Christmas day e-sales up 269% to £84m

Based on hard data now in, 4.4 million people bought goods online on Christmas Day 2007 and spent a total of £84 million, which is 269 (two hundred and sixty nine) per cent more than last year. This works out as an average of £19.09 per shopper.

James Roper, CEO, IMRG, comments, "The only way we Brits can enjoy the nation's favourite leisure activity - shopping - on Christmas Day, our biggest holiday of the year, is online. So it is hardly surprising that millions of us now do a spot of Yuletide bargain hunting. As you would expect, people flock to the online shops later in the day than usual on Christmas Day, generally, after the Queen's Speech, with main action happening between 8 and 10pm, and the e-tills keep ringing right up till midnight."

This insight into actual online trading patterns by hour and day has become possible by combining sales data from payment services provider SecureTrading, which is tracking millions of transactions from 1,500 UK e-retailers, with traffic data from digital market research firm, eDigitalResearch, using a sample of over 250 million page views per month from leading UK retailers that have its survey code installed on their web site.

DeVere Forster, Director, Dixons.co.uk, commented, "The sort of products customers are looking for on Christmas Day are: TVs, mobile phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, digital photo frames, washing machines, tumble driers, fridges and freezers - and they are often able to snap up sales bargains in comfort, rather than fighting the crowds on the high street on Boxing Day."

www.imrg.org

Disabled accessibility for websites still an issue for UK online retailers

An investigation into the accessibility of 20 of the UK's top retailer's websites has shown that whilst most sites achieve a basic level of accessibility for disabled internet users there is still much more that needs to be done to improve standards and meet legal requirements. The study, conducted by online usability and accessibility consultants Webcredible, discovered that a prevailing failure amongst sites was poor accessibility at the checkout stage. This highlights the fact that organisations are still failing to maximise the commercial opportunities available by making sites fully available to users with disabilities. In the worst cases, the report shows that websites are failing to meet the legal requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act.

There are 8.6 million disabled people of working age in the UK, with an estimated combined spending power of up to £80 billion. Furthermore, research indicates that disabled users under 65 use the web as frequently as non-disabled users whilst those under 45 use the web more frequently.

Commenting on the research, Trenton Moss, director of Webcredible said, "Disabled web users of all ages are becoming increasingly savvy and adept at using the internet. Online retailers need to constantly adapt and raise their game to improve accessibility for this hugely influential group of web users. Increasing the accessibility of any ecommerce website will lead to a more commercially successful site and result in increased profits. But more so, retailers should want to improve accessibility to enhance brand strength, build towards CSR objectives and most importantly ensure that they are meeting their legal requirement with regards to disability access legislation."

Moss concludes, "Unfortunately, certain retailers performed very badly, failing to register any points in multiple categories. Seven of the 20 companies surveyed scored less than 50 points which means they are failing to meet the legal requirements of the Disability Discrimination Act. These companies need to take a serious look at how they approach ecommerce and whether they are treating disabled access seriously."

www.webcredible.co.uk/accessibility2007

Swisslog awarded major order by dm-drogerie markt

German drugstore chain dm-drogerie markt (dm) has commissioned Swisslog, a provider of integrated logistics solutions, to design and implement a new distribution centre near Cologne, Germany. Swisslog will act as general contractor for this project, the value of which amounts to about 130 million euros.

The new logistics centre will assume the functions of the existing distribution centres in Weilerswist (carton goods) and Meckenheim (small goods). Michael J. Kolodziej executive vice president of dm in charge of logistics explains the largest single investment in the company's history, "By combining the two locations while adding capacity we fulfill the logistic preconditions for the continuous expansion of our retail network,"

Swisslog will be in charge of building the various logistics areas, of integrating all warehouse and conveyor equipment, and it will be responsible for the control systems of the 50 000 m2 distribution centre. Construction work accounts for about half of the project volume.

With a picking warehouse for carton goods and small goods, respectively, as well as a high-bay warehouse, the logistics centre will comprise of three parts. The picking warehouse for carton goods accommodates 20 000 pallets and features 13 stacker cranes. Like the Waghäusel facility, the picking solution in Weilerswist uses Swisslog's CaddyPick system which is based on an electrical monorail system. The picking warehouse for small goods has a capacity of 140 000 locations. 52 stacker cranes handle the warehousing from the goods-in area, the supply to the picking zone, and the conveyance of the bins to the goods-out area. A high-bay warehouse of 30 meters altitude with 14 000 pallet locations will be used for the temporary storage of still palletized small goods. Seven stacker cranes ensure the supply to the picking warehouse. The co-ordination of all the goods flows in the respective functional areas is provided for by the Swisslog material flow solution, which includes an interface to dm's warehouse management system.

Construction work is scheduled for beginning of 2008 and the new facility is planned to be operational by the end of 2009.

www.swisslog.com

Counting on a successful appeal

Counting the millions of coins collected during the annual poppy appeal is a major task for the army of volunteers at The Royal British Legion. The Manchester office is one of a growing number of regional centres using SCAN COIN coin sorters to speed up the process.

"Counting manually is a slow and laborious business with the risk of human error," explains Martin Watkins, the Royal British Legion's county manager for Greater Manchester. "SCAN COIN SC202 coin sorter is fast and accurate, sorting by denomination and separating out the inevitable foreign coins that find their way into collecting boxes. We then fill coin bags ready for banking using one of SCAN COIN's SC303 coin counters. Together they save us so much time and I can confidently say that, these days, without them we'd be completely lost."

The total amount of cash collected increases each year - the target for the 2007 appeal was over £27 million. Four years ago, as income was continuing to rise, the Legion decided to look at the options for automated coin processing and after a thorough evaluation process decided to use SCAN COIN machines. There are now 17 distributed around the country.

"As well as being robust and reliable, they are light enough to move around," says Nick Buckley, The Royal British Legion's Head of Poppy Appeal. "It means we can get the most out of our investment and give as many centres as possible the chance to share the benefits."

www.scancoin.co.uk