Most modern shoppers like to see before they buy, visiting shops to see many items for themselves, even if they then buy online, says a new study from GI Insight. That’s less important when it comes to standard items such as DVDs and lightbulbs, the study found.

In the wake of this week’s announcement that Best Buy UK’s 11 Big Box stores are to close, Patrick O’Brien, principal retail analyst at Verdict Research, considers why the decision had to be made in a changing UK retail market.

Click & Collect is now a central service in modern retail strategy. Sophie Albizua, co-founder and director of eNova, traces its evolution – and takes a look at where it can go from here. Will Click & Collect work for food, for example?

Consumers are cutting back and consistently looking for bargains, says the BRC. As a result online sales growth slowed to 11.5% in October, with total retail spending on the high street falling back by 0.6%, on a like-for-like basis.

Why is detailed product information so important for customers, and how can retailers get it right? Simon Walker, director of product management for Stibo Systems considers.

Marks & Spencer has announced a new internet exclusive Plus size range. The range is the latest in a series of online-only product lines to be announced. We take a look at the state of the market.

What’s the point of selling luxury goods online? Alex Blaney of Session Digital argues that seeing digital as a way to delight and surprise customers, as part of a crosschannel strategy, is the way forward.

UK shoppers will spend 16.3% more online this Christmas than last, while high street shopping will fall by 2.1%, research commissioned by Kelkoo suggests.

Could delivery from store be the new way for multichannel retailers to get their goods to their customers? Patrick Wall, founder and chief executive of delivery management specialist MetaPack considers.

The value of online sales grew fast in September, and now account for 9.6% of all UK retail sales, according to new ONS figures. The figures showed total retail sales grew slowly in the last month, and showed a small fall over the last quarter.

Max Childs, senior marketing manager for EMEA, Adobe Scene7, considers the role that video can play in increasing shopper confidence before a purchase is made.

Even if you have only a standard ecommerce site, it’s still important to optimise for mobile. That’s one of the conclusions from Screen Pages’ study of mobile visits to retail websites.

How can marketers assess the value of performance marketing to their business? Matt Swan of Affiliate Window considers how an advertiser can do just that.

Brand domain names could be the answer to prevent multichannel shoppers becoming sidetracked, says Melbourne IT DBS, which found while most shoppers now research purchases on and offline, many also admit to finishing their search on another site than the one they intended to visit.

Online-only retailer Amazon is the top retail brand in the UK, according to new research carried out for Kelkoo by the Centre for Brand Analysis. The company scored well ‘across all the factors that are important to consumers today’ said Kelkoo UK manager Mark Haupt.

It’s wealthy, male, Western European shoppers who are leading the drive towards online shopping, a report from CB Richard Ellis has found. The study also found that men shop online nearly twice as often as women.

Working out what impact your online product videos are having on sales can be hampered by a lack of measurement. Dr Melody King, of Treepodia, considers how that measurement can work best.

UK online businesses are exporting, talking to their customers via social media, and growing fast, according to the latest Sage Pay e-business benchmark report. But, the study found, m-commerce uptake is still slow.

Received wisdom says that shoppers don’t read ‘below the fold’ on an ecommerce website. Jake Bailey, chief evangelist of Rich Relevance, argues that thinking is outdated and considers how retailers can best design their pages to ensure that shoppers keep scrolling down.

Online sales rose by 14% in August, compared to the same month last year, new figures from the IMRG/Capgemini eRetail Sales Index showed. Clothing sales were strong, as schools went back, but travel sales recorded only slow growth.