Internet Retailing

By Sarah Robinson, Retail Skills Tutor, Qube Learning

Originating in the United States as a post-Thanksgiving start to Christmas shopping, Black Friday has been a shopping trend in the UK for less than a decade. However, the seasonal discount day gained popularity quickly and has not only become a solid fixture in the retail calendar but has grown into a week-long show of retail sales and discounts – both online and in-store.

GigaSpaces, the provider of InsightEdge, the in-memory real-time analytics processing platform, has announced that Société Générale was honored at the 25th annual American Financial Technology Awards in New York as the winner of best global deployment powered by GigaSpaces in-memory computing platform.

Google/Looker Competition and Markets Authority enquiry: rival data CEO says Google deal `fair enough and makes perfect sense`.

The decision by the Competition and Markets Authority to consider an investigation of the acquisition of Lookers by Google, was announced yesterday.

Adobe Analytics said Cyber Monday online sales would hit a record-breaking $9.4 billion in the US, climbing 18.9% from 2018. Adobe also found that Black Friday was a record breaker in terms of sales.  For the UK, it has been a similar story – with VoucherCodes predicting that the UK would spend £2.53bn on Black Friday, a 3.4% increase on 2018.

A key issue for sellers of automotive parts and accessories is ensuring that the parts being sold contain the correct product data and include which makes and models of vehicle they are compatible with. With millions of parts in circulation, managing this data can be a daunting task. A new partnership between leading ecommerce software developer Optiseller, and TecDoc catalogue owner TecAlliance, offers a cost-effective and convenient solution that makes it much easier.

LivePerson, Inc. has launched SocialConnect and EmailConnect, bringing social media and email into the LiveEngage platform. This debut gives brands the ability to easily manage customer conversations regardless of the channels where they occur – all in one place.

OnBuy has launched a new service called Boost. Launched in time to give OnBuy sellers maximum benefits ahead of the seasonal traffic peak, Boost is designed to help sellers gain more exposure and improve the visibility, rank and placement of their listings on and off OnBuy.

BigCommerce, the open SaaS ecommerce platform for fast-growing and established brands, has announced the open beta release of its new GraphQL Storefront API, purpose-built for creating faster, personalized customer shopping experiences that differentiate brands from competitors.

Growing social media commerce will cause one-in-five online shoppers to return more items, according to new research from international logistics company Advanced Supply Chain Group.

Research of 2,000 online shoppers shows 34% will make more impulse buys as social media sites make it easier to buy products direct through in-platform selling tools.

By Matthew Robertson, Co-CEO, NetDespatch.

As the kids return to school after half-term and with Halloween and Bonfire Night behind us, we are now well and truly on the countdown to Christmas and retailers are in the midst of gearing up for Peak Season.