A new project with the backing of the New West End Company is working on the creation of a virtual equivalent of London’s West End that would allow visitors to recreate the Oxford Street shopping experience at home

As we move into the start of 2009, it’s worth taking a quick look back over the Christmas and New Year sales period to see beyond the pre-Xmas predictions and find out just what consumers actually did buy online this holiday season

Play.com, Debenhams and Amazon — plus a number of smaller online retailers — have all bucked the trend to report substantial increases in sales this Christmas

The maternity specialist has become the latest retailer to cease trading online as it teeters on the brink of administration

Overall activity was up 59% in the week leading up to the big day, says Shopping.com, but 14% of shoppers waited until after Christmas to bag the very best deals on their gifts

Third-party advertising looks set to be a major part of the new-look Tesco.com due to be unveiled in April — and Clubcard data will be used to target advertising to visitors’ spending habits.

Debenhams has unveiled The Design Team, a web-based customer research service that will let customers participate in surveys and an online forum and receive feedback on how their input is influencing the retailer’s planning.