Consumers are more and more researching and comparing products online and buying from physical stores by carefully evaluating the same.

Online Conversion Rates Drop by 55% in 5 Years as Purchasers Become Shoppers

Online conversion rates in the UK have fallen by 55% over the past five years as consumers have taken to browsing, researching and comparing products on more engaging retailer sites, rather than just viewing the internet as another purchasing channel.

In 2006, the average online conversion rate for retailers in the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index was 8.4%, but that figure has steadily declined and the latest results reveal the rate to be 3.8% now.

Sainsbury, the UK retailer is testing a shopping trolley with an inbuilt iPad dock.

iPad shopping trolley launches

The trolleys come complete with a tilting iPad holder and speakers. Their front bumpers are fitted with a sensor which lets off a warning beep if an engrossed shopper gets too close to another customer, while an onboard battery with a self-charging solar panel ensures that the iPads never run out of power.

The trolleys have been developed by broadcaster Sky to highlight its Sky Go service, which allows iPad users to watch live sport or news on their portable devices. The iPads themselves are not included.

In personal relationships, seven-year itches can be destructive; in the world of information technology, eight-year agreements between a leading software vendor and a global retailer indicates a serious commitment to serious competitive advantage spanning multiple continents.

Tesco signs eight year agreement with Microsoft

Tesco has committed to the Microsoft platform in an eight year, world-wide agreement.
This global deal is aimed to enable Tesco to improve productivity, decision-making, knowledge sharing and operational excellence across the 14 countries in which it currently operates.
The agreement will underpin Tesco’s strategic objectives of growing its international presence; expanding its non-food business; and offering a broad selection of retail services such as banking, online and mobile. Putting innovative technology in the hands of its customers, staff and suppliers will allow Tesco to get closer to its goals of multi-channel retailing and meeting people’s needs as they change.
During the course of this agreement, Tesco and its affiliates will have access to the latest versions of Microsoft products and services in their head offices, stores, distribution and data centres, including Windows, Office, SharePoint, Exchange, Lync, System Center, BizTalk and SQL Server.
Tesco is expecting to see value immediately through the deployment of SharePoint, Exchange and Lync to create a new global collaboration platform. This will allow all employees to find specialist skills and share and access knowledge whenever and wherever they need. Collaboration is seen as enabling the distribution of retail skills and other best practices to its international subsidiaries; facilitating product innovation with internal experts and suppliers; and building communities of expertise.
“We have lots of colleagues in Tesco, doing lots of jobs all over the world,” says Mike McNamara, Group CIO at Tesco. “These technologies can help bring us together to share learning and expertise, views and opinions, thoughts and ideas.”
The deal also includes Microsoft Services’ Enterprise Strategy programme. The Consulting expertise this Programme provides is helping Tesco set strategy and prioritise and deliver projects so risks are minimised and time-to-value is accelerated.
“We are very excited about what this means for both Tesco’s employees and customers as it will change the way Tesco connects internally and with its customers,” says Bill Gonzalez, General Manager, Worldwide Distribution and Services Sector, Microsoft. “Tesco is one of the most innovative global retailers and this commitment confirms their position in the industry as a company that is focused on its customers, as well as driven by forward-thinking leaders.”

UK Retailers come together to form Mobile Money Network and launch Simply Tap which is an Mobile app- and SMS-based mobile payments tool.

UK retailers launch mobile payments scheme

The Mobile Money Network (MMN) – a four-month old UK retail alliance – has announced its first service offering, an app- and SMS-based mobile payments tool called ‘Simply Tap.’ Described as a “common sense approach to buying products and services via a mobile phone,” Simply Tap allows users to send a product code (either via app or SMS) to buy goods at participating retailers. Users must first go through a one-off registration process to register personal details, debit or credit card numbers, and delivery addresses. MMN says that the service will work with “any mobile phone, on any mobile network and with any bank.”

MMN is a joint venture between Monitise, Best Buy Europe and Carphone Warehouse founder Charles Dunstone. It says it is in discussions with 17 of the top 20 UK high street retailers and many leading financial institutions regarding the forthcoming rollout.

Read more about Mobile Money Network.

Very interesting news coming today from UK Online Retail Sales.

Online grocery sales outstrip electronic and gadget sales for the first time — Internet Retailing

Sales related to online supermarket shopping have outstripped electronic and gadget-related online sales for the first time since internet retailing began, according to statistics from MyVoucherCodes, the UK's largest free to use discount and voucher code website.

"Sales statistics from MyVoucherCodes have revealed that more people are now looking to find bargains on their essential items such as bread and milk and are being attracted to the online supermarket sites because of the exclusive offers and discounts on home delivery as well as shopping," says the company.

"The Top Four current online shopping sectors are; online grocery shopping with 31% of sales; 25% of sales for electronic items such as computers, TVs and gadgets; 21% of sales attributed to clothing and fashion items and 15% of sales related to holidays."

4,238 people from across the UK took part in the research which also revealed that:

• Tesco leads the way when it comes to the most popular online supermarket website with 44.2% of people saying they shopped there
• Asda had a 23.2% share, followed by Sainsbury's with 11.7% of market share. The rest of sales were spread between brands such as Waitrose, Ocado and Iceland.
• The average amount spent on online groceries was £53 per week.
• The north west is the region that uses online supermarkets the most, followed by the south east, London, south west and the north east.