaction.

How can marketing by email, which may arrive at varying times, keep up with the immediacy required by time-limited sales? Kara Trivunovic of StrongMail has some answers.

Attracting shoppers to your website and keeping them there isn’t rocket science – but GSI Commerce research shows 76 per cent of customers have abandoned purchases mid-shop. Steve Davis, president of GSI Commerce International, advises.

How can retailers use product recommendations to improve profitability? Darren Vengroff, chief scientist at Rich Relevance, has some answers.

The online retailers who have fared best during the recession are those who have good relationships with their customers, says Amanda Squires, client services director at Pod 1, who discusses how retailers can improve their CRM.

Zeus Technology’s e-retail specialist Graham Moore discusses how to minimise shopping cart abandonment by improving website performance.

By 2020, says the latest IMRG/Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, half of all retail sales will take place online, and the other half will be influenced by the internet. There will be an explosion in the value of online retail sales – but then the growth of the market will slow down as the industry matures.

Restaurant vouchers are the most popular online discount for consumers, according to research from comparison website Moneysupermarket. Here, Guy Keeling, managing director of loyalty specialist Maximiles UK, argues that retailers should look before they leap into voucher promotions.

E-commerce will take a 10% share of the UK’s retail market by the end of 2012, says a new report from Paypal. This will make it, says PayPal managing director Carl Schieble, “the silver lining in the economic crisis” at a time of slow growth on the high street.

Internet sales are continuing their “impressive” upward trend, the latest BDO High Street Sales Tracker shows today. But the World Cup and good weather, said BDO, continued to keep football fans off the high street.