How can retailers deal with customers who try to use their social media clout to extract better deals? Anand Subramaniam, VP of Marketing, eGain Communications Corporation, outlines some useful approaches.

Online sales will continue to grow even though consumers are spending less in response to Government austerity measures in force from this week, says shopping comparison site Kelkoo.

How can multichannel retailers get past the barriers presented by their long-standing processes in order to make email work for them? Simone Barratt, managing director of e-Dialog International considers.

Just 7% of the UK’s ecommerce retailers use abandoned basket emails to target ‘nearly–customers’ but this could prove one of the most effective tools to boost their turnover, says Matthew Kelleher, commercial director of RedEye. He offers advice on how best to use them.

Nine per cent of UK retail sales took place online in February, according to official ONS figures. But the wider picture showed a 0.8% fall in UK transactions that the BRC says represents a more realistic picture of ‘how things are’.

Social networks are now the most popular online destination in the UK according to Experian Hitwise, overtaking the Entertainment category during January this year. But social networks still lag behind search engines as a source of traffic to transactional websites. In January 2011 social networks sent only 16% of their traffic to transactional websites such as online retailers, travel companies and and finance websites. By comparison, search engines sent 33% of their traffic to transactional websites.

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.

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.

As we head into World Book Night, (5 March) books are high on the agenda, with press coverage focusing on how internet sales of books have changed the face of traditional bookselling. To tap into British readers’ views on digital books Mintel has just released its latest research. The research also revealed a strong consumer expectation to pay less for e-books than their printed equivalent, with nearly half (48%) of consumers saying they expect to pay less, and just one in five (19%) saying they expect to pay the same. Some 7% of Brits say they expect to pay less than £3, with 28% thinking it should be between £3 and £5.99.

Almost a quarter (21% ) of all internet transactions involve some research in store according to new research from business consultancy Deloitte. In many cases, customers are researching in store with one retailer before purchasing online at a cheaper price with another. Deloitte predicts a trend for retailers to use retail space as showrooms for a much wider range of products available online, and suggests this will make the traditional ‘sales per sq ft’ metric obsolete.

Are online retailers competing on price alone or is customer service just as important to businesses on the web? According to a panel of online retail experts, price points may drive first-time sales but it is customer service that promotes loyalty and repeat custom.

Sales in the online retail category were 12.3% higher this January compared to a year ago, but that’s noticeably less growth than in December, when 18% was recorded.

Reaching your customer’s heart is key if you want to boost online revenue, argues Doron Herzlich, chief executive and co-founder of nanoRep.

So-called ‘silver surfers’ are more likely to shop online than the generation that has grown up with the internet, according to a new study from the British Population Survey. While under-25s are driving the move to use the web as entertainment, over-55s are more likely to use the web to make purchases.

The decision by online retailers to freeze VAT in January helped push up sales in the first half of January, according to figures from payments processing company Retail Decisions. But with reports today that consumer confidence is falling and the first sign of slowing sales at John Lewis, can that last?

Looking for a New Year’s resolution that’s easy to keep? Optimise your website’s performance to ensure maximum revenue from ecommerce, advises Graham Parsons, chief executive of Reflective Solutions.

British consumers spent £44bn online in 2010, equivalent to almost a third of the £146bn spent over the internet in Europe. A report from the Centre for Retail Research, carried out for Kelkoo, predicts a 14% rise in UK spending over the year ahead.

UK’s ecommerce firms are increasingly flexible when it comes to delivery, according to the Snow Valley Online Retail Delivery Report 2011. The report found companies were offering more flexible delivery options while innovation was improving throughout the industry.

Online was a popular shopping option in December, as UK consumers stayed in to stock up this Christmas. They spent a collective £6.8bn over the internet, according to the latest IMRG/Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index. ONS figures also out today showed that 10.6% of UK retail sales now take place online. Unveiling its figures, IMRG also announced its new insurance cover against costs including system downtime and PCI fines.

Keeping up with the frequent changes Google makes to its products and algorithms is challenging for retailers. Matt Whelan, PPC director at Guava, explains why its new Instant Previews service could present retailers with problems.