In today’s InternetRetailing newsletter we’re rounding up the latest news as peak shopping goes into the final approach to Christmas. Springboard says rail strikes had a pronounced effect on footfall last week, ParcelHero says that many retailers have now called it for pre-Christmas online deliveries, but VoucherCodes says the biggest selling day of this week is still ahead.
While strike action has hit deliveries hard in the big run up to Christmas, there’s no sign of things improving next year. The GMB says its members at Amazon’s Coventry warehouse have voted to take action that is now likely in the new year.
Meanwhile, we’re also reporting as Morrisons expands InPost lockers to 80% of its stores, just in time, it says, for post-Christmas returns, and as Ikea sees its customers reach a new balance between shopping in-store and online. The homewares retailers reports rising sales but falling profits, and says it has absorbed rising costs and protected the most popular – and the most affordable – products against price rises.
In a guest analysis piece today, Scott Logie of the DMA is asking whether it is time for retailers to rethink the way they do subscriptions.
And in today’s guest comment, Alex Buckley of DispatchTrack argues that it’s time for retailers to start treating drivers as brand ambassadors.
