Amazon anticipatory shipping not as pie-in-the-sky as drones

Last month it was drones delivering goods to customers’ doors and this month it is Amazon announcing its plan to launch ‘anticipatory shipping’ whereby it uses big data to pack customers’ orders before they have even ordered them! The US giant certainly knows how to generate miles of column inches but scratch below the surface…

Read More

Morrison’s deal added £2 billion to Ocado valuation

Since Ocado signed its licensing deal with Morrison’s the financial footings and reputations of both organisations have diverged somewhat. Prior to the deal last year the Ocado business model was still being aggressively questioned by City analysts and its share price was sitting at 199p – on May 17 . The arrangement pushed the shares…

Read More

Russia closes door on UK online retailers

Russia has been seen as a big opportunity for UK retailers but the door looks to be closing on this market for e-commerce companies as new restrictions on delivery windows into the country are set to come into effect on January 29. Retailers have enjoyed an unlimited number of clearances each day for goods entering…

Read More

Movers & Shakers Q&A with Andy Harding, executive director of multi-channel at House of Fraser

Andy Harding, executive director of multi-channel. House of Fraser  1. What is the greatest opportunity for your business? Converting store-only loyalty card customers into multi-channel customers. 2. What is the biggest challenge to your business? Keeping up with the pace of growth in multi-channel sales – from both an internal perspective (i.e. systems, process, infrastructure,…

Read More

Facing up to wardrobing and returns headache

The term ‘wardrobing’ is a little like friendly fire – a lot more dangerous than it sounds. Neither is harmless and cuddly. We’ve written about this issue on Retail Insider before (link to article from Nov) and it is a problem that hits all retailers, but especially those selling via catalogue or online, as they…

Read More

Innovative Retailer – Ocado

The Name: Ocado The Place: Well, mainly in two places with lots of other little bits sort of attached if you see what I mean. Not really: The two full-on warehouses with all the whizzbang technology are in Hertfordshire and Warwickshire but then there are 11 ‘spoke’ sites around the country. Head office is also…

Read More

Tesco’s Star Wars online lottery

While shopping for Christmas and experimenting with the click & collect services of various retailers (see relevant article here) Retail Insider came across one of the most bizarre merchandising practices ever. And it wasn’t from some tin-pot merchant but from the biggest beast in the UK retail jungle Tesco. Here’s what happened when we attempted…

Read More

Click & Collect – the customer reality

Click & collect is the potential saviour of the high street store. Or so many multi-channel retailers would like to think. Some even appear to have fully convinced themselves that this is the case. While such a service undoubtedly adds great value to some stores, those retailers with many hundreds of outlets will not be…

Read More