MULTICHANNELNEWS 13


SHOPPING.COM LAUNCHES RAPID PRICE UPDATES


shopping comparison site are updated within 30 minutes.


S The RPU system is the fi rst to give


retailers the ability to update their prices every 30 minutes so their latest deals and price cuts can be mirrored on Shopping.com within half an hour, rather than 24 hours as they were previously, for better conversion rates. Michelle Helme, marketing manager


for dabs.com, commented that, in a competitive marketplace, pricing is everything, where it is vital to show the latest offers and deals. “The new Rapid Price Update system is a very welcome step forward


Online luxury fashion retailer Net-a-porter recently launched a new ‘Live’ interactive shopping experience.


Accessed through a live-


feed ticker, Net-a-porter Live is designed to grow the brand’s social community by providing a window into customers’ browsing habits, showing what they are adding to their wish list, to their shopping bag, or sharing with friends, in real time. James Christian, Net-a-porter head of innovation, told Retail Technology an in-house team of over 100 Perl, Java, HTML5 and CSS3 designers developed a unique way of geographically recording what and where sales are happening and that the project required building completely new frameworks and libraries.


hopping.com recently launched its Rapid Price Update (RPU) system, ensuring prices on the


for the shopping comparison industry and we look forward to uplift in conversion as a result,” she added. A Shopping.com spokesperson told


Retail Technology the RPU system had required new technology investment. “The use of open-source NoSQL databases for data caching enables blazing fast data retrievals,” they said. The functionality also allows


retailers to run much more time- sensitive promotions and the company to access the growing e-commerce markets in fl ash and weekend sales. The RPU technology was rolled


out in July at the same time across all Shopping.com markets, which includes the UK, US, France, Germany and Australia.


SHUTL EXPANDS UK COVERAGE


Internet delivery startupShutl announced the launch of its service to shoppers in and around Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Edinburgh at the beginning of August. The multi award-winning delivery


fi rm allows shoppers to receive online purchases within as little as 90 minutes, or choose a one-hour delivery window, same day or any day. Shutl delivers 24 hours a day, seven days a week from £4.95, however retailers often discount the service and even offer it free in order to drive conversion. Shutl delivery had only been available to shoppers within the M25 until it announced its recent expansion. It works by aggregating the capacity of local same-day couriers into a web service.This integrates with retailers’ e-commerce platforms, allowing them to fulfi l online orders from local stores, keeping the delivery distance short. “This next phase of Shutl’s


expansion will enable us to serve around 25% of online shoppers in the UK,” commented Tom Allason, Shutl founder and chief executive.“Our goal is to have suffi cient coverage by November to give High Street retailers a signifi cant competitive edge over Amazon and the other pure-play e-tailers this Christmas.”


◆ According to ABI Research, only about 10% of total point-of-sale (PoS) terminal shipments included some form of contactless technology in 2010. While the analyst fi rm disagrees with some of the wilder predictions for contactless PoS growth, it forecast that 85% of


terminals shipped worldwide will be contactless- enabled in 2016, driven by rapid adoption of contactless cards and especially, near-fi eld communications (NFC) enabled mobile phones.


www.retailtechnology.co.uk multichannel age”


www.retailtechnology.co.uk “Retail Technology for the


“Retail Technology for the multichannel age”


Lynn Neil


For full online opportunities and weekly newsletter please contact: ynn Neil


el: +44 208 123 5040


or full online opportunities and weekly newsletter please contact: Tel: +44 208 123 5040


email: lneil@bpl-business.com email: lneil@bpl-business.com JULY/AUGUST 2011 RETAIL TECHNOLOGY


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