Marks and Spencer poor sales, is there a credit crunch?

Written by Lee | Filed under General | No Comments

I am not actually sure there is a credit crunch you know. Yes things are tight, but the data I am seeing is showing that businesses that have the right marketing strategy in place are not suffering as much as the media would have us all believe.

Looking after the number of sites we do, we are privileged to see the sales figures going through on a month by month basis, and I can tell you there are still some good numbers being recorded.

The Marks and Spencer effect

After last week, you would have thought the retail world had collapsed. The release of M&S figures highlighting a decline in sales, was met with disarray and cries of recession from those looking to compell the doom? What surprised me is the doom and gloom being declared following the results came so soon after M&S had recorded record profits the year before. I found it very convenient the record profits were forgotten so quickly.

A drop in sales can come in any number of ways, who’s to say the product offering which was working last year is relevant for this years market? Is it that M&S have not responded to the shift towards online sales as quickly as their competitors?

Ask yourself the question, do Marks and Spencer dominate Google in the same way the store dominates the traditional high street and out of town shopping? As far as I am concerned, the answer is no.

Who’s to say there has not been a significant swing in sales posted online, and the reduction suffered in sales by M&S is because their online strategy is not working as it should be? Out of town shopping is having it tough - petrol prices alone are seeing to that. So if I don’t visit Bluewater and the like, I may turn to shop online, and where am I likely to start my shopping? That’s right Google, the world’s biggest high street.

So are M&S doing enough to make use of Google’s high-street? Do M&S have enough shop fronts (generic terms) appearing in top 5 places driving traffic to their site? The twenty terms I looked at would suggest not.

Womens Fashion - No result in top 30
Shirts - No result in top 30
Skirts - #6
Lingerie - #10
Hosiery - #12
Maternity Clothes - No result in top 30
Tights - #16
Bridal - No result in top 30
Schoolwear - #9
Blazers - #11
Boys Blazers - No result in top 30
Girls Skirts - #1
Girls Fashion - No result in top 30
Girls Clothing - No result in top 30
Kitchen Utensils - #6
Egg Poacher - #16
Bras - #12
Bedside Table - #19
Bedside Tables - #4
Nightwear - #11

Now, I know that M&S have got a good array of top 5 results, but the list above demonstrates there is serious traffic being missed by M&S. To have only two terms in twenty appear in the top 5 is for me a potential weakness for M&S and a contributory factor as to weaker sales considering the fact we know more people to be shopping online.

Whilst I will not deny that things are tough, if more people are shopping online and a site is not in the mix for these critical positions, then you cannot expect brand name alone to drag people to your online store.

I appreciate things are tough out there, but there are still good numbers coming in from a good cross-section of businesses and that’s why I am would suggest to not believe

Fresh Egg Designs & Develops Website for myrepeats.com

Written by Adam Stafford | Filed under Latest News | 1 Comment

Company Wins Business Development of the Year Award at Chemist & Druggist Awards 2008

Fresh Egg, a web design and internet marketing company specialising in search engine optimisation, announces today that its client myrepeats.com has won the Business Development of the Year award at the prestigious Chemist & Druggist Awards 2008.

Myrepeats.com is a pioneering online service which allows patients to place orders for repeat prescriptions. Following a hugely successful pilot in Worthing, with orders rocketing to 3,500 per month, the service now operates nationwide. Pharmacies using myrepeats.com have attracted new customers and received an increased number of repeat prescriptions at a minimal set-up cost. The service is also beneficial to patients, allowing them to register and log on securely from home and order their repeat medicines by sending a message to their chosen pharmacy. The pharmacy then orders the prescription from the patient’s surgery and dispenses it ready for collection or delivery to the patient’s home or work address.

Fresh Egg not only designed and developed the innovative website, but was also responsible for creating the overall brand for myrepeats.com. Taking into consideration the large proportion of elderly customers, it was important to make the website as user-friendly as possible. Fresh Egg did this by ensuring they made all processes exceptionally clear and easy to navigate. An additional challenge was to maintain a high level of security which would ensure that patients’ details always remain private.

“This was a great project for Fresh Egg, not only is it an innovative idea but we were given a fairly broad brief which meant we were able to become very involved in the decision-making process. To have gone on to create a working and successful service has been very rewarding for the Fresh Egg team”. Adam Stafford, Managing Director, Fresh Egg.

“Fresh Egg’s innovative web team were quick to grasp the concept we had in mind and were on the ball right from the beginning. They understood our needs and came up with some great ideas relevant to our market. Paul Howie, myrepeats.com.

The Chemist & Druggist Awards celebrate the people, services and organisations at the forefront of community pharmacy practice in the UK. Trophies were presented to the winners in each of the 12 categories on Wednesday 18th June 2008 at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel at a glittering awards ceremony.

Ebay fined 40 million euros

Written by Lee | Filed under General | No Comments

Internet auction site eBay has been fined 40million euros by a French court for allowing fake copies of products belonging to the LVMH group to be sold via the site.

Affected brands include Louis Vuitton, Christian Dior and Givenchy.

The group accused eBay of negligence in allowing fake products to be sold via its system.

eBay are appealing the decision, but where does leave the Internet giant and how will it police what is sold on its network now they have lost this landmark case?