The Bank of England has made a shock one-and-a-half percentage point cut in UK interest rates to 3%, the lowest level since 1955.
The size of the cut - the most dramatic since 1981 - signals the Bank’s concern the UK is heading for a long recession, the BBC’s economics editor says.
It follows an emergency cut in rates last month from 5% to 4.5%.
However, banks are expected to take their time deciding whether to pass on the cut to mortgage holders and savers.
The cut was followed by the European Central Bank lowering its eurozone interest rates from 3.75% to 3.25%.
The interest rate cuts come as the IMF predicts that developed economies will contract for the whole of the coming year for the first time since World War Two.
More and more retailers are adding PayPal to their list of payment options as one in three UK online shoppers say it’s their preferred payment method…
PayPal is on a bit of a roll. Its share of consumer internet payments is up 5% over the last year, from 16% to 21%, 30% of UK online shoppers now say they prefer to use PayPal over any other form of payment online and over 120,000 retailers in Europe now accept PayPal.
“Major UK brands which have launched with PayPal in recent months include William Hill, CDWow, Victor Chandler and all the Arcadia brands; Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridge, Topman, Topshop and Wallis,” says Mark Hodson, marketing director at PayPal UK.
“Online shoppers are still concerned about identity theft, and are rightly wary of typing their card details on ecommerce sites,” Hodson explains. “PayPal offers the peace of mind that their financial details are not shared.”
Speed is also a factor, Hodson believes. “Consumers are demanding faster online shopping experiences, which are both safe and secure. The convenience of being able to checkout in just a few clicks without having to type in payment details or address are what make PayPal such a popular way to pay.”
A new PayPal debit card could also drive acceptance forward. The card is a joint venture with RBS and carries a Visa logo. No credit checks are carried out and consumers simply pay a £4.95 fee to get a card. They can then top up the card direct from their PayPal account or at any of the 19,800 PayPoint outlets around the country and spend the funds loaded onto the card online, on the high street or even abroad at any Visa merchant.
contact wdsl for PayPal Integration solutions. www.wdsinternet.com
Almost half the retailers who took part in a survey conducted by E-consultancy and DoubleClick say the proportion of their sales from comparison shopping engines increased this year and, overall, one in ten online sales now originates from these services.
Some 43% of retailers surveyed for a new E-consultancy/DoubleClick report say the proportion of online sales coming through comparison shopping engines (CSEs) has increased in the last 12 months. And, on average, retailers report 10% of their online sales are now coming through comparison shopping engines.
“The period of austerity we have entered is driving more people to comparison engines so it makes sense for most retailers to make sure they are visible on these sites,” says Linus Gregoriadis, E-consultancy’s head of research.
But, despite the success that many merchants have with comparison engines, significant numbers of respondents still report problems with managing the process in terms of handling data feeds and understanding the channel’s value, the survey found.
Agency survey respondents reported that the biggest problems for their clients using this channel were difficulty keeping feeds updated (37%) and difficulty tracking and understanding return on investment (35%).
“Interestingly, the survey highlights that despite the popularity and evidence of the clear contribution of CSEs to online sales, retailers and their agencies are still wrestling with an array of challenges — one of which is tracking alongside other channels,” commented Sophie Chesters of DoubleClick.
Key findings include:
Google Shopping/Google Base is the most commonly used (by retailers) comparison engine, utilised by 63% of retailers. Half of online retailers surveyed said that they used Kelkoo while PriceRunner, Shopping.com, and Shopzilla are each used by 30% of internet retailers.
While many retailers are increasing their investment in this channel, just over a quarter (28%) say there has been a decrease in the level of sales they are getting from comparison engines.
Some 21% of retailers surveyed are not currently using any comparison engines to advertise their products and services, while a further 16% use just one comparison site.
The majority of companies (59%) surveyed are not using online marketplaces such as Amazon or eBay to sell their products.
Social or “next-generation” shopping sites have not yet penetrated the consciousness of the majority of online retailers. Merchants are most likely to be aware of Kaboodle, Jellyfish and Twenga.
Retailers rate Google Shopping/Base and Shopping.com as the best comparison shopping engines for volume, with 38% saying that Google is “good” and 35% saying that Shopping.com is “good”. Kelkoo and PriceRunner are both rated as being good for volume by 28% of merchants.
Google Shopping/Base was also rated by merchants as the best CSE for quality of traffic and for ease of use.
Just under a third of companies (29%) surveyed said that they used their own tracking tools to track activity in the CSE channel, compared to around a quarter (24%) who use third-party tools and technology and 11% who use CSE tracking. A third (32%) use a combination of these methods.
The majority of retailers surveyed manage their CSE feeds in-house, whilst only 13% use specialist feed optimisation companies. The same percentage (13%) use agencies for this purpose.
The internet properties of the UK’s top 100 high street retailers received 19.3% more visits during July than the 100 largest online-only retailers, says a new Hitwise report. And it’s the fashion sector that’s fuelling the high street’s growth online…
The speed with which the high street is catching up with and overtaking pure play internet specialists is gathering pace. In July, the number of visits to the websites of the one hundred largest online high street retailers was 19.3% higher than the number of visits to the one hundred largest pure play retailers, says a new Hitwise report ‘Can retailers have a happy Christmas during the credit crunch?’
“High street retailers overtook their online only counterparts for the first time during December 2006, but quickly fell behind again for most of 2007,” explained Robin Goad, Hitwise UK’s research director. “However, when the high street overtook again last Christmas, the gap was even greater than before and during 2008 the online-only retailers only managed to edge ahead during February.”
“Given the 2.6% year-on-year decline in actual physical visits to retailers reported by Experian Footfall for July, it looks like high street retailers will be more reliant than ever on their online operations this Christmas,” Goad noted.
Online fashion retailing is now particularly dominated by major high street brands, which accounted for seven of the top ten websites in the category during June, says the report. “The growth of the online fashion industry has been one of the main contributors to the increasing market share of high street retailers online,” says Robin Goad.
“However, there are exceptions to the rule. ASOS was the second most visited website in our ‘Shopping and Classifieds — Apparel and Accessories’ category in July 2008. UK Internet traffic to online-only fashion retailers has more than doubled over the last 12 months.”
In addition to major high street brands such as Next, Top Shop and River Island, the top 10 online fashion retailers in June also included two other remote shopping specialists, M and M Direct and Boden.
Some 62% of shoppers believe shopping online will save them money during the credit crunch according to a poll conducted by discount etailer M&M Direct.
Some 61% of the 1,000 people polled by M&M Direct and Voxpopuk.com, said that they would now be actively looking for bargains while 56% said they would save money by not spending so much on luxury items.
45% of respondents said that bargains were easier to come by online.
When asked if the credit crunch would affect their broader spending habits, 48% of respondents said no, while 54% said that it would not affect their decision to purchase cars, holidays or other large expensive items.
M&M Direct chief executive Steve Robinson said: “The survey shows that the UK consumer is in the process of becoming savvier when it comes to spending money. They want to continue to shop for what they want, but realise they can find bargains online and cut back in key areas to help combat the effects of the credit crunch.”
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