Graham Charlton

Borkowski PR: 'it wasn’t us what uploaded it'

When a YouTube clip featuring London-based PR firm Borkowski moving offices achieved over 10,000 views, you would be forgiven for thinking that it was a canny piece of marketing by the company.

Not so, apparently. PR Blogger.com reports that the PR firm denies posting the Benny Hill-style clip on YouTube.

by Graham Charlton 15 November 2006 09:13am 1 comment

Survey shows dissatisfaction with broadband providers

Despite falling broadband prices, customers' satisfaction with their broadband service providers has fallen by 9% over the last year.

In a YouGov survey of more than 11,000 broadband customers, conducted for uSwitch, Orange and TalkTalk were both rated bottom for the services they offered, even though both launched ‘free broadband’ packages this year.

by Graham Charlton 14 November 2006 13:39pm 2 comments

Half of Europeans use the internet once a week

More than 50% of households in the 25 EU countries now have access to the web, according to a new report.

The survey was carried out by Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the EU, and the findings confirm the growth of broadband connections. The data is from the first quarter of 2006.

by Graham Charlton 14 November 2006 14:02pm 0 comments

Majestic Wine sees increase in online orders

Majestic Wines, the bulk wine retailer, has announced an increase of 43% in online sales but expressed concern about an upcoming EU ruling on tax duty on alcohol purchases via the web.

In its interim results for the 26 weeks ended 26 September, the company made a pre-tax profit of £6.5 million, a rise of 17%. Online sales were responsible for 6.4% of its UK retail sales.

by Graham Charlton 13 November 2006 15:06pm 0 comments

Christmas delivery concerns hold back online consumers

One of the biggest factors holding back consumers from doing their Christmas shopping online is concern about delivery times, according to a survey by shopping site GreasyPalm.co.uk.

The survey finds that concerns about delivery are likely to be hurting online sales this Christmas, with 55% of those surveyed citing delivery times as the major obstacle to doing their Christmas shopping online.

by Graham Charlton 13 November 2006 14:13pm 0 comments

Email marketing – tips on subject lines

With the Christmas season coming up, Stefan Pollard at Email Labs has published some useful tips on how to make your emails stand out from the crowd.

Specifically, he's focused on the thorny issue of subject lines, and how to improve the odds that readers will open your mail.

by Graham Charlton 14 November 2006 14:00pm 0 comments

Bill Gates says internet bubble is back

Speaking to journalists in Belgium last week, Bill Gates warned against the rush to new web-based software service, and compared this to the doomed 1990s internet bubble.

Google's deal to pay $1.65 billion in stock for YouTube, an online video company that has yet to turn a profit, has led some commentators to revive talk of an internet bubble.

We've always stopped short of calling it a bubble, for a number of reasons, but certain recent funding rounds are making us reconsider our stance...

by Graham Charlton 13 November 2006 13:44pm 0 comments

Usability and visibility problems affect online insurers

Foolproof's 2006 Online Shopping Survey into insurance predicts rapid growth in online purchasing of motor and home insurance policies, but points out that growth is hampered by poor usability.

The good news for online insurers is that consumers see the benefits of avoiding long phone calls for quotes and insuring online, but insurers are urged to make improvements, especially when it comes to usability.

by Graham Charlton 13 November 2006 11:35am 3 comments

Eight second rule for e-commerce websites now halved

Four seconds is the maximum length of time the average online shopper will wait for a web page to load before potentially abandoning a retail site.

In the research by Akamai, poor site performance ranked second only to high product prices and shipping costs as leading factors for dissatisfaction among online shoppers.

by Graham Charlton 13 November 2006 10:41am 3 comments

Speed matters, according to Google

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president for search products and user experience, has revealed an interesting experiment carried out by the search engine a few years ago.

The goal of the experiment was to determine the ideal number of results to display in response to a search query. Google surveyed its users, who decided 30 results on a page would be best, rather than 10 or 20.

by Graham Charlton 10 November 2006 10:56am 0 comments