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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First published, DMI, May 2005.
Guest author Nick Backhouse (pictured) looks at how agencies can deliver campaigns with global reach and local impact.
There is an old adage in retailing when thinking about national retail chains: ‘Retailers may think nationally, but their customers buy locally.’
Well, the same applies for global marketing in the business-to-business sector, but ten-fold plus. 
Taking a [...]

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One of largest postal deals in UK, up to 180 million items per year
Private postal operator TNT Post has been appointed by retail giant Tesco to manage one of the UK’s largest mail contracts, handling up to 180 million items per year.
The deal, which began in February, will see TNT Post handle mailings for a [...]

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Evidence gathered by the UK Direct Marketing Association (DMA) has revealed the potential financial impact of the draft EU Data Protection Regulation on UK companies involved with data-driven marketing. 
Published by the DMA under condition of anonymity, case studies submitted by eight companies operating in various marketing industry sectors detail how the current formulation of the [...]

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Roland LaPlante (pictured) offers insight into why marketers need to move quickly if they want to be on the right side of the ‘dot’.
January marked the opening of the dotBrand application window – the first chance ever for businesses to own and manage their own branded top-level domain (TLD). This is perhaps the most revolutionary [...]

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Swiss Post International has opened an office in Oslo, to enable non-Norwegian distance sellers to sell directly to consumers in Norway without the costly customs fees that have so far affected goods entering the country. 
Until now, Norwegian customs clearance costs have made goods so expensive that Norway was hardly interesting as an import country for [...]

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David Howlett brings insight into the emotional factors governing consumer choice.
First published: DMI March 2010.
If market research is really effective, why do about 90 per cent of new products fail? Relaunches of existing long-established brands often run into problems, too. Are current market research methods as good as they could be?
New products are launched that [...]

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