H&M will allow its newsletter subscribers to shop exclusively on its UK ecommerce website on September 9, before opening it up to shoppers a week later.

The Swedish fashion group, which yesterday reported a 24% rise in profits to SEK 5.2bn (£448m) for the second quarter of the year, will launch its first online store to coincide with

Technology has changed consumers' expectations of service levels, as well as how, when and where they consume, the survey found, with 62 per cent of consumers venturing online for at least part of their shopping journey.

"Consumers are equipped with all possible product, price and stock information, and can simply bypass retailers that don't compete," the report says.

Technologically empowered customers want a greater say in how they experience service and to be

Currently, organisations such as retailers that handle data of card payments are required by the major credit card companies to comply with the PCI DSS standard, but according to the report, the requirement does not guarantee the security of payment data.

The report said that Rob Havelt, director of penetration testing at PCI compliant solutions provider Trustwave's SpiderLabs believes that PCI-compliant networks are easy to attack because of other vulnerabilities in an organisation's network.

The corridors of European power can seem opaque and far-removed from the day-to-day realities of most modern enterprises.
But locked away in informal council meetings, where neither business leader nor citizen would presume to peer in, European officials began plotting in early February a future that could have profound implications for all businesses.
Further reading
EC plan seeks to build trust in a single EU digital market
EC sets out digital agenda to 2020

Google has released a patch for its Chrome browser that fixes 13 security vulnerabilities, seven of which it has classified as high risk.
If left unpatched, some of the vulnerabilities targeted by the update could allow a malicious party to take remote control of a user's machine, either stealing its information or using it to disseminate spam or malware.
Further reading
Google fixes vulnerabilities in Chrome and adds malware detector
Google disables prepaid cards over

With a double-dip recession looking increasingly likely and the eurozone crisis stepping up a gear, there’s no doubt that the British economy has another tough year ahead of it and that the retail industry is likely to take the brunt of this. Despite the gloomy outlook, I think we should be thinking positively and devising plans to turn around the sector’s fortunes.
Retailers need to think creatively to boost profits, and those in IT should think about how

Cyber criminals are selling bulk log-in credentials for social sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, and web server management software cPanel, according to security researchers.
"These details are not on sale so people can cause mischief but for real financial gain," Oren Kedem, product marketing director at Trusteer, told Computing.
The criminals boast a haul of 80GB of credentials that they are advertising at wholesale prices, or at $30 a log-in when divided into network- and country-specific

These are some of the findings in a new report from the Visa-owned CyberSource, a secure online payment company.
The report claims that UK online merchants are experiencing growth even in these gloomy economic times, but are failing to understand the risks presented by cyber crime.
"The mobile channel presents a real opportunity for merchants," said Dr Akif Khan, co-author of the report and director, products and services, CyberSource EMEA.
"With interfaces often streamlined to make

Autonomic computer systems mimic biological autonomic systems, such as the human brain's autonomic control of the heartbeat.
The technologies were originally used by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in satellite control systems. They will be auctioned on 29 March at the 15th ICAP Ocean Tomo IP Auction at the Terranea Resort in Palos Verde.
The auction is part of NASA's mission to share its advanced technologies with companies that can use them to commercial ends. It also

A demo of the software shows how users are tracked between two sites that share an advertiser.
The add-on will enable people to see who is tracking them and to turn tracking off selectively, says Mozilla.
In time, the company intends to launch a full version of Collusion and use the information it yields to build a global database of anonymous tracking information "and make it available to help researchers, journalists and others analyse and explain how

Well, no. E-commerce is still puny. By some estimates it makes up a mere 5% of all retail.

But it is growing rapidly.

Some of the data points are startling: The Chinese online market place Taobao, for example, sells 800 items a second. German carmaker Volkswagen deals with its suppliers online, in a business-to-business market that turns over 2bn euros a year, according to consultancy Booz & Co.

E-commerce is disrupting more and more markets. This is not just

Although it seems there is an app for everything nowadays, new research indicates mobile shopping is one area in which consumers prefer retailers' websites over dedicated smartphone apps.

Although the recent Nielsen report found users generally spend more time with mobile apps rather than sites, the process can turn off some consumers, according to John Burbank, president of strategic initiatives at Nielsen.

"Going the app route involves more steps -- going to the app store, downloading the app, etc.,"

David Thorn, NAB head of Consumer Sectors, said that the index will give retails an insight into the changing behaviour of Australian consumers.
 

In  a speech to the American Chamber of Commerce last weekO’Brien outlined Woolies ambitious plans for multi-channel retailing.
 

Realestate.com.au is owned by the REA Group, which reported the data on mobile use along with its latest financial results.
“About a quarter of [REA Group] total property views come from mobile devices” said a company spokeswoman, adding that “Apple devices account for around 90% of [REA Group] property views on mobile devices.”
Since the REA Group released its iPhone app in December 2010, it has been downloaded nearly 600,000 times.
Moreover iPhone users access the

Woolworths has joined other Australian and international companies in trialling a concept wall enabling smartphone owners to buy goods via Quick Response codes.
Sportsgirl recently transformed the front of its Melbourne headquarters into a virtual shopping wall, and Kikki.K has done a similar thing, with a giant QR code in the window at one of its Melbourne stores.
Woolies walls, at Melbourne’s Flinders St station and Sydney’s Town Hall station, were both unveiled yesterday – Sunday the

recent years, customer behaviour has changed beyond recognition," says Richard Ingleton, advisory partner at Ernst & Young.

"The consumer has undergone a radical metamorphosis and this change has significant consequences for all customer-reliant organisations."

Brands' use of social media fared particularly poorly: 85 per cent of social media users believe companies don't optimise social media to communicate with consumers.

Technology has changed consumers' expectations of service levels, as well as

Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Facebook on Monday, ensnaring the social network heavyweight in a legal entanglement weeks before it's scheduled to go public.

The suit regards 10 patents related to instant messaging, advertising systems, privacy settings and methods for customizing ads and content.

The company is seeking damages and wants Facebook enjoined from operating the patents in question.

"We're disappointed that Yahoo, a longtime business partner of Facebook and a company that has substantially

Traditionally, online advertising was viewed primarily as a direct-response vehicle. However, the growing use of data to define and deliver audience targeting means it now can have an impact on all levels of the purchasing funnel -- from fostering awareness to reaching consumers at the ideal intersection between desire, intent and action.

The ability to reach consumers at the most crucial point in their buying decision-making process, steer them toward a particular product or service, and then capture them

Disney is smart to tap into the moms space by going beyond products to focus on lifestyle. The site is interactive, fun and engaging — similar to Pinterest. But the majority of the featured products are Disney brand. I'd recommend adding more general items and insights to the site so Mom has more reasons to use the platform on a regular basis.

The site is organized around what Disney calls the “key moments” of the day when parents are

Lot 18, which launched in the US in November 2010, sources wines worldwide for limited-time offers to members.

Offers will typically expire in 48 hours: ‘The idea is not to build a gigantic catalogue but to have constantly-revolving stock,’ European general manager Will Armitage said.

The US site, which last year raised just under US$45m in venture capital fundraising, has 800,000 members. The French site, which launched two months ago after a deal with e-commerce site Vinobest. has 120,000

The recent growth in the daily deals market has spurred the daily deal event, DD Summit Europe 2012, the first event of its kind. Big names in the daily deals industry like Groupon and Living Social UK are part of the event.

Statistics released by the organisers of DD Summit Europe reveal that between July and December 2011 consumers saved an average 56% by shopping on daily deal websites, which adds up to a whopping £375m.

The daily deals

Electronic commerce in Latin America is poised to grow to $82 billion (US$) by 2004, according to a new report by Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Forrester Research.

The research projects that the business-to-business (B2B) sector, accounting for 93 percent of the total growth, will be instrumental in helping the region quickly overcome infrastructure deficiencies and poor Internet access.

"E-commerce in Latin America today faces significant challenges, but there are clear signs that the economic climate is dramatically improving," said Stuart D.

UK-based entertainment and shopping guide Virgin Net announced today that it has selected upstart search engine Google to provide search services for its Web site.

The deal is Google's first with a company in the United Kingdom.

Visitors to Virgin Net will now have the ability to search the entire Web with Google WebSearch, a hosted version of Google's search engine technology. Additionally, Google will provide custom search services that allow visitors to search for sites specific to

Nearly 90% of retailers believe that location and mapping will be a big trend in m-commerce in 2012 and that social will also play a big role in multichannel, finds a study by strategic information management company Stibo Systems. However, only a quarter of retailers are actually planning on investing in location-based and geo-spatial technology this year.

The study –which was undertaken in January 2012 by independent research house Coleman Parkes and surveyed 100 senior executives at the

If retailers had just one set of contract laws across the bloc, eCommerce would take off exponentially, the European Commission will argue in an upcoming proposal next week. But disgruntled businesses are gearing up against the draft regulation.
While businesses argue that the EU's draft Common Sales Law will make matters more complicated for cross-border trade, the EU executive argues that the regulation's beauty lies in their estimation that it will cut out expensive legal costs.

"The common

The incident has the potential to become highly embarrassing for Google. Through much of 2011, the search engine kept the SEO community on its toes with numerous -- and very significant -- changes to its search algorithm. A major one was its so-called Panda update in February, which it tweaked throughout the year.

The changes -- which took aim at low-quality content, such as paid sponsorships -- hurt a number of publishers, in some cases halving Web traffic to

Online auction site Trade Me says it is trading in line with its prospectus forecasts, despite what it called a "hesitant" recovery taking place in the New Zealand economy.

Trade Me, which listed last December, said its first-half net profit came to $36.4 million, up 5 per cent on the figure for the previous corresponding period.

Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation came to $52 million, which was $1 million over its prospectus forecast. Revenue was slightly

MercadoLibre (MELI), the Latin American company that operates an eBay-like website and PayPal-like online payment system, reported fourth-quarter results late Thursday that missed estimates.

MercadoLibre earned 47 cents a share, below consensus views of 51 cents among analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. The 31% gain from last year was the 13th straight quarter of double- or triple-digit growth.

Revenue of $86.5 million was just shy of the $86.81 million analysts had expected, but up 39% from a year ago,