Americans and French ‘are more imaginative’, study shows.
When it comes to creativity, Americans and French people take pride in developing creative concepts, while Brits complain they don’t have time.
In fact, there’s a big difference between nationalities when it comes to being creative and willing to be involved in creative tasks – as online international consumer [...]

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With the economic slowdown dragging on, new research shows that companies have made greater efforts to retain customers and stop them shopping around for the cheapest deals.
Retail loyalty specialist GI Insight has found that, over the past few years, companies have increased focus on their customer retention and relationship management strategies, with 74 per cent [...]

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Marketers who fail to get to grips with Internet Service Providers’ (ISP) new spam-blocking filters are at serious risk of failing to deliver emails to the inboxes of consumers. And the knock-on effect is they may lose business for their clients. 
The warning comes from Guy Hanson (pictured) of the UK Direct Marketing Association’s Email Marketing [...]

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Advertising on mobile devices rocketed by 157 per cent in 2011, to a new high of £203.2 million, according to the annual IAB and PwC mobile advertising spend study.
With smartphone ownership standing at 53 per cent of the UK population, the proliferation of touchscreen technology, 3G, and soaring tablet sales have sparked a surge in [...]

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Consumers warn brands to tailor personal data into effective insight, or they will shop elsewhere.
The proliferation of marketing channels over the last five years has significantly impacted on the way consumers expect to be treated by brands, reports Experian Marketing Services.
As more and more people embrace the multi-channel environment in their own lives, sharing information [...]

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Yiannis Maos (pictured) wonders whether major brands can learn from independent retailers when it comes to providing the unique customer experience. 
When walking into an independent shop, restaurant or hotel, straight away the customer notices something: ‘This is like nothing I have seen before.’ That’s because they probably haven’t and this is one of the key [...]

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Huge disparity found between the public demand for, and actual availability of, live chat to address customer service issues online
We may lead the world in embracing e-commerce, but Brits are really bad at providing an online customer service, a survey of 2,000 firms and consumers has found. We’re still relying on the telephone when [...]

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Death of the High Street? Highly exaggerated, reports Andy Wood (pictured): research reveals there’s a co-dependence of offline and online for the modern consumer.
The high street is still a vital stop in the customer journey – but it is rarely used as the sole channel for shopping.
On the contrary, modern consumers use shops as showrooms [...]

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The transition from e-commerce to m-commerce is gathering momentum as more and more companies are exploring the possibilities of mobile marketing. Pioneers include pizza chain Domino’s,  which reported £10m in sales via its mobile site and app since its launch, and British retailer Marks & Spencer, which delivered more than £1m in sales via its [...]

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Emer Timmons (pictured) reports from the recent Retailtopia event in London.
When you look down on the shoppers from nearly 400 feet, Oxford Street looks like the beating heart of British retail. I saw that heart beating as strong as ever earlier last month when I joined Professor Patrick Barwise, chairman of Which?, at the top [...]

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