Today is expected to be the biggest shopping day of the year in the UK with shoppers heading to the high street to pick up last minute Christmas gifts. There are expected to be over 30 million transactions worth over £1.5billion throughout the day, around 8 per cent more than the same time in 2010.

Much to the disgust of shoppers who bought in plenty of time for Christmas, many high street stores have decided to kick off their January sales early meaning that many have paid over the odds for their Christmas gifts. Stores like Argos, Debenhams, John Lewis and M&S are all starting their sales now in order to avoid piles of stock becasue of customers leaving it so late.

In contrast, online stores have been reducing prices for weeks with great deals to be had all across the web including Amazon and some of our ecommerce Coventry clients. Although it is almost definitely impossible to order online now in time for Christmas, the same great deals will be available after with the addition of some new ones as the Boxing Day and January sales start properly.

It does seem like online shopping is becoming the way to go for Christmas shopping. You can get the best deals early and avoid all the queues and hassle of the high street. Early reports suggest that online shopping is up 16 per cent this year from last and the number is expected to increase in the coming years. There has never been a better time to set up an online ecommerce business.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all here at HeadRed. We look forward to seeing you in 2012.

Seemingly not content with being the leader in web search and owning the most popular mobile operating system, Google seems to have it’s eye on a new market, online shopping. The Wall Street Journal has reported that several large US retailers, including Macy’s, OfficeMax and Gap, have been approached by the search giant about joint ventures.

Google’s most recent product Google+ was launched to take on Facebook in the social media space but this time they are setting their sights on Amazon and online shopping. A large amount of web traffic is people searching for things to buy and many customers choose to go straight to Amazon and bypass Google completely.

Specifically, Google will be taking on ‘Amazon Prime’ a service offering unlimited one-day shipping on over a million eligible products and large reductions on express and evening delivery options. The service is available for an annual fee of £49 and streamlines the shopping and delivery process for a huge number of online retailers.

Google already has some of the infrastructure in place to offer a service like this. Google Product Search allows customers to search for, compare prices and read reviews on products from many retailers across the web. Google checkout is an online payment service similar to PayPal that allows customers to pay for items on the web with their Google account. They will be looking to combine these existing services with the added convenience of shipping services.

At least for the time being Google wouldn’t be looking to sell anything itself but instead running the entire process from search to delivery for other online retailers. This is different from Amazon who run a large number of warehouses and are very much in control of the entire process. Google would have to outsource to third-party logistics companies for many of the things that Amazon deals with itself, perhaps increasing the chance of the service being unsuccessful.

Google are known for providing a good level of service to it’s many users but at the end of the day their main business is advertising. By taking some of the web traffic from Amazon they will be able to increase their advertising revenue.

Google has a habit of seeing a market and taking it but Amazon will be a tough competitor. We will have to watch the situation closely to see if any of our e-commerce Coventry clients could benefit from being part of it.

Today is Black Friday and whilst this might sound quite ominous, it’s a day when Americans and now people in the UK can snap up some pre Christmas bargains. Black Friday is the day after the American holiday of Thanksgiving and is seen as the official start of the Christmas shopping season. Retailers offer discounts and massively reduced stock to entice customers to their stores and many open in the early hours of the morning to take full advantage of this mad shopping day. Non-retail workers are usually given the day off so that they can take full advantage of the Black Friday discounts and people have been known to queue from the early hours or even the day before and completely miss their Thanksgiving to make sure they are first in line to grab a bargain.

Whilst all this shopping and discounted goods might seem like fun, Black Friday has seen some crazy scenes over the years with many videos of stampeding shoppers appearing on YouTube. Whilst some of them are quite humorous to see the lengths some shoppers will go to make sure they get a discounted PlayStation3, there have also been some shocking scenes of arguments and fights breaking out with people even getting arrested for threatening other shoppers and store staff. It’s expected that 152 million people will be hitting the shops this year over the weekend in America and will be looking to take advantage of 60% discounts at The Gap and a 42-inch HDTV at Best Buy reduced from $499 to $199. As you can see there are some great deals to be had so it’s no wonder the effort some people will go to make sure they get what they are after.

Another day which has spawned from Black Friday is Cyber Monday which is the online equivalent and takes place on the following Monday. Cyber Monday is when online ecommerce sites get involved and offer their own discounts and began after analysts found that people were hitting the online stores after a weekend of window shopping and seeing the products they liked. As we all know, shopping from the comfort of your home can be a lot more enjoyable than putting up with the pushing and shoving that goes on in the high street.

Recently, Black Friday has made its way to the UK with Amazon and Apple offering online deals. If you head on over to the Apple website today you can find iPads, iPods and MacBooks at reduced prices whilst Amazon has been offering a range of discounted products all week including TV’s, watches, children’s toys and jewellery. Whilst not as popular as in America, it’s great to see some discounts for UK shoppers before Christmas so make sure to check out your favourite online ecommerce site on Cyber Monday to see if they are offering any deals.

It’s been a bleak week for both online and high street retailers this week with a number of announcements which are affecting shops both now and in the future. With Christmas fast approaching, now is the time when retailers will be expecting an increase in custom and sales. This hasn’t come true though with a number of factors effecting peoples spending habits including the continuing state of the economy and other factors such as the unseasonably warm weather throughout October and into November affecting the sales of winter clothes.

The high street reported this week on a poor month of sales for October which were 0.6% down from last year and this has raised fears within the retail industry that the high streets will miss out on the much needed boost that Christmas usually brings. Previously, sales used to be a highlight of the New Year but we now see ½ price sales and 40% off discounts all throughout the build up to Christmas. These discounts are applied in the hope of kick starting peoples spending but whether this will happen is still uncertain. Since this week has seen the closure of the Best Buy electronic outlet stores owned by Carphone Warehouse and the sale of the loss-making electrical store Comet for only £2, high street stores are going to have to work hard to improve their fortunes. Some stores are utilising new methods to entice customers into stores, such as John Lewis who are offering free Wi-Fi in stores so customers can easily compare prices on smartphones. Combining the Internet and ecommerce sites with store retail is a great way to add new benefits to shopping on the high street and hopefully help improve retailer’s fortunes.

The Government this week announced plans to stop online stores from selling cheap DVDs and CDs by using the tax benefit relief from shipping items from the Channel Islands. Play.com, Tesco and Amazon ship items from the Channel Islands as it means they do not pay tax on items due to Low Value Consignment Relief (LVCR) and this has been reported to cost the UK £140 million a year in lost tax. The idea is to create a more level playing field for smaller companies to compete in the market. The ruling isn’t coming into effect until April next year but it will be interesting to see how the companies reply to this change.

This news just further signifies the importance of having a strong ecommerce site and online visibility created by a strong search engine optimisation campaign. Coventry based companies can take advantage of the services offered by HeadRed to make sure they are competing to their best potential this Christmas and all year round.

The Screwfix brand is synonymous with DIY and home improvement throughout the UK. Screwfix Wardrobes is a new website that, thanks to an association with existing HeadRed client Spaceslide, brings the world of made-to-measure sliding wardrobe doors to the Screwfix product portfolio.

HeadRed designed and built the new Screwfix Wardrobes website, which like its Spaceslide counterpart includes a bespoke e-commerce engine. Our custom-built “wardrobe configurator” allows customers to tailor their purchase to their exact requirements, providing the ultimate online experience.

If the results we achieved for Spaceslide are anything to go by then we’re sure the new Screwfix Wardrobes website will be a phenomenal success!

Visit the site now at: http://www.screwfixwardrobes.com/

The new website for palletised distribution specialist, Palletline, was launched today.

The site features the most up-to-date web technologies and will provide potential customers with a quick, simple and user-friendly interface that will handle all of their pallet delivery needs.

The new site’s launch marks the first big step in Palletline’s goal to become the major online player in the pallet delivery industry.

You can visit the new Palletline website here:http://www.palletline.co.uk/