Gillissa News » Christmas

Xbox Slim On Sale

mhiscock — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 10:39:11 +0000

This week marks the release of the Xbox Slim and no doubt demand will be high and many stores will run out of stock very quickly. As we’ve seen in recent months with the new iPhone and iPad, huge surges in demand can play havoc with many retailers stock levels and can leave many shoppers disappointed and in the current climate, no retailer wants to have to deal with any more disgruntled customers then they have to!

Such surges in demand and the risk of products running quickly out of stock on the high street has driven more and more customers to the web where they are well versed with the plethora of product listing sites now accessible over the internet. Many retailers are getting wiser to the importance of having visibility on these, yet I am still surprised at the numbers who aren’t keeping their stock availability up to date online.

If products are on many sites, then understandably it can seem an arduous tasks to ensure the stock numbers online are kept accurate, but both customers and sites such as Amazon are demanding this real time information as the online customer experience becomes more and more important. Nothing is worse for Amazon than an item ‘appearing’ to be in stock online only for the customer to find after purchasing it that it has in fact sold out, which can cause huge problems for the retailer in its relationship with Amazon.

We developed Feed Manager as a solution to this problem as we found that many retailers had the information available to update their product feeds, but simply didn’t have the ‘thing’ that could feed this information out to the web and where it needed to go. There are many strategies for retailers to achieve maximum results and Feed Manager is the most advanced solution on the market for adapting the data it receives in from the retailer and using it for whatever purpose the retailer needs.

With Christmas just around the corner, stock availability will be an critical issue for many retailers and so it is highly advisable to get their listing processes in order so that their online product display matches the real picture in the warehouse.

Christmas Sales and the VAT rise

mhiscock — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 15:51:39 +0000

Within the previous Gillissa blog post ‘Boxing Day Sales Start on Christmas Eve’, it was mentioned that an online sales surge was expected during the festive period as retailers were introducing their sales as early as Christmas Eve.

Unsurprisingly, the sales figures for the festive period eclipsed the sales figures for the same period last year, and also included the busiest shopping day of 2009, Monday the 28th of December.

Fundamentally, the impending increase in VAT can be attributed to the increase in online sales over this period.

Therefore, because this period was successful, the majority of leading brands have decided to postpone the VAT rise on products, in order to maintain the levels of online sales accumulated towards the end of the year.

In addition, the recent difficult weather conditions experienced within this country may have also attributed to the surge in internet retail.

With more difficult weather conditions expected, the decision by some retailers to freeze the VAT price at 15% may result in the continued strength in online sales that is desired.

However, all information points to the fact that internet marketing is an increasingly popular retail option.

To read the full article, please use the following link:

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/retailing/article6971099.ece

Boxing Day Sales Start on Christmas Eve

mhiscock — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:20:42 +0000

Within the previous Gillissa blog post: ‘Predicted Sales Patterns This Christmas’, it was mentioned that websites would begin to offer discounts for various products on Christmas Day itself.

This assumption is now considered incorrect, because, retailers are now launching their Boxing Day sales on Christmas Eve!

This effectively means that consumers using the internet have a 36 hour head start over consumers using the more traditional method of shopping around the high street stores.

Quite surprisingly, it is expected that 4.5 million consumers will shop and spend online on Christmas day, the same number of people that will attend a church service on the same day.

This only goes to show how far online marketing has come in recent times, holding as much prowess on a religious holiday as a religious service.

Numerous stores have indicated that Christmas day is one of the busiest days of the year in terms of traffic.

Though factors such as the current weather and the imminent VAT rise this year have assisted online purchasing, it is undoubtedly becoming a more popular experience year-by-year.

To read the full article please use the following link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/topics/christmas/6858609/Boxing-Day-sales-start-on-Christmas-Eve.html

Shop Safely This Christmas!

mhiscock — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 12:52:06 +0000

According to IMRG, at least 90 percent of internet users will be doing some level of Christmas shopping online, with 70 percent even planning to do more than half of their Christmas shopping using the World Wide Web.

Various predictions like IMRG have stated that for internet retail during this time, Christmas 2009 would mark the greatest growth in internet sales, highlighted further by the widely-anticipated ‘Manic Monday’ on the 7th of December.

Taking all this information into account, more people will be shopping online in this period than ever before.

Therefore, there is a greater importance for consumers to be wary of the dangers of internet shopping, and not fall for the numerous traps out there.

In fact, only yesterday, the team at Gillissa encountered a problem, which we duly notified Google of.

Immediately, our attention was drawn to the fact that for a search query, two adverts within the sponsored links section had identical headlines and descriptive text.

An unusual sight in itself, we decided to explore the two adverts further.

By clicking on the adverts, we found that the link offered a redirect from the display URL to websites with completely different domain names.

Instantly, we knew this website was dubious as Google does not permit the use of redirects.

Furthermore, all of the multiple sites created for the adverts were almost identical in presentation and layout, with duplicate content.

Pricing in US dollars yet advertising in the United Kingdom, the websites all contained atrocious forms of spelling for the simplest of everyday words.

Exploration to the shopping cart presented more evidence that this particular website/s was not legitimate.

We discovered that the websites did not have viable SSL certificates, and had obtained a variation of an SSL certificate that can be easily obtained within a matter of minutes.

With all this evidence, it is safe to assume that is website was attempting to commit fraud, rather than advertise products competitively.

Hopefully the factors we found can save you from being a victim of fraud!

To find out more ways of avoiding illegitimate websites, please use the following link:

http://www.computeractive.co.uk/computeractive/features/2253684/safe-shopping-online-christmas-4896657

Predicted Sales Patterns This Christmas

mhiscock — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 12:49:54 +0000

As I am sure everybody is aware, tax will revert back to its familiar figure of 17.5%, from the 15% introduced in November last year.

Such a change in VAT will have a significant effect on the Christmas period for consumers, as this change comes into effect on January 1st next year.

Consequently, retailers are expected to introduce cheaper prices before the VAT rise, even numerous weeks before Christmas itself.

Additionally, retailers could begin their January sales before January, immediately after the Christmas shopping period has ceased.

In terms of online marketing, research suggests that websites could begin to offer discounts on Christmas Day itself.

Further suggestions indicate that Monday 7th December is expected to be the busiest day for online Christmas shopping.

Shopping comparison site Kelkoo predict that 72% of people would use the internet for shopping this Christmas, with 38% intending to do the majority of their shopping online.

To read the full article, please use the folliowing link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8365939.stm

Christmas is coming!

ecook — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:46:26 +0000

There are a core of people who moan when they see the first piece of tinsel. They hate that retail Christmas starts in September and firmly believe that Advent calendars shouldn’t have chocolate in them, that Christmas cards are a waste of money and Christmas parties shouldn’t be planned until a week before.

Thankfully these people are a minority. A wingey vocal minority to be sure but not everyone. As they are probably also the sort of shopper who waits until the Christmas sales we don’t have to market to them.

The majority of people, particularly women, are planning already. They are shopping and researching and making tentative enquiries about what people would like as a gift. This is the perfect time to market to them. Your permission marketing, whether that’s electronic or paper, should be feeding your customers ideas. New products, new uses and new associations.

Avoid tagging everything as “Christmas present”. It’s annoying and irrelevant. Plan out what messages you’re going to send out – or if you need some help and a fresh eye call Gillissa.

Here’s to a profitable Christmas season, starting 1st October!