Debenhams crash provides a bonus for competitors
Hitwise's Robin Goad provides a useful insight into the consequences of Debenhams' website crashing on Thursday and Friday of last week during its sale.
According to Robin's post, the consequence of Debenhams.com being unable to handle the extra sales traffic was that the retailer leaked traffic to its competitors' websites.
Site review: electricshop.com
Electricshop.com is the online arm of independent electrical retailer Strangewood Group.
The site has been updated recently and I've been taking a look to see how it measures up against the bigger electrical retailers' sites...
Debenhams' website cracks under the strain
It seems that Debenhams' website has been unable to cope with the extra demand placed upon it by its pre-Xmas sale, and it has been down since yesterday afternoon.
I looked at the site yesterday morning and noted that it was becoming pretty slow to load, and it seems that the site finally buckled under the strain of the extra traffic around 3pm.
Site review: Fitnessfootwear.com
Fitness Footwear was launched by Luke Barlow in June 2005 as a way of selling Chung Shi sports shoes, which couldn't be found anywhere else in the UK.
Four years on, the site is doing well, and Luke now has a team of ten, and the business is currently outgrowing its warehouse in Hertfordshire, and has even launched a sister site, onshoes.com.
Having started as a family business, the website has been created on a limited budget: Luke has spent around £100k on the site since launch. So how does it shape up?
What should 'continue shopping' mean?
When customers have added items to their basket and want to continue shopping, where should they end up on your website?
Not the homepage; as Brendan Regan points out on GrokDotCom, the 'homepage dump' is a user experience mistake to avoid, so where should they be sent instead?
I've been looking through a few retailers' sites for examples of good and bad practice in this area...
Top 10 tips for retailers to combat the economic downturn
Despite the current economic climate, retailers should continue to explore investments in technologies that provide an enhanced customer experience, improved customer service and optimised operational efficiencies in order to improve their competitive position.
The tips that follow contain both short-term tactical opportunities to improve performance and increase efficiencies, as well as medium to longer term strategic choices that will deliver sustainable and incremental growth.
Q&A: Richard Weaver of Majestic Wines
Majestic Wines has been in the news this week,with the slowing economy hitting the company's pre tax profits.
Despite the drop in offline sales, Majestic continues to grow online, with an impressive 11.5% year on year increase in website orders compared with last year.
I have been talking to Majestic Wines' e-commerce manager Richard Weaver about the company's approach to selling wine online...
Tips for reserve and collect services
Plenty of shoppers are researching online and buying offline, so the 'reserve and collect' services offered by multichannel retailers are a great tool.
When done well, they can help customers check whether items are in stock before they actually go and visit a store, as well as providing another option when products are unavailable for delivery.
Site review: Sky Shopping
Launched last week, Sky Shopping is a price comparison site displaying products from retailers including M&S, John Lewis and Comet.
There are already plenty of shopping comparison sites out there, so is this one any different?
Xmas online retail predictions round-up
With consumers' spending power on the high street expected to be hit by a slowing economy, e-commerce is expected by some to be the one bright spot for retailers this Christmas.
IMRG released its predictions for Q4 yesterday, forecasting a 15% year on year rise in online shopping.
With this in mind, I've taken a look at some other predictions for Christmas 2008 for the UK and US markets...
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
