Two percent of visitors to retail sites – 700,000 people – made online purchases in 1999, and numbers of visitors to e-commerce sites have doubled in the past six months alone. The trends are attributed to the increase in new sites and improved promotion. Average promotion budgets for French retail sites have doubled from less … [Read more…]

announced recently that they have provided secure network technology for Open’s interactive TV service. The contract is worth 4 m. VeriFone’s payment processing engine, used by Open, enables authorisation and settlement of payments using credit and debit cards- allowing interactive online purchasing of goods. The core processing behind the service is the VeriFone Omni-Host application … [Read more…]

The company launched its mudhut.co.uk site in February this year and has recently struck a deal with the Acid Jazz label. Mudhut have exclusive digital distribution rights of all artists over the next six years, and licenses for ecommerce, mcommerce and bespoke CD compilations.

Barclays in the UK, Deutsche Bank in Germany and French bank Credit Lyonnais are planning a move towards pan-European Internet banking said the report. Differences in regulations between countries are a stumbling block for banks that plan to offer cross-border services in Europe, but increased convergence is expected in the next few years.

The company declined to disclose details of the deal, but issued a statement confirming it was in talks with the leading search engine about “a commercial arrangement regarding the distribution of content”. Sports Internet runs around 20 co-branded sites for UK football clubs through its PlanetFootball network, which attracted 840,000 users and generated approximately 16m … [Read more…]

Virtual Internet claim to have liased with its Milan office and “taken advantage of regulatory changes at the Italian registry”. For Virtual Internet this move is set to prove very popular, Steve Miller head of marketing said, “We have already been approached by a number of IT companies who see .it as an ideal alternative … [Read more…]

Divorce, health, beauty and socialising are just some of the topics which will be covered in the Ready2.com umbrella site which is set for launch next April. Ready2Shop, which was founded by fashion commentators Trinny Woodall and Susannah Constantine, will remain as a separate brand but will link to the various channels within the main … [Read more…]

Toy sites were most popular with 1.3m unique buyers, ahead of music sites with more than 1m unique buyers, but online spending rose significantly in every category. The number of buyers increased as well, with software 92% increase and health and beauty 91% showing the biggest increases. Convenience was the most popular reason for shopping … [Read more…]

Created by iWeb Ltd, the iNotes are delivered to users’ screens while they are browsing. iWeb claim they not only generate a click-through rate ten times greater than banners, but are regarded by users as ‘unobtrusive’ and ‘valuable’. Users can choose whether to receive the iNotes, which are in rich-media, and then allow it to … [Read more…]

A spokesman described the move as a ‘natural evolution’ that will help differientiate the service from BBC Online. The idea is to encourage consumers onto the web and offer a safe environment in which to shop. This may benefit concerned shoppers, who may be too nervous to purchase with a relatively unknown etailer but would … [Read more…]