Retail rewind - a year in review 2011

[Zeenat Moorad] The approval of the Wal-Mart/Massmart deal will go down as the highlight of the retail sector in 2011. 6 Jan 2012 08:19

Africa's five major trends for potential growth

[Issa Sikiti da Silva: @sikitimedia] Population growth, rapid urbanisation, adoption of new technologies, unlocking of abundant resources and the deepening of the financial sector are the five major trends that are set to drive Africa's economic growth, Simon Freemantle, Standard Bank Africa senior analyst, told a media roundtable in Johannesburg, South Africa, yesterday, Thursday 6 October 2011. 7 Oct 2011 09:56

[2011 trends] It's a Wild. Wired. Wellthy. World!

[Gisele Wertheim Aymes] The recent global recession has changed our world forever. In a new digital age, characterised by oversupply and too many product types in almost every market, the challenge for companies will be to locate and capture pools of high-profit demand and be able to move with speed and flexibility to take advantage of them. Here are 11 trends for 2011. 18 Jan 2011 14:17

FNB's mobile money grows in Africa

Mobile banking is set to take off in Africa, with FNB recording a 150% jump in transaction growth for its cellphone banking service and 1384% growth for eWallet for the month of December 2011 when compared to December 2010. 15 Feb 2012 13:21

eCommerce sites urged to clean up content before Google's 'Panda' goes global

LONDON, UK: Hot at its heels of an algorithm update to combat duplicate content last month, Google has followed up with "Panda", another algorithm change that hits purveyors of "low-quality content." 11 Mar 2011 11:32

Fees could alienate online bill pay users

CHICAGO, US: Online banking continues to grow in popularity, and according to Mintel, 79% of consumers visit their banks' online website on a daily or weekly basis. However, it seems that loyalty to online banking would vanish if the service wasn't complimentary, as just less than 80% of consumers would stop using their banks online bill pay services if their financial institutions charged a monthly fee. 24 Feb 2011 08:22

Financial services CEOs look to emerging markets to feed growth aspirations

LONDON, UK: Financial services companies need to look far beyond their domestic markets if they are to achieve their ambitious growth aspirations. This is according to the 14th annual PwC Global CEO Survey, which shows CEOs of financial services companies believe emerging markets are more important than developed markets to their organisation's future. 16 Feb 2011 11:21

Training essential in IT sales environment

[Daniel Silke] I am a good example of a connected, discerning customer who already has done most of his research even before entering a store and I usually shop around looking for the best deals from different vendors. Therefore, I was armed with all the information I needed and I knew the different offerings from the two major outlets selling the new Apple iMac. I was setting the outlets up for a bit of healthy competition by visiting both just before making my decision where to lay down my credit card. 29 Dec 2010 16:25

Refugees can now own bank accounts

Refugees and asylum permit holders in South Africa will from now on be able apply for bank accounts in the country, the Home Affairs Department announced on Thursday, 11 November 2010. 12 Nov 2010 09:42

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

Greenlight launches paid search real-time price comparison platform

LONDON, UK: Leading search marketing specialist and technology firm Greenlight, announces the release of its proprietary real-time price comparison platform for paid search. The launch forms part of its latest upgrade to adapt, the automated inventory management platform, pioneered by Greenlight in 2004. 27 Oct 2010 09:27

SPS first processor of Street Savings mobile marketing

ORANGE, US: Secure Payments Systems (SPS), a national leader of value-added payment services and transaction processing in the US and Canada, has announced that it has become the first direct processor of Street Savings mobile marketing products. 20 Oct 2010 12:35

New consumer mindset driving Smartphone products and services purchases

NEW YORK, US: The Smartphone is rapidly evolving beyond a simple communications device into an extension of consumers' daily activities and creating a new breed of digital shopper. 11 Oct 2010 12:23