GfK survey reveals evolving trends in American holiday shopping and spending

NUREMBURG, GERMANY / NEW YORK, US: Retailers embarking on a seasonal hiring binge this year may want to rethink their plans, according to a new survey by GfK Custom Research North America. As unemployment remains above 9% and median household incomes decline, economic anxiety continues to preoccupy the thoughts of US consumers. 25 Oct 2011 10:27

Difficult period for technical consumer goods in Western Europe

NUREMBERG, GERMANY: The overall market for Technical Consumer Goods (TCG) in Western Europe recorded a sales volume of €41.8 billion* in the second quarter of 2011. This is a decrease of 5.1% compared to last year's figures. 5 Sep 2011 12:23

UK mobile retail access via smartphone grows in past year

LONDON, UK: comScore, Inc has released data from the comScore MobiLens service showing that 13.5 million users across the five leading European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK), accounting for 5.8% of all mobile subscribers, accessed online retail sites in the three month average period ending May 2011. 2 Aug 2011 11:52

Mobile payments: Trust and familiarity are crucial in driving adoption

NUREMBERG, GERMANY: Trust and familiarity are the key drivers in consumer preference for mobile payment services, according to a new study. The survey by GfK NOP, a global market research agency, covered nine countries (US, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, South Korea, Brazil and China) and included 8603 online interviews, with each country's sample designed to represent their online population. 23 May 2011 10:15

Germany: Mobile online shopping on the increase

WIESBADEN, GERMANY: Last year, 38.1 million Germans aged between 14 and 69 bought goods or services on the internet. This represents a rise of four million on the number of online shoppers in the prior year. Of these, 18.5 million bought online travel services and 10.1 million were consumers buying items from private individuals. These are the findings of the 2011 Online Shopping Survey (OSS) carried out by ENIGMA GfK. 1 Apr 2011 08:10

Retail websites reach 75% of European internet audience each month

LONDON, UK: comScore, Inc, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released results from a study of online shopping in Europe. In January 2011, 270.6 million unique visitors in Europe visited sites in the retail category, representing a market penetration of 74.5% of Internet users, up 8.5 percentage points versus last year. 22 Mar 2011 08:24

German consumers in the mood for pre-Christmas spending

NUREMBERG, GERMANY: Consumer sentiment again improved significantly in November, with the economic expectations remaining consistently high. Income expectations and the propensity to buy both picked up tangibly following the downturns recorded in October. As a result, the overall indicator is forecasting 5.5 points for December following a revised 5.1 points for November. 24 Nov 2010 10:45

RECMA publishes 2010 digital agency rankings

PARIS, FRANCE: RECMA, the research company evaluating media agencies in 50 countries, has just released its new Digital Agency Rankings report - edition 2010. The report finds that the leader is WPP with 32% of the total digital resources. 8 Nov 2010 09:04

EPC gets copyright management idea accepted

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM: The European Publishers Council (EPC*) has succeeded in getting its idea for 21st century copyright management accepted as one of just seven "Big Ideas" sought by the European Commission to forward its Digital Agenda strategy. 5 Nov 2010 11:43

Youth market ready to use mobiles as wallets

PARIS, FRANCE: Consumers confirm strong interest in using their mobile phone as wallet according to a recent market poll sponsored by Alcatel-Lucent. These findings were uncovered as part of a youth market study exploring the appeal of a mobile wallet service. 29 Sep 2010 08:01

Mobile measurement launched in Japan

TOKYO, JAPAN: comScore, Inc has announced the introduction of its syndicated mobile measurement service, comScore MobiLens, in Japan. MobiLens offers insights into consumers' mobile behaviours, user demographics and device capabilities, to provide a comprehensive picture of the mobile market. 23 Sep 2010 08:53

Finding the right home for your BPO operation

[Steve Rennie] The announcement by Amazon, the world's largest online retailer, that it would be opening a customer service centre in Cape Town in October has put South Africa firmly on the map as a preferred location for business process outsourcing (BPO). 15 Sep 2010 08:16

iPhone ad platform gets US$60m in advance bookings

[Mark St Andrew, creamglobal.com] CALIFORNIA, USA: Apple's iPhone 4 will be the first smartphone to run the company's iAd mobile ad network, with 17 advertisers already lined up to target mobile app users. 21 Jun 2010 10:29