February 9, 2011
Filed under: Sales — Alan @ 9:31 pm
With rumours of consumer discontent over the government’s austerity programme and the VAT rise, High Street sales were better in January, new figures released by the BDO showed. The BDO said an increase of over 9% was reported compared to January of last year.
Retailers were helped by continued discounting and mild winter weather making for a very strong first 15 days of January. There was an increase across the board even though the figures were compared to last year’s that was affected by a large amount of snow.
Homewares and fashion reported strong increases and online purchases increased by nearly 50%. Recent comments by retailers have not been positive even though there were strong figures released by the BDO. John Lewis’s last weekly figures show a decrease in sales from the same period last year.
After a big decline in sales for the past 13 weeks, leading up to January 13, a profit warning was issued by Carpetright. Announcing a decline in post Christmas sales as well.
The National Head of Retail and Wholesale for BDO, Don Williams, tempered the report with a cautionary statement saying the New Year blitz is over and a tough first quarter is on the way.
January 27, 2011
Filed under: Sales — Alan @ 3:40 am
Britain’s economy dropped by about .5% over the final quarter of 2010 ruining the day of those who had hoped to see the economy show some growth over the last quarter due to the poor winter weather that dashed hopes of retailers to see high Christmas sales.
The slump came unpredictably after the year was marked prominent growth and has caused many experts nervous who have been concerned that the country may be on the brink of a double dip recession due to new austerity measures.
Over the three months leading up to December the GDP fell by about .5% in the face of a positive .7% increase over the third quarter according to a statement from the ONS (Office for National Statistics).
This the first drop in the GDP since 2009 and went against the wide spread expectation that there would be another increase over the fourth quarter of last year.
City Index in London staffer Joshua Raymond stated that the GDP figure has shocked those in finance and has increased fear that coalition government’s new austerity program will prevent growth from occurring sending the country back into a dreaded recession once more. Technically, a country is said to be in a recession after two quarters in which the GDP falls.
After the data was released on Tuesday the London stock market crashed and the British pound dropped with many economists predicting that the Bank of England will not raise the interest rates in an effort to stop inflation from flying sky high.
At the same time, the International Monetary Fund stated that the global economic recovery is starting to finally show positive signs of traction but there is still a high chance of it turning around due to the act that there is still not enough financial reform in place and still high concern over debt.
December 31, 2010
Filed under: Sales — Alan @ 5:58 am
The City of Beijing plans to limit its monthly car registrations to just 20,000 over 2011 in order to get control over the amount of traffic in the city. China is the leading automobile market in the world and the restrictions will no doubt drive up the sales numbers for the last few days of December. In fact, over the first two weeks of the month more than 50,000 cars were sold to citizens hoping to get around the restrictions.
Although China was known for the last few decades as the bicycle kingdom of the world, over the year of 2009 in Beijing alone 580,000 cars were sold, and by the end of last year car sales are expected to reach upwards of 850,000. In fact, by the close of 2011 Beijing is expected to have over five million automobiles registered to residents.
As a way to deal with the new restrictions city officials have designed a lottery system for registrations and in order to be eligible for the car lottery citizens must show that they have paid their personal taxes and social security over the past five years.
Parking prices within the city are also due to rise by the month of April and city officials are considering adding additional driving restrictions that will resemble those that were put in place to control traffic during the Olympic Games in the city.
In addition, Beijing officials plan to help lessen traffic congestion by expanding its bicycle lane and subway networks as well as building underground highways that will help minimize the amount of traffic near city buildings.
December 22, 2010
Filed under: Sales — Alan @ 9:02 pm
Although last weekend should have been the busiest time of the year, blizzards kept shoppers at home and retailers mourning their poor sales despite tempting offers and discounts on household goods, gifts, and clothes.
The West End of London was still crowded even and centres were said to still said to have solid trading numbers, but experts believe that the poor weather likely reduced the amount of sales that could have been made as retailers attempted to match last Christmas’s sales.
HIS Global Insight chief economist for the UK, Howard Archer, stated that the sudden influx of ice and snow was a large blow for retailers that were hoping it would not hit until after the final Christmas shopping weekend. He added that many supply chains faced a hit as well given the fact that their Christmas shipments were stuck at the ports.
The West End Company which represents over 600 retailers in the Regent Street, Bond Street, and Oxford Street are in London, stated that before the blizzard hit they were expecting to see about £130m worth of sales and 1.2m shoppers throughout their stores.
Spokeswoman Sarah Cordey for the British Retail Consortium commented that the weekend was the last shopping opportunity for many people and those who still need them probably were still determined enough to get out to the stores.
The last few weeks before the holidays make up as much as 60% of the yearly turnover for many retailers but as consumers continue refine their budgets in anticipation of government spending cuts stores did not expect to see as a great influx of sales with a BRC survey showing that only 35% of all retailers expected their sales to be higher than last year’s holiday sales.
August 28, 2010
Filed under: Sales — Alan @ 5:39 am
Survey findings from the Confederation of British Industry suggested that retail sales volumes in Britain rose at their fastest pace since 2007 during August indicating that the economic recovery may finally be starting to take hold.
The strong reading suggests that the surge in July that was reported in retail sales was not just a onetime event, and that the recovery reflected during the second quarter is still holding strong in the third quarter.
On Thursday the sales balance showed +35 for August and in July +33 which was well above the scores that economists predicted which were cast at about +20. Clothing sales in particular were the highest they had even been since the survey started measuring sales in 1988.
UK economist for Societe Generale, Brian Hilliard, stated that the message from the high sales report is that July started out strong and continued to grow throughout August which reflects well for potential growth in the third quarter.
Retailers also expect to see growth continue to grow as they expect September to also reflect high growth sales of about +39.
The second reading of sales for August is due to be released today and will show a greater breakdown of each different sales market.
Government data for the month of July displayed a strong monthly sales rate that can be traced back to February when analysts expected to see the World Cup boost up sales overall across the marketplace.
January 14, 2010
Filed under: Business Tools,IT,Sales — admin @ 9:10 am
m62 visualcommunications, a specialist company in presentation effectiveness, has offered some useful tips to ensure that presenters are using their PowerPoint slides as effective visual aids in ssales presentations, by using relevant images and diagrams to illustrate points.
Although millions of PowerPoint presentations are delivered each day, many presenters still do not use slides effectively. According to m62,l two common mistakes are for the presenter to use the slides as cue cards by including too much text; or to include one large image per slide that does not help to explain the point being made.
The danger with using text on a slide is that the audience will read it instead of listening to the presenter, thus disengaging as they do not feel the need to pay attention. This remains true if the text is reduced to bullet points; the audience will still be able to understand each point before it is made, and thus may not deem it necessary to listen to the explanation.
While using a large background image to convey an idea is an improvement from using bullet points, it still does not guarantee audience attention. Unless the picture chosen is strictly relevant to the point being made, there is a risk that the audience will begin to think about the image rather than the message, and thus become lost in their own thoughts.
Instead, presenters should use diagrams, graphs and relevant images to illustrate their points, especially when the presentation is data heavy. PowerPoint slides can be designed to build on each point made, to ensure that emphasis is drawn to the correct point at the right time.
Nicholas Oulton, Founder of m62, commented: “There has been a shift in the way PowerPoint slides are used, and it has definitely been a shift for the better – yet the majority of presenters could still improve further. It is important for presenters to really think about their visual aids: why are they being used? How should the audience feel? If these questions are understood, a presenter’s slides will prove much more effective.”
m62 visualcommunications operates from offices in the UK, US and Singapore, and has produced almost 10,000 presentations for clients in a wide range of sectors, from medicine and education to finance and IT. For more information about m62 visualcommunications, call +44 (0)151 259 6262 or visit m62.net.
