Tag: figures

Smartphone web sales picking up

tin-can-phoneNew reports suggests that while more orders are being placed via smartphones some retailers are dropping the ball by being too slow.

The latest IMRG Capgemini eRetail Sales Index suggests that as mobile phone screen sizes get bigger, customers are becoming happier about buying online

Capgemini found that £133 billion was spent online with UK retailers last year, which was up by £18 billion on the previous twelve months. The expectation is that the trend will continue and the market will increase by 14 percent  this year as users become more comfortable with online ordering.

Bhavesh Unadkat, principal consultant in retail customer engagement design at Capgemini said that if retailers invested to improve the customer shopping experience, 2017 will be another record breaking year for online sales.

The findings about increased web sales come at a time when research from Interactive Intelligence has shown that those who respond slowly to customer queries are going to lose business.

David Paulding, regional director for Interactive Intelligence, which carried out the research, warned that dealing with customers in a timely way was essential.

“Retailers can benefit from technology such as cloud-based solutions that can far more effectively handle big data analysis across all interaction types. This will ensure timeliness and consistency across every channel which will give customers the best experience possible,” he said.

ONS: youth unemployment up again

Jobcentre-plus-The job centre saw less footfall from October to December last year, with unemployment falling and the number of those in work rising, according to the Office for National Statistics.

Unemployment rates fell by 14,000 to 2.5 million, for the first time in two years, while the number of those in employment rose by 154,000 to 29.7 million. However, 163,000 were included as employed who were on government sponsored training programmes.

More than 580,000 people were counted as employed compared to this time last year. The ONS added that by the end of December there were 29.73 million UK people in employment. Of this, 73 percent were in full time work and the rest working part-time.

The ONS also found that the number of people in the UK claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance fell by 12,500 to 1.54 million, while some in work also saw a rise in wages, with the organisation finding total pay – including bonuses – rose by 1.4 percent and regular pay – excluding bonuses – rose by 1.3 percent from the same period in 2011.

In monetary terms this meant that average weekly earnings excluding
bonus payments stood at £445 in December 2012, before taxes and other deductions from gross pay, up from £439 a year earlier.

The statistics also show that youth unemployment increased by 11,000 to 974,000 – the highest rise for a year.

Other figures showed the number of self-employed workers increased by 25,000 to 4.2 million, and the number of people with more than one job increased by 41,000 to 1.1 million.