Tag: shop

Online shopping hits new highs as Christmas and lockdowns combine

Online shopping has positively exploded in recent months. The imposed lockdowns have forced even the tech-newbies to try out online shopping. It’s resulted in a 74.7% growth in online retail sales and has, according to some, killed the High Street’s revival stone dead. According to the November retail …

Huawei opens up a retail store in London

With Huawei going through quite a bit of bother globally (their 5G kit is being ripped out in a number of countries due to security concerns and their newer phones are struggling to sell due to the lack of Google Apps), you’d perhaps think that opening a store …

Welcome to a new retail world

The entire retail landscape has, without doubt, been irrevocably changed. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced even the most IT illiterate into using their phone more than ever. During the height of the lockdown, I was definitely a regular customer at Screwfix. If you need anything for yoru DIY, …

Microsoft to close or convert all retail stores

Goodbye to the high street. Goodbye to the shopping mall. Times are changing and Microsoft is to close or “reimagine” their stores across the world. Across the USA, nearly all stores are closing, whilst the NYC, London, Sydney and Redmond store will instead be converted to stores that …

Traditional brick and mortar stores struggle as times change

The coronavirus lockdown has forced even the most smartphone illiterate customers to begin doing more of their shopping online. Shops that were already geared up for delivery and “click and collect” have performed really well, including stores like Screwfix, which I’ve visited many times during lockdown for DIY …

Getting a proper web presence for your business – now easier than ever

Have you spent the lockdown thinking about starting your own business? You’ll have several ways of doing it. For many, you can start easily and sell on Facebook Marketplace, eBay, Gumtree, or Shpock. That’s simple enough, and, during the lockdown, that’s what our local cake shop has been …

Vodafone stores reopening, but no devices on show.

Perhaps the most annoying thing about buying a phone is the not being able to “test it” first. Getting your hands on the thing, seeing how it works and so on. That’s what we’re here for to a degree, or you can go to a phone shop and …

Virgin Media to close UK stores

Liberty Global will not be reopening any of their 53 Virgin Media high street stores, even after the lockdown eases further. This was, in all honesty, coming down the road for a bit after other stores were closed, but now – with most orders coming from the phone …

Coronavirus – Online supermarket Ocado closes

If you’re looking to shop online right now, you can either put on some padding and go to the insane scrums at the local supermarket or try and get an online delivery slot. The latter is becoming an incredibly rare thing, and until the delivery capabilities are boosted, …

Carphone Warehouse close all standalone stores

Actually getting your hands on a phone – to touch it and check the dimensions of the thing – is going to get slightly more difficult now. In addition to the obvious coronavirus restrictions, Carphone Warehouse have announced that all standalone stores will close. This means that 2,900 …

Xiaomi shuts up UK shop

Opened just over a year ago, the UK Mi Store in London’s Westfield Shopping Centre is now closed. That alone shouldn’t be taken as an indicator of anything more that a “strategy change” according to Xiaomi, who tell us.. Our adjustment to our local retail strategy is a …

Huawei comes to Madrid

Here in Europe, Huawei have just launched their biggest retail store outside of China. It’s on one of the busiest streets in Europe, Gran Via in Madrid. It’s pretty massive too – taking up two floors. There’s far more than you’d find in a regular mobile store – …

Create your own online shop easily

Mobile phones have made it easier than ever to browse and buy things. Amazon and eBay are the most well-known, but you’ll regularly find my wife on Next, Very or another clothing website. They’re big, they’re well-designed and they’re full of choice. Not only that, but they look …

New experimental Vodafone store opens on Oxford Street

If you’re in London for some last-minute Christmas shopping, try the new Vodafone store on Oxford Street. It’s got everything from a Work hub area for business customers plus interactive zones and repairs for software and hardware problems. Nick Jeffery (CEO of Vodafone UK) helped open the new …

Making the most of your online business, without threats

If you run a business, even if it’s just a chip shop or a barbers, you generally have to be online at some point. There’s various reasons for doing this – you can advertise for free on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere. However, even the most “non-techy” shop might …

Tesco launches Tesco Pay+

I’m getting in the habit of not carrying cash much now. There’s several benefits to this. For starters, everywhere I go there’s the “tap to pay” machines and I tend to use my phone. Also, there’s the added benefit of using the, “Oh lads, can you get the …

Smartphone shopping to treble in just four years

We’ve got the result of some research from OC&C Strategy Consultants, Google and Paypal. It shows that shopping on your smartphone is going to treble in the next four years. Treble. Yes, treble. Think about that. It’s already pretty massive as it is – £13.5bn. This research states …

More transactions performed on mobile, but less apps downloaded

New figures released by the Gambling Commission show that the amount of bets placed in the traditional local bookmaker is on the wane. Now 33% of all gambling is done online and, despite what the high street in your local town might look like, the report shows that …

Amazon to open a store without a checkout

Online retail giant Amazon has decided to do away with any kind of checkout process in a new store. Customers will instead show their phone when they walk in, pick up their goods and just walk off. Grabbing anything off the shelves, stuffing it in your bag and walking out. …

Shoptimix updated to add faster shopping

Heard of Shoptimix? It’s available for both Apple and Android and basically lets you create shopping lists and manage them in a fast and easy way. Yesterday they launched a new Android version which adds a new “Speedy Shopping”. It’ll let you whizz through the products and then …

Insane? Money no object? No taste? Get yourself a 3D selfie!

For a moment early this morning I honestly thought I’d dreamt this. Perhaps it was part of a drunken vision. No. Wait… it’s a real thing. Oh dear me. Where do I start with this? Well, let’s say you’ve just taken a really good selfie and you don’t …

Phones 4u – Bondholder write-down deal off the table

There was, for a brief moment there, a glimmer of hope for the Phones 4u staff. We told yesterday how a plan was being formulated to give bondholders of the company a share of equity in an attempt to get stores opened and trading again. Sadly this plan …

Apple iPhone 5s – Good luck getting one today, you’ll need it

Further evidence is emerging this morning following our earlier story on the iPhone 5s stock situation. It all began when we started seeing lots of pre-order offers for the iPhone 5c but absolutely none for the iPhone 5s. Yesterday we then spotted that O2 would not have any …

Apple trademarks their shop! No, it’s not April Fool’s Day

Apple are well known for trademarking and patenting their items. They’ve already trademarked the leaf of the Apple logo and even registered a patent for the shape of the iPad, so it comes as no surprise to hear they’re adding another to the list… this time… THE SHOP! …

Samsung continues with anti-Apple adverts

Samsung have continued to pump out their Galaxy SII adverts in the USA and they seem to be following a very similar vein. Earlier we saw how Samsung poked fun at Apple customers queuing and camping outside stores for the “Next big thing” and now Samsung are saying …

Drunken purchases help online sales

I’ll admit that I’m one of the people who have accepted a parcel that I knew nothing about. It has your name on the box, it’s addressed correctly, but you’re not expecting any deliveries. Hmmm.. Perhaps you’ve won a prize? As you open it and examine the Potty …

Got a signal problem on the weekly shop?

It’s not often that I write a rambling post… well, OK.. perhaps quite a few of you would disagree with that. The thing is, I’ve noticed something. This weekend we were shopping at the local Tesco. It’s the usual scene, you put a few items in the trolley …

The Smartphone Centre opens up

An all-new phone store has just opened up online. It’s called The Smartphone Centre and they have some rather tasty deals available. We’ve already dealt with some of the people behind the company and they’ve loaned us handsets to review over the years, so they definitely get our …