The race towards Christmas is now on for retailers across the UK, with Cyber Monday now out of the way. The early evidence seems to be that sales are lifting as we get nearer to Christmas, with early forecasts that December 17 will be the busiest shopping day now emerging. That will come as a relief to retailers since November, it appears, was a poor month for them, with sales mostly driven by discounts. In the run up to Christmas we also have an extra seasonal guest comment this week, with CashStar’s David Stone advising retailers on the most effective use of eGift cards.
Elsewhere in today’s newsletter we’re considering the future of the high street. What’s needed, says a new report, is for high streets to make themselves a ‘unique’ destination for shoppers who go online for everyday purchases. Today we also report on how weather reports helped boost sales at Bravissimo and on new investment for big data specialists QuBit. Find out more in our stories below.
Internet Retailing Expo 2013 – call for papers
We’re now looking ahead to Internet Retailing Expo 2013, scheduled for March 20 and 21 at the NEC in Birmingham. Some 5,000 people visited last time, and there was standing room only in many of our conference streams. If you’d like to present at IRX 2013, then click here to find out more about our call for papers. Note that’s there’s no charge to present, and speaker decisions are taken entirely on editorial merit.
If you missed our recent series of webinars, you can catch up on them via our webinar page. And if you missed Internet Retaiing 2012, our annual conference, you can now catch up with all the presentations here.
And they’re off – Christmas spending gets off to a good start in the run up to Cyber Monday
Online spending ‘subdued’ in November, says the BRC
High street must be ‘unique’ to prosper in an age of multichannel: report
GUEST COMMENT Five eGift tactics for retailers to drive Christmas shopping revenue
QuBit plans international expansion following multimillion investment
What weather forecasting did for Bravissimo’s sales
