The mobile marketing agency’s survey showed that retailers considered mobile to be a useful customer communication channel - half said they had used mobile as a direct response channel in television or press advertising campaigns. Sixty per cent of these had done so by featuring an SMS code in TV ads, while 20 per cent did so in print magazines and newspapers. The remaining 20 per cent said they were unsure which ad medium they had used mobile as a response mechanism for. Focusing on ten prominent online retailers across sectors including travel, fashion, leisure, catalogues, communications and publishing, the study demonstrated that overall 70 per cent use mobile to communicate with their customers. When asked what the main purpose of contacting customers via SMS was, Sponge found that 40 per cent of these use messages to send product information while a further 40 per cent use SMS to send stock alerts and delivery time confirmation. Twenty per cent said they inform their customers of special offers. Of those who don’t currently use mobile to communicate with customers (30 per cent), two thirds intend to start within the next 12 months. The rest said they are not considering using mobile in the future, citing that they had tried it in the past and not seen any benefits.

“Our survey shows that the use of mobile among retailers is high but the benefits of having m-commerce capabilities are yet to be recognised,” says Jon Beverley, commercial director at Sponge. “Recent research by analyst firm Juniper predicts that more than two billion mobile users globally will have made a purchase via their handsets by 2013. A fifth of retailers that took part in our survey already offer customers this capability – the option to make purchases via mobile phones is keeping them ahead of their competitors.”

The IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, which has tracked online spending for the past seven years, predicts that a total of £13.16 billion will be spent by British shoppers in the run up to Christmas. This represents a 15 per cent increase in year on year sales but also shows a slowdown in growth when compared to the 54 per cent year on year increase seen in 2007. Online sales of clothing, footwear and accessories will be worth £1,260 million during Q4 2008, with sales bucking general economic trends and rising more than 25 per cent year on year. Sales of beer, wine and spirits will be worth £233 million. Typically, online sales rise steadily from the first week of November and peak during the first week of December, when £24 million worth of alcohol will be bought via the internet.

The Global Retail Theft Barometer shows £4 billion worth of stock going missing during the last 12 months. Despite this declining slightly in the last year to represent 1.3 per cent of sales turnover, the UK still boasts higher than European-average shrinkage levels (1.27 per cent). Whilst external theft accounted for 42.6 per cent of total shrinkage, most worrying was the amount lost through employee theft. After Ireland, the UK ranks as the worst in Western Europe for theft by dishonest members of staff, with 34 per cent of all shrinkage originating from within.

Across Europe, retailers have reduced spend on security and loss prevention this year by 4.9 per cent compared to 2007. Nevertheless, £5.5 billion was invested in security and loss prevention by European retailers, equivalent to 0.34 per cent of total retail sales in the year to June 2008. Of this, the amount spent by UK retailers on security measures came to £838 million, third only behind France and Germany. “In the current economic climate, retailers can’t afford to be blasé about security,” comments Neil Matthews, vice president at Checkpoint Systems NCE. “Inevitably, the worse off people are, the more likely they are to turn to crime. It’s not rocket science, but it is essential that retailers have the right controls in place to ease a pressure that is only likely to get worse as we go into 2009. We’re already witnessing the effects of budget reductions and the social and business implications are huge.”

Simon Parkinson, general manager, customer information centre at Comet, comments: “We are continually searching for new ways to provide better customer service by enabling our customers to self-serve where appropriate and putting further investment into areas where our customers need more time and care. Speech self-service is a powerful technology that will help us to realise that vision and SpeechStorm is at the forefront of the market in its experience and expertise in developing and delivering speech self-service solutions.”

The company has also unveiled SingleCI (Single Contactless Interface), a unifying programming interface with development tools that allows acquirers and developers to leverage existing contactless investments, adapt to future needs, and take advantage of its entire contactless portfolio.

This helps retailers to manage irregular sales patterns more efficiently and cost-effectively, rather than using their own systems in-house. The technology allows retailers to configure a hosting service for a typical workload, such as an average number of e-commerce transactions through their website. However, if business suddenly increases, over Christmas, Easter or special occasions, the service will flex automatically to cope, which means clients only pay for the resources they actually use.

The Global Retail Theft Barometer shows £4 billion worth of stock going missing during the last 12 months. Despite this declining slightly in the last year to represent 1.3 per cent of sales turnover, the UK still boasts higher than European-average shrinkage levels (1.27 per cent). Whilst external theft accounted for 42.6 per cent of total shrinkage, most worrying was the amount lost through employee theft. After Ireland, the UK ranks as the worst in Western Europe for theft by dishonest members of staff, with 34 per cent of all shrinkage originating from within.

Across Europe, retailers have reduced spend on security and loss prevention this year by 4.9 per cent compared to 2007. Nevertheless, £5.5 billion was invested in security and loss prevention by European retailers, equivalent to 0.34 per cent of total retail sales in the year to June 2008. Of this, the amount spent by UK retailers on security measures came to £838 million, third only behind France and Germany. “In the current economic climate, retailers can’t afford to be blasé about security,” comments Neil Matthews, vice president at Checkpoint Systems NCE. “Inevitably, the worse off people are, the more likely they are to turn to crime. It’s not rocket science, but it is essential that retailers have the right controls in place to ease a pressure that is only likely to get worse as we go into 2009. We’re already witnessing the effects of budget reductions and the social and business implications are huge.”

“The software gives us a powerful management tool and allows our stores to have instant access to better information at the touch of a button,” says George Oldridge, IT director at Poundland. “We can accurately measure what’s being sold, what’s left on the shelves, and what’s left in stock.”

The programme, named Pompey Rewards, gives fans the opportunity to earn ClubCash vouchers whenever they shop at participating High Street and online retailers including Superdrug, Amazon.co.uk, Cineworld and Halfords. Paul Bell, commercial director at the club, comments: “We’re delighted to be able to offer the Pompey Rewards programme to our loyal fans. Everyone is feeling the effects of the credit crunch and we want to help fans wherever we can. The scheme is simple to join, does not require any additional card or keyring fob, and a programme where fans will earn points easily through their everyday shopping routines on the High Street.”

Scott Weavers-Wright, partner at Kiddicare, comments: “Returned or failed deliveries cause delays and problems for our customers, our staff and our third party delivery company. The best way around this is prevention rather than cure.”

The awards are now into their third year and continue to go from strength to strength. Retail Systems received a record number of submissions this year and the quality of shortlisted entries was extremely high. Categories as follows (with winners in bold):

EPoS innovation of the year

Dunelm & Vista Retail Support
Kiddicare/Protouch & K3
O2 & Torex
Tesco & Wincor Nixdorf
The Co-operative Group
The Pier & Argility
Wasabi & Commidea

Supply chain solution of the year

Carpetright
JD Williams & TradeStone Software
New Look

Best use of in-store marketing technology in retail

Marks & Spencer & Fizzback
Showcase Cinema & Beaver Group
Somerfield & Pierhouse
Thomson Holidays
Thorntons & PEL Music & Media

Best use of technology in the hospitality & leisure sector

Butlins
InterContinental Hotels Group & enyanga (part of the bezier group)
Manchester City & MBNA Bank of America
McDonald's
The Langham & IDeaS
Tortilla & DigiPos
Tottenham Hotspur & Reward
Whitbread & Smart Technology Solutions

Card programme of the year

Blockbuster UK & Payzone UK
JJB Sports & Reward
Marks & Spencer & Postilion
Thomas Cook Group & Barclaycard

Retail website of the year

Halfords & Salmon
Jali
Plain Lazy & Green Jersey Web Design
Prezzybox.com
Specsavers
Virgin Wines

Retail security initiative of the year

ASDA - Honourable mention
John Lewis & IndigoVision
Sainsbury’s & Checkpoint Systems (UK)
The Entertainer & Vialtus Solutions

IT project of the year

Carpetright
Fortnum & Mason & Carillion IT Services
House of Fraser & Tec7/Retail Assist
Iceland
GO Outdoors & Famatech
Shop Direct Group
The Co-operative Group & United Co-operatives
Waitrose & SAS

IT team of the year

Carpetright
Iceland - Honourable mention
Mosaic Fashions
Specsavers
The Co-operative Group

Back office solution of the year

Comet & Triangle
InterContinental Hotels Group & enyanga (part of the bezier group)
New Look
Wilkinson & Casio Electronics

Retailer of the year

John Lewis & IndigoVision
Mothercare and ELC & Triangle
Specsavers
Tesco & Fizzback

Environmental initiative of the year

Arena Flowers
Sainsbury’s & NCR
Tesco.com & Microlise
The Co-operative Group

European solution of the year

Colruyt & Zetes
Goertz & e-Spirit
Leclerc Lecasud & Aldata
Parfumerie Douglas & GK Software

Overall winner

Specsavers

Anglia Co-operative is aiming to better understand the buying preferences of its online customers and to provide it with the customer insight and knowledge to build the online business into the largest part of the organisation’s diverse portfolio of sales. Speed-Trap’s customer insight software will be integrated into Anglia’s furniture division website – due for launch at the end of October – and will then be built into the other divisional websites over the course of 2009.

Whether spending a minimum of £5, or a maximum of £1,000, customers will be able to pick up a card, present it at a till point and load it to the required value. They will be able to check their balance in-store, online or by calling the number on the back of their card.

A launch of giftcards for the business-to-business sector is expected later in the year.

The retailer, which has over 240 stores across Brazil, is also aiming to improve customer service levels and increase profitability. Solutions will be built using Oracle’s Retail Business Suite. Rodrigo Nunes, the co-founder of Ricardo Eletro, says: “The adoption of a world-class solution brings the company to a higher level of maturity and management anchored by best practice in retailing. The company is continuing to grow rapidly, and we’ve recently acquired Lojas Mig, strengthening our position in south-east and north-east regions of Brazil. The introduction of this technology will help support our growth.”

The ClubCash programme will enable the football club’s supporters to earn/save cash to spend within the stadium, every time they shop at participating retailers including JJB Sports, Halfords, Superdrug and online at HMV, John Lewis and Marks and Spencer.

The deal will provide the retailer’s customers with review content to help them make better informed purchasing decisions. Pat Foley, head of e-commerce operations at DSG international (DSGi), the parent company of PC World, says: “We are committed to improving the quality of content published on our website. By making impartial reviews from an independent company available to our customers, we are providing a tool that helps them select the product that’s right for them.”