e-Tailers' dream season: Visions of runaway hits dance in their heads
[Paul Korzeniowski] While this year's online sales are once again expected to set new benchmarks, identifying this season's product and promotional hits is not as easy as it was in 2006.

Get cash back on air tickets to the UK
A new joint venture is designed to enable SA travel company to offer cash back on air tickets for South Africans working in UK.

It's lights out for major retailer
Clicks has destroyed thousands of incandescent light bulbs and will not be stocking them again; once shelf stocks have been exhausted, the chain will sell only the low-energy compact fluorescent lamps.


How far can your brand travel?
[Roman Cylkowski] South African FMCG brand owners need to ‘gear up' on their knowledge and expertise concerning the area of brand extensions, and proactively ‘get up off their assets'! That is if their loyal users are to be heard!


KZN hosts emerging farmers Market Day
[Siboniso Ntuli] Emerging farmers in KwaZulu-Natal are gearing up to market and promote their products at this year's Market Day.

Steel import tariffs removed to boost competitiveness
[Shaun Benton] Tariffs on imported steel have been removed in a bid by government to make steel cheaper for users. This comes as a debate ensues among economic strategists – in South Africa's domestic economy and in the context of the World Trade Organisation's negotiations - as to the merits or otherwise of comprehensive tariff reform.

Anuga Trade Fair impresses
The 29th Anuga Trade Fair in Cologne, Germany was held from 10-14 October 2007 and saw 163000 trade visitors attending from 175 countries and 6607 companies from 95 countries around the world, exhibiting their products and services.


Mobile CRM: Six experts dial in
[Patrick Barnard] Mobile CRM brings many advantages to an organisation, some of which are yet to be discovered. Suffice it to say that it does much more than enable mobile access to e-mail and text messaging. This is about access to real data and the ability to manipulate it in real time, as well as the ability to conduct transactions remotely.

Customer loyalty: invest in it, but don't over-invest
[Dave McMillan, Carolyn Costley and Michele Akoorie] The starting point for loyalty is satisfaction. Yet customer satisfaction in itself does not lead to a loyal relationship, and investing in improvements beyond industry benchmarks of satisfaction will not necessarily increase loyalty.

UK spending on plastic hits record
Just as South Africa's credit levels are seen by the authorities to be way too high, so growth in spending on credit cards in the United Kingdom has reached record levels. And as in SA, that's good news for the financial institutions, but bad news for credit levels.

Can you effectively manage your workforce?
USA - According to a new RSR Research report, The State of Retail Workforce Management, released today, retailers strongly believe that employees are critical to their customer-centric strategies, but few have confidence in their ability to effectively manage their workforce.

Petrol to hike by 3 cents
The retail price of all grades of petrol will go up by three cents a litre on Wednesday this week, the Department of Minerals and Energy said.

Cereal prices to remain high
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations' (FAO) latest Food Outlook report has predicted that global cereal prices will remain high during the next year. This is mainly due to production problems in a number of major exporting regions, as well as low stocks worldwide. Read the full story on the FAO website here.

You say you want a revolution in online payments?
[Jefferson Graham] Ted Leonsis wants you to pay bills and transfer money online in a new way, with no fees.

New innovative insurance product allows you to pay when you can
The Shoprite group and Old Mutual announced today (8 November 2007) a world first with the launch of an innovative top-up insurance product: Pay-when-you-can, which is available through Shoprite supermarkets in South Africa.

Green bank gets the nod from Orange Index
Nedbank has been declared the industry winner in the 2007 Orange Index, a survey that benchmarks service performance in South Africa. A total of 70 companies across 12 sectors were surveyed.

Pick ‘n Pay in R110M major brand, product change and innovation
Nick Badminton, CEO, says “We're going to show Pick ‘n Pay in a new dress” and the “new dress”, even though it will not entail renaming the group, will entail the rebranding of 400 stores, the phasing in of more than 450 new or repackaged lines, and the employment of global and local experts to drive the whole exercise. The aim to ensure the brand is world class.


Waterfront voted Number 1
The V&A Waterfront is South Africa's Number One Shopping Centre. Top 500, an annual B2B publication that identifies companies achieving the highest level of performance and success, recently bestowed this honour on the development.


MySchool to include social and environmental causes
Over the past four years, Woolworths has made contributions in excess of R48 million on behalf of its customers to schools throughout South Africa through its MySchool program.

Cadac attaches Weber trademarks
The Registrar of Trademarks recently confirmed that, on behalf of Cadac, it has attached and taken into execution a number of Weber trademarks. This move is a result of Weber's failed infringement action against Cadac, failed application for leave to appeal and failure to comply with a Supreme Court instruction ordering Weber to compensate Cadac for all costs incurred during the trial.

Sizzling new Simmer Sauces
[ActivRetail] The Denny Convenience Foods sector has been investing much into product development and expanding their product range to offer convenience food ranges - with the result being Denny Simmer Sauces.


Dddelicious in Cccoffee or Sssimply Chchchilled
Clovers Mmmilk is the new premium milk product that introduces South Africans to all the goodness of Clover's fresh milk with a subtle hint of vanilla. Joe Public Advertising was briefed by Clover to promote this innovative product that aims to up Clover's “share of throat”.


Launching long-life organic food for babies
Woolworths is expanding its award-winning ‘really good food for babies' offering with the launch of a new range of long-life certified organic baby food products.

Blending roots, regions, people, partnerships
Blendsetting, a new concept linked to a range of Ciro filter coffees, is set to be the latest buzzword amongst coffee connoisseurs in the hospitality industry.


Try a Tipsy Tart
[ActivRetail] Moir's, the trusted name in delicious baking for almost 100 years, has recently added two new products to their family of desserts - new Tipsy Tart Hot Sponge Pudding and Chocolate and Caramel Instant Custard.


Estate's dual crop wins accolades
Wine and olive oil go together – at least they do on Kloovenburg, where husband Pieter du Toit looks after the former, while wife Annalene has put the estate into the top 15 in the world for extra virgin olive oil production.

Innovation is alive and well and living in loyalty programs
Innovation is alive and well among coalition loyalty programs around the world. Despite their advancing age, coalitions are continuing to innovate to keep their programmess fresh and relevant to their target members. This is one of the findings of Independent Coalitions Around the World 2007, published recently by Razor's Edge Business Intelligence, a specialist loyalty research company based in Johannesburg.

Enjoy Christmas – but beware of the hangover
A new forecast published this week by retail analysts Verdict Research, a Datamonitor company, predicts that UK shoppers will spend more than ever in the run-up to Christmas. However, with incomes squeezed by high mortgage costs and wages only rising slightly, consumers will rely on credit to fund their festive spending.

SADC to open Free Trade Area in 2008
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) says the region is ready to open the SADC Free Trade Area (FTA) next year as per the set milestones.

Packaging excellence at Gold Pack
[ActivRetail] Nampak, Africa's largest packaging company, won the most World Stars and Out of Africa awards at the recent Gold Pack Awards.

Smitten with the Boks
The Savanna signature lemons joined thousands of fans in Cape Town to celebrate the Springboks' victorious win over England in the World Cup Final.

New reefer solution to reduce CO₂ emissions
Maersk Line has announced the implementation of QUEST which aims to significantly reduce energy consumption and CO₂ emissions of its refrigerated containers (reefers).

Protect yourself this holiday season
Consumer complaints website, PissedConsumer.com, has launched a new consumer advocacy section offering consumer tips and advice just in time for the holiday buying (and selling) season.

Holiday returns: Ready or not, here they come
[Katherine Noyes] What can retailers - both online and in stores - do to prepare for post-holiday returns? The first thing is to do everything they can to minimize return levels in the first place, Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org, told CRM Buyer. Shop.org is the National Retail Federation's digital division.

Challenges ahead for remote call centre agents
[Patrick Barnard] Regardless of challenges that lie ahead, it appears the industry is determined to make the remote agent model work, perhaps because, when done properly, the home agent model has such limitless potential, and technological innovation has a way of overcoming obstacles. This will certainly be a model to watch in the future.

Cutting costs and keeping customers with speech self-service
Speech-enabled IVR is top-of-mind for many companies. As call centers look for ways to reduce cost, speech applications have traditionally been one of the lower cost alternatives. Over the next 12 to 18 months, 30 percent of Best in Class companies plan to implement a speech self-service application.

Retailers rave about rAge
With more than 17,000 visitors through the doors over three days, rAge 2007, which took place at the end of September, proved to be an ideal platform for retailers looking for a weekend of exceptional sales, marketers looking to introduce new products to gamers, and tech junkies and product managers looking to build brand awareness. Even tertiary institutions jumped aboard, using rAge as a platform to reach the Gauteng youth.

Technology under the spotlight
Dealers and resellers operating within the Information & Communication Technology (ICT) sector will soon have an opportunity to discover and study the latest in product and technology advancements, including mobile solutions and digital lifestyle devices – that is, if they visit the Sahara Technology Show on 14 November 2007 at Montecasino, Gauteng.


Touch and listen - coming soon
The Sony Ericsson W960i Walkman phone, a combination of slim UMTS and Wi-Fi enabled phone with touch screen and high performance media player, will be available in selected markets across the globe from early 2008.


IT security and the no good, very bad web app nightmare
What makes some security experts nervous about such acquisitions is the uncertainty about product development.

What to give your favourite geek who's got it all
[Nicole Girard] This holiday season, what do you get for the technophile who already has everything? A handful of analysts ticked off some of the items on their Christmas lists, and it was no surprise that they included the most bleeding-edge, technologically advanced - and slightly off-the-wall - suggestions.

Continent's comms costs cut
South African-based company Evosat, which distributes Inmarsat's Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN) service across Africa, has secured a major deal that will see satellite communication costs to provide simultaneous voice and broadband data, virtually halved on the continent.

A pro for Linux, Open Source service
Synaq, a local provider of Linux and Open Source managed services, has been contracted to manage and maintain the Linux-based ICT network infrastructure and connectivity for The Pro Shop, a national supplier of golfing product and services.


Wireless wars: Apple and Google take on the world
[Olga Kharif] If the iPhone's popularity continues to spread with its imminent arrival in Europe and Asia, and if the first Gphone handsets win a large user base, developers may gravitate to those platforms just to save on costs. Compared with the computer market, where there are just three widely used operating systems, the handset industry is fragmented across roughly 40 different software platforms.