'Net Features : UK

UK Retailers Fail Web Shoppers

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 19:15:00 GMT

Top retailers in the UK are in danger of “contravening” legal requirements relating to their customers according to the UK’s Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

Research (PDF available here) on 156 e-commerce sites (both pure-play Internet and brick-and-mortar retailers) revealed that nearly half were not in full compliance with consumer protection laws and could face legal action if adjustments were not made. For instance, according to the OFT report, one of the key issues was that merchants were adding fees to the initial price shown. While 60 percent of sites indicated upfront that extra charges would have to be met prior to purchase, 24 percent of these platforms then also required that unexpected costs be paid.

Some other interesting highlights from the report include:

- 33 percent of platforms providing information about cancellations imposed “unreasonable restrictions” on customers right to a refund (the objective being that it was common for retailers to require products be returned in their original packaging or condition, which can “infringe on consumers’ right to reasonably inspect/assess the product”)

- 60 percent of digital retailers only provided a web contact form, not through an email address (as demanded by UK law); 2 percent made no electronic contact details available.

There was some good news however, 99 percent of companies provided information about when goods would be delivered, and 95 percent provided a postal address when payment for products was needed in advance.

Facebook is UK's Biggest Display Ad Market

Mike Phillips — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:30:00 GMT

ComScore released an overview of the UK online display advertising market for Q3 2010, which not only showed strong gains for the medium as a whole but also lists Facebook as the UK's single largest display ad publisher on the Web. Facebook accounted for 68 billion display ad impression (does not include video ads or house ads), for a 31 percent market share. A distant second was Microsoft Sites (14 billion), followed by eBay (8.8 billion) and Google Sites (8.2 billion). This not only points out how large the Facebook audience is, but also the pervasiveness of advertising on the world's largest social network. And in the face of advertising, users have not abandoned the site on grounds of "intrusion." That's good news for advertisers.

Also according to the comScore findings, the display market overall enjoyed a 34 precent increase in ad impressions over Q3 2009, reaching more than 221 billion display ads. Display advertising is clearly on the rise once again.

NeverBlue Lead Gen Goes Global

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:40:00 GMT

Lead generation network Neverblue announced international expansion plans.

The company said it will move into Western Europe with a special focus on Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

"Internet marketing and specifically lead generation are growing global opportunities. The international markets will outpace domestic growth," said Hakan Lindskog, Neverblue's CEO. "All of our top advertisers and top publishers are expanding internationally, so Neverblue's strategy is sound."

Neverblue has seen impressive international results to support the investment, with more than 40% of all conversions now occurring internationally and with the UK recently becoming one of Neverblue's top performing markets. The company is now driving over one million leads per month.

An important somewhat related side note: Website Magazine will be publishing a list of the top 50 affiliate networks in its May issue. Keep an eye out for it in the next few weeks.

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Socials Networks Continue to Grow in UK

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:43:00 GMT

11 million people in the UK visited social network sites in 2007 according to a recent eMarketer report. Facebook continues to trail MySpace in the US, but the online social networking site has overtaken its main rival in worldwide unique users. With almost 20 foreign-language versions of the site, starting with French, German and Spanish, Facebook has seen continuous growth throughout Europe. Now, with the new Chinese-language version, it is beginning its trajectory in Asia.

Western Europe has played a major role in the growth of online social networks. eMarketer estimates that 60.5% of the UK population, or 36.8 million people, went online at least once per month in 2007. Of those, 30% -- 11 million people -- visited social network sites at least once per month.

"The strong growth is an indicator of the level of interest consumers have in online social networks," said Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer senior analyst specializing in social networks. Online social network ad spending in the UK and Western Europe is expected to reach 283 million pounds Sterling in 2008, rising to 804 million pounds Sterling in 2012.