The flurry of retail Christmas trading statements is over. And without a doubt the winners were online retail. This year, online retail scored a bigger and more significant win than ever before – average spend per online shopper was up by a massive £25 per head, a 15% increase from 2010. By contrast, high street shoppers spent on average £13 less than in 2010. So online retail was clear winners.

However, on closer inspection, our research (conducted through our syndicated online resea...

I was struck by the results of a recent project, which showed 25% of customers felt the need to phone or email as a direct result of an enquiry sought via the web.

For a long time, I have always believed and stated that communication will always breed more communication. We humans tend to be social animals after all. And providing any information about anything tends to engage the reader and can lead to more questions. In fact, ‘engagement’ is often a measure of success for marketing...

I’ve been meaning to write this blog for some time, ever since we posted our article ‘The Hidden Cost of Self-Service’ in our eJournal in February 2010. I’m sure there were many people that agreed with its sentiment and also many who didn’t; so I wanted to explain some more about the research that underpins that article.

Self-service offers many benefits to the customer – convenience, speed...