News

E-commerce technology

• March 04, 2019 04 Mar'19

  UK among most expensive countries for mobile data

  The UK ranks 136th in the world for the average cost of 1GB of mobile data, according to new statistics

• February 27, 2019 27 Feb'19

  M&S and Ocado announce £750m food delivery joint venture

  Deal will see M&S take a 50% share of Ocado’s UK retail business, with access to the Ocado Smart Platform

• February 19, 2019 19 Feb'19

  Kellogg’s tests VR for developing merchandising strategy

  Breakfast food brand Kellogg’s is working with Accenture and Qualcomm to test the use of virtual reality to develop a retail strategy for the launch of new products

• February 19, 2019 19 Feb'19

  Six experiential retail businesses chosen for Jlab

  The businesses and startups that will take part in John Lewis’ 2019 Jlab programme have seen selected following a pitch day

• February 14, 2019 14 Feb'19

  Central Saint Martins hosts Three’s 5G trial for London Fashion Week

  Three’s trial 5G network will enable the world’s first augmented reality fashion show at Central Saint Martins, while consumers can test out a prototype network at its flagship store

• February 14, 2019 14 Feb'19

  Apple Business Chat powers Npower’s smart meter switch

  Energy supplier is using Apple Business Chat to help users through the process of switching onto new smart gas and electricity meters

• February 12, 2019 12 Feb'19

  Legacy systems holding banks back from meeting demand for instant accounts

  Banks are struggling to meet customer demand to open accounts instantly because of legacy IT systems and processes

• February 11, 2019 11 Feb'19

  Click & collect will grow 45% over next five years

  Clothing and footwear lead growth as UK’s click & collect market is set to hit £10bn by 2023, research suggests

• February 11, 2019 11 Feb'19

  Vodafone announces winners of Techstarter accelerator

  Vodafone has announced the winners of its startup accelerator programme, aimed at helping young companies developing technology for social good

• February 08, 2019 08 Feb'19

  Lloyds Bank rolls out open banking functionality to mobile app customers

  Lloyds Bank customers can now see current accounts from multiple banks through their mobile banking app

• February 06, 2019 06 Feb'19

  Tech sector tells government that digital identity policy is 'urgently required'

  The UK tech sector has urged the government to publish policy to support the creation of a “fully functioning” digital identity market, to boost the digital economy

• February 05, 2019 05 Feb'19

  Marks & Spencer launches charging banks as part of startup partnership

  Retailer Marks & Spencer has announced it will be adding battery charging banks to its stores as part of startup partnership

• February 01, 2019 01 Feb'19

  Fundamentals of retail won’t change despite tech disruption, say experts

  Digital is becoming a big part of the way customers shop and how retailers deliver services, but the focus will always be on the customer, says panel of experts at BRC event

• January 22, 2019 22 Jan'19

  Mastercard fined over half a billion euros for unfair payment fees

  Mastercard has been heavily fined for having rules on interchange fees which distorted the EU single market

• January 22, 2019 22 Jan'19

  Marks & Spencer introduces photo search for online shopping

  British retail brand Marks and Spencer has introduced a photo searching capability to its mobile site to help people find products they like using other images

• January 21, 2019 21 Jan'19

  Bahrain plans to create a world-leading tech ecosystem

  Bahrain is building a technology ecosystem that will help the country further reduce its economic reliance on the oil and gas industry

• January 14, 2019 14 Jan'19

  Mobile and broadband markets fail digitally excluded groups

  Financially vulnerable people, disabled and mentally ill people and elderly people all face significant challenges in accessing appropriate communications services, according to a new Ofcom report

• January 10, 2019 10 Jan'19

  More than half of customers will shop for food online by 2021

  Just over 40% of customers currently do their grocery shopping online, but with that number expected to rise to more than half by 2021, are retailers doing enough to meet customer expectations?

• January 09, 2019 09 Jan'19

  Banking apps overtake online banking

  Mobile apps are the most popular channel for banking as consumers swap online platforms for smartphone software

• January 04, 2019 04 Jan'19

  Norwegian cryptocurrency miners lament proposed loss of energy use-related tax relief

  A wide-ranging push by the Norwegian government’s tax collection agency to clamp down on cryptocurrency miners has incurred the wrath of a company planning to build the world’s biggest datacentre

• December 27, 2018 27 Dec'18

  Top 10 retail tech stories of 2018

  Computer Weekly looks at what 2018 had in store for the retail industry – what technologies were retailers rushing to adopt and which brands fell behind?

• December 20, 2018 20 Dec'18

  Cancer Research works to improve users’ digital experience

  UK charity has been working with Optimizely to develop a better user experience through its website, as well as improve the way the organisation works

• December 07, 2018 07 Dec'18

  Quarter of all UK shopping now happens on mobile devices

  UK’s high-street spend is the lowest across Europe as mobile devices account for a growing portion of online shopping

• November 23, 2018 23 Nov'18

  ASOS launches digital assistant to help customers find right size

  Online fashion retailer ASOS has launched an artificially intelligent assistant to help consumers find the right size of clothing before they place an order

• November 22, 2018 22 Nov'18

  IKEA to focus on digitisation and convenience shopping

  Swedish furniture brand IKEA will be cutting jobs and focusing on smaller stores and its digital pipeline in a bid to usher in a new era of business transformation

• November 16, 2018 16 Nov'18

  Russian banks to introduce contactless ATMs

  Russian banks have introduced their first contactless ATMs, which customers can link to via smartphones and wearable devices

• November 14, 2018 14 Nov'18

  PwC provides retail data insights for London’s West End

  New West End Company hopes data on consumer behaviour will help retailers to increase spending in the area by one-third to £12bn over the next few years

• November 12, 2018 12 Nov'18

  Government considering dedicated internet regulator, says digital minister

  An upcoming white paper is likely to set out proposals for an internet regulator, a House of Lords committee has been told

• November 12, 2018 12 Nov'18

  HMRC resolves technical issue with tax-free childcare portal

  The department’s tax-free childcare website has again suffered technical issues, affecting 22,000 payments, but the problems were resolved last week, according to HMRC

• November 08, 2018 08 Nov'18

  M&S admits online remit “well behind” competitors

  Food and clothing retailer Marks and Spencer has admitted its website and online fulfillment capabilities are behind that of its competitors, but it is seeing progress since implementing changes

• November 07, 2018 07 Nov'18

  Lloyds Banking Group shaking up its workforce to reflect digital times

  Lloyds Banking Group is revamping the roles of thousands of staff as it becomes digital

• November 06, 2018 06 Nov'18

  Smart Dubai platform is the backbone of the city's transformation

  Aisha bin Bishr, director general at Smart Dubai Office, talks about the Smart Data platform and soon-to-be-unveiled UAE Pass, a digital ID and signature which is being touted as one of the foundations a city needs to transform

• November 05, 2018 05 Nov'18

  How Birchbox uses social media for personalisation and discovery

  The UK marketing director of subscription service Birchbox told the Retail Week Tech conference about the retailer’s use of social media and data to offer customers a personalised service

• November 02, 2018 02 Nov'18

  Jlab 2019 to focus on experiential shopping

  Each year, John Lewis hosts a number of retail startups intent on using technology to transform the industry. Next year they will be aiming to change the customer experience in-store

• October 31, 2018 31 Oct'18

  Triumph Motorcycles kick-starts changes with high-tech HR

  The Leicestershire-based motorcycle company is deploying IT systems to give customers and its own staff a ‘premium brand experience’

• October 29, 2018 29 Oct'18

  Retail tech spending will grow 3.6% globally in 2019, predicts Gartner

  Global spending on technology in the retail sector is set to grow by 3.6% in 2019, according to predictions by Gartner analysts

• October 24, 2018 24 Oct'18

  SMEs use fintech in fight against online giants, but fears remain

  Online SMEs are turning to financial technology to help them make payment processes easy for customers as they try to compete with online giants

• October 19, 2018 19 Oct'18

  Russians using less cash after accelerated use of electronic payments

  Russians are increasingly using electronic payments rather than cash, a recent study by Sberbank has found

• October 18, 2018 18 Oct'18

  Amazon to open Manchester R&D centre and create 1,000 skilled jobs

  Online retail giant will open a new office in Manchester and expand others to house 1,000 new skilled research and development employees in the UK

• October 12, 2018 12 Oct'18

  Moonpig to open technology hub and create 50 new roles

  Greeting card company chooses Manchester for its first tech hub because of the city’s thriving tech scene and “exceptional” pool of talent

• October 12, 2018 12 Oct'18

  ASOS launches voice shopping on Google Assistant

  Online fashion brand introduces voice shopping service to help customers navigate its thousands of products more easily

• October 01, 2018 01 Oct'18

  UK will unilaterally tax web giants, says Hammond

  Chancellor threatens to go it alone on tax reform for digital services businesses if an international agreement cannot be reached

• October 01, 2018 01 Oct'18

  Mobile will be more disruptive for retail than online, says Facebook representative

  Facebook’s retail industry head says mobile technology is likely to cause a bigger shift in retail than online shopping did

• September 28, 2018 28 Sep'18

  Finland’s e-retail sector driven by international growth

  Finland has a fast-growing e-retail industry as a positive consequence of the huge job cuts at Nokia

• September 27, 2018 27 Sep'18

  Explosion in fake data-stealing shopping sites

  Cyber attackers are ramping up efforts to steal personal data by setting up look-alike domains that pose a phishing risk to online shoppers, researchers warn

• September 27, 2018 27 Sep'18

  Best supply chain firms are masters of data and automation

  Europe’s best supply chains are making the most out of e-commerce, customer insights and robotic process automation, according to Gartner

• September 20, 2018 20 Sep'18

  Asda outsources app development to support digital future

  Supermarket chain Asda is outsourcing its application development to HCL to access and build skills and experience in agile development methods

• September 19, 2018 19 Sep'18

  Waitrose to launch same-day delivery trial

  High-end supermarket Waitrose is partnering with retail delivery startup On the Dot to trial same-day delivery for its food and wine goods

• September 19, 2018 19 Sep'18

  Santander plans UK tech hub in Milton Keynes

  Santander is opening a UK tech hub in Milton Keynes that will have 5,000 staff

• September 19, 2018 19 Sep'18

  BMW innovation lab bears fruit with insurtech deal

  BMW has struck a deal with one of the tech startups that participated in its innovation incubator