Christmas 2012 exposes retailers’ digital divide

A number of major retailers this week updated the markets on their Christmas trading figures,New Ground-Based indoor positioning Tech Is Accurate Down To Just A Few Inches. and what has become clear is that a major web operation is no longer a luxury, but an essential.

The inexorable rise of web-based shopping is set to continue in 2013, and the phenomenon is already reshaping the UK’s high streets with many high-profile casualties finding themselves unable to compete.

As shoppers tightened their purse strings, more than 50 major retailers went bust last year, including household names such as JJB Sports, Game and Blacks Leisure.

Jessops became the first major victim of 2013, falling into administration just days into the year, putting 2,000 jobs at risk in the process.

In each case, the internet has been noted as a factor in their downfall as they have been unable to cope with competition from more fleet-of-foot rivals unburdened by the costs associated with having a presence on the high street.

The digital revolution was much in evidence over the festive period, with online shopping for food and gifts being a mainstay for many families culminating in a major Boxing Day splurge that saw tens of millions of pounds spent via digital platforms.

Analysts Experian said British consumers spent the equivalent of 14 million hours trawling websites on December 26, paying around 113m visits to online retailers in the process and resulting in web-based sales increasing by 17%, compared to 2011.Find Complete Details about howo tractor Truck.

Retail’s biggest festive winners all saw an increase in consumer spending online.

Tesco’s biggest ever week for internet sales fell during the festive period, with online food sales up 18%.

House of Fraser saw online sales soar by almost 50% in the six weeks to January 5, while John Lewis – a bellweather of the High Street – saw internet sales increase by 44% over the 2011 return. The high-end retailer said digital sales now accounted for ￡1 out of every ￡4 spent with the store.

Fashion store Next also reported bumper internet-led revenues, which helped take it raise its annual profits projection up to between ￡611m and ￡625m.

Conversely, supermarket chain Morrisons said it is now considering the launch of an online grocery store, after it was left behind at Christmas as shoppers abandoned the weekly trek to its stores in favour of home delivery from its rivals.

The grocer said like-for-like sales dropped 2.5% in the six weeks to December 30 – likely to be the worst performance from the large supermarket groups.

Major technical and white goods merchant Comet folded out of the retail marketplace late last year, similarly left in the wake of competitors that were faster to grasp the power of online and ‘click and collect’ retail.

Helen Dickinson, director general of the British Retail Consortium, said against the relentlessly tough economic backdrop and low expectations, online was the stand-out retail performer.Want to find howo concrete mixer?

She said: “Shoppers are increasingly taking advantage of the convenience that online shopping offers at every stage of the customer journey.”

Her sentiments were echoed in the findings of a Royal Mail survey showing 50% of SME online retailers saw their online sales increase in 2012.

Furthermore, in excess of 66% said they were confident returns from ecommerce would continue to jump throughout 2013.

Marcus Kilby, president of the British Council of Shopping Centres, which represents Britain’s retail property industry, said the shift in consumer attitude meant the High Street had to work harder to draw in customers.

He said shoppers expected to be entertained when out bargain-hunting.

“The consumer, these days, unless they get the right sort of theatre and are made to feel special, will shop online because they have that choice,” Mr Kilby said.

“Retailers have got to put on an increasingly better show to present themselves to the consumer and get people away from their computer screens and into the shops.”

Scottish Retail Consortium’s Mandy Murphy said online retail was a factor in the High Street downturn, but not solely to blame, adding: “It’s important to remember that it’s still a relatively small corner of retail as a whole.

Shouting "shame on the scum," protesters carried posters of President Vladimir Putin and members of Russia's parliament who overwhelmingly voted for the law last month.Creative glass tile and stone mosaic tile for your distinctive kitchen and bath. Up to 20,000 took part in the demonstration on a frigid, gray afternoon.

The adoption ban has stoked the anger of the same middle-class, urban professionals who swelled the protest ranks last winter, when more than 100,000 people turned out for rallies to demand free elections and an end to Putin's 12 years in power. Since Putin began a third presidential term in May, the protests have flagged as the opposition leaders have struggled to provide direction and capitalize on the broad discontent.

Opponents of the adoption ban argue it victimizes children to make a political point. Eager to take advantage of this anger, the anti-Kremlin opposition has played the ban as further evidence that Putin and his parliament have lost the moral right to rule Russia.

The Kremlin, however,You can buy mosaic Moon yarns and fibers right here as instock. has used the adoption controversy to further its efforts to discredit the opposition as unpatriotic and in the pay of the Americans.

Sunday's march may prove only a blip on what promises to be a long road for the protest movement, especially in the face of Kremlin efforts to stifle dissent. But it was a reunion of what has become known as Moscow's creative class, whose sarcastic wit was once again on display on Sunday.

"Parliament deputies to orphanages, Putin to an old people's home," read one poster. Another showed Putin with the words "For a Russia without Herod."

Putin's critics have likened him to King Herod, who ruled at the time of Jesus Christ's birth and who the Bible says ordered the massacre of Jewish children to avoid being supplanted by the newborn king of the Jews.

Russia's adoption ban was retaliation for a new U.S. law targeting Russians accused of human rights abuses. It also addresses long-brewing resentment in Russia over the 60,000 Russian children who have been adopted by Americans in the past two decades, 19 of whom have died.

Cases of Russian children dying or suffering abuse at the hands of their American adoptive parents have been widely publicized in Russia, and the law banning adoptions was called the Dima Yakovlev bill after a toddler who died in 2008 when he was left in a car for hours in broiling heat.

"Yes, there are cases when they are abused and killed, but they are rare," said Sergei Udaltsov, who heads a leftist opposition group. "Concrete measures should be taken (to punish those responsible), but our government decided to act differently and sacrifice children's fates for its political ambitions."

Those opposed to the adoption ban accuse Putin's government of stoking anti-American sentiments in Russian society in an effort to solidify support among its base, the working-class Russians who live in small cities and towns and who get their news mainly from Kremlin-controlled television.

Putin has turned his back on the new Internet generation in Moscow and other large cities, exacerbating a divide in Russian society that seems likely only to deepen in coming years.

Protests against the adoption ban were held Sunday in a number of other Russian cities, but in most places only a few dozen people took part. In St. Petersburg, about 1,000 people turned out to show their opposition to the law and to Putin. Some held up a poster that read "Don't play politics using children."

French actor Gerard Depardieu, who took Russian citizenship this month and considers Putin a friend, spoke out against the opposition in an interview shown Sunday on Russian state television. "The opposition has no program, nothing at all," the actor said, echoing Putin. "There are very smart people like (former world chess champion Garry) Kasparov, but that's only good for chess. And that's it. But politics are a lot more complicated."

The adoption ban also revived anger over the December 2011 parliamentary election, which independent observers said was won by Putin's party through widespread fraud. A column of marchers on Sunday held a banner calling for the State Duma, the elected lower house, to be disbanded.