Your weekly digital news fix (27/08/10)
Friday 27 August 2010
July witnessed the highest online sales growth since 2007
According to the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, shoppers spend £5 billion online in July. Not only is this the highest monthly spend this year, but it was 18% higher than July 2009 and is the largest increase seen since before the recession.
On Average, Britons spent £81 online, with large proportions of people’s online spend going towards summer holidays. Seeing as 50% of the UK’s population uses the Internet everyday, this is hardly surprising.
With the wet weather of August, sales figures could remain high. This bodes well for Christmas, as more shoppers will shop online in order to track down a bargain.
New report reveals affiliate marketing sector will be worth £4.62 billion by the end of 2010
A report by Econsultancy suggests the affiliate marketing sector will grow by 12% this year, making it worth £4.62 billion before 2011.
Last year the sector grew by 8% and was worth £4.13 billion with £245 million paid in fees and commission. In 2010, fees and commission are likely to expand to £275 million as more brands look to affiliate marketing to boost sales.
Affiliate marketing is predicted to be responsible for 8% of online sales this year with online sales in 2010 expected to hit £56 billion. The greatest success for this form of marketing has been in offering deals for the consumer, largely through discounts and voucher codes.
Google is launching VoIP calls for Gmail users
Beginning in the US, a free or low-cost online call service is to be rolled out to all Gmail users. Using their Gmail account, a user will be able to make free calls within America and Canada, with calls to the UK, France, Germany and China costing 1.2p per minute.
Users will be able to call people’s phones directly, without the need for both caller and receiver to be online at the same time. Gmail users who set up an account will be given a number allowing people to call this number in return.
Google plans to extend the service globally in the near future, but no date has been given yet.
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