Search Clinic wishes you a prosperous New Year.
Search Clinic wishes you a prosperous New Year in 2012.
It’s been a very busy year with growing use of the internet to boost businesses’ ecommerce activities.
And lots of new marketing initiatives from technology companies to develop their investments.
Onwards and upwards into 2012!
Western business have been slower at adopting social networks such as Facebook and Twitter than their rivals in developing countries, according to a report by KPMG.
The report found firms in China, India and Brazil were 20-30% more likely to use social media than companies in developed countries such as the UK.
KPMG surveyed 1,850 managers and 2,016 employees from 10 countries.
On average, it found that 70% of companies now use social media.
“The emerging markets seem to be quickly finding that social networks offer a relatively low-cost opportunity to leapfrog the competition in developed markets,” said Tudor Aw, KPMG’s head of technology, Europe.
“The rapid adoption of social media in emerging market countries may also be attributed to a lower dependence on ‘legacy systems’,” such as email, he added.
The KPMG report also found that many employees are being banned by their employers from using these networks- but that they often use them anyway.
One third of employees surveyed whose firm had blocked access used workarounds to get onto social network sites.
KPMG’s survey found that 98% managers at firms in China and 95% of managers in Brazil said they use social media at least several times a week, compared with 80% of managers in the UK.
Only 48% of UK companies use networks such as Twitter and Facebook to communicate with suppliers, clients and customers.
That compares with 72% in the US and 83% in China.
However, the report found that UK firms had fewer problems using the internet for social purposes compared with their rivals overseas.
Online banking at Lloyds Bank is the latest compnay to have suffered problems with their online systems.
Some Lloyds TSB customers suffered problems getting into the online banking system on Thursday morning.
The bank’s customer services team has been apologising to customers who have complained about a shutdown in the system.
However, they said that the system should now be working as normal.
The glitch comes in the same week as computer problems affected customers with accounts at the Post Office who visited branches.
Last month, maintenance work affected services for customers of RBS and NatWest – the day after HSBC customers faced a shutdown in online services.
A spokeswoman for Lloyds claimed that the glitch affected the online banking system for an hour.
Transactions were affected at the Post Office network on Monday as computer issues caused problems on one of the busiest days of the year.
Some transactions were affected for two 30-minute periods, leading to queues.
The Post Office apologised, saying that the service had now been restored across the UK network of 11,800 branches.
The problem came as Royal Mail’s website continued to suffer from a computer glitch.
“We are very sorry for the inconvenience this problem has caused customers. We know how important the Post Office is to our customers at all times, but especially at Christmas,” said Kevin Gilliland, the Post Office’s network and sales director.
This is the second computer problem at the network in six months. In July, a shutdown blocked access for 3.3 million customers with Post Office card accounts.
Some pensioners have their benefits paid into a Post Office card account.
A Post Office spokesman said the glitch affected most services offered by the branches which were hit.
Post offices were expected to be particularly busy, because Royal Mail was predicting its busiest day of the year.
They were expecting 131 million items to be posted, double the usual number. They had taken on thousands of extra staff to cope with the Christmas rush, caused in part by the popularity of online shopping.
Last week, Royal Mail admitted that it had charged some customers twice for postal services as problems continue to hit its website.
Some 600 customers had cards debited twice, at an average of £50 each time, after repeating a purchase in the SmartStamp section which the system told them had initially failed. Various online postage applications – such as Price Finder – have also been down since 21 November.
A Post Office spokesman said the issues affecting Royal Mail were unrelated to the problems at the Post Office network on Monday.
Chancellor George Osborne announced £5 billion of spending on infrastructure projects such as roads, railways and broadband networks with £100 million of that is set to boost broadband coverage in London, Belfast, Edinburgh and Cardiff.
A further six cities will be identified later.
“For the first time we are identifying over 500 infrastructure projects we want to see built over the next decade and beyond. Roads, railways, airport capacity, power stations, waste facilities, broadband networks,” the chancellor told the House of Commons.
“It means creating new superfast digital networks for companies across our country. These do not exist today. See what countries like China or Brazil are building, and you’ll also see why we risk falling behind the rest of the world,” he said.
“Our great cities are at the heart of our regional economies. And we will help bring world leading, superfast broadband and wi-fi connections to 10 of them – including the capitals of all four nations.
The plan is to create a hub of super-fast cities with broadband speeds of between 80 to 100Mbps (megabits per second) and city-wide high-speed mobile connectivity.
The current average broadband speed in the UK is 6.8Mbps.
Firms including BT and Virgin will be able to bid for the money, which they can use to fill in urban notspots or increase wi-fi coverage, a spokesman for the Department of Culture, Media and Sport said.
The government wants the UK to be the best place for broadband in Europe by 2015.
BT recently accelerated its superfast broadband rollout and now plans to offer fibre services to two-thirds of UK premises by the end of 2014.
Virgin Media has also turned up the speed dial on its services, which is available to half the homes in the UK.
Broadband rollouts in rural areas have been far slower with critics complaining that the £530m set aside by the government to encourage investment in these areas is insufficient.
Much of that money has been allocated to local councils identified as having broadband blackspots but few have yet got projects up and running.
As more people are preferring to search online for a partner than in a bar or club, the web dating business is worth more than £2 billion a year worldwide and niche targeting is helping businesses meet customer needs.
One of the fastest growing online dating companies is Global Personals, based in Windsor, which was set up eight years ago.
It currently employs 100 staff and has 14 websites including Just Widower Dating and Just Divorced Singles which cater for very specific markets.
But 85% of Global Personals’ income is from selling software for other people to host their own rebranded sites – known as “white label” sites.
“We provide the technology, customer care and database for other brands to put their label on it and market it to consumers,” says founder Ross Williams.
The service is used by individuals who want to set up a dating business and also by several media companies for their linked dating sites like FHM, Bizarre and Maxim magazines. In total it hosts 6,000 white label sites.
Another specialist target is the Asian market, where sites such as Shaadi.com appeal to people who are more interested in settling down than dating.
The Mumbai-based company claims to have fixed more than two million weddings worldwide since it opened 15 years ago.
The site uses the same search criteria that families would use when trying to arrange a marriage in the traditional way but does everything online.
UK shoppers are buying more online products and services and at a faster pace than many other countries- a survey of global shopping habits by KPMG has found.
Seventy seven per cent of British shoppers prefer to buy goods like CDs, DVDs, books and video games online – compared with 65% globally.
But when it comes to mobile banking, consumers in the UK are more reluctant than those in other parts of the world.
KPMG surveyed 9,600 consumers aged between 16 and 65, across 31 countries.
When buying goods or services, the majority of customers (both in the UK and globally) now said that they look at social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and online review sites.
“From buying goods on their mobile phones to keeping up with friends on social networks, consumers are increasingly reliant on a range of technologies that perform important – yet often overlapping – tasks,” said Tudor Aw, KPMG’s European head of technology.
“This new ‘converged lifestyle’ will have huge implication for retailers.”
Eighty eight per cent of respondents in the UK and worldwide reported downloading an app to their mobile.
In the UK, 74% of consumers said they were more likely to buy flights and holidays online and six in 10 used some form of online grocery shopping.
In the US, by contrast, the same amount would book flights but only 21% said they were more likely to buy groceries online.
But when it comes to mobile banking, only 27% in the UK said they had used some form of mobile banking in the past six months.
That compares with 52% globally – a massive jump from just under 20% in 2008, according to the audit firm.
Consumers in the UK are also more reluctant to embrace the cloud – storing their data online rather than on their own computers – with 53% of respondents saying they do some compared with 65% globally.
“The report also shows that consumers’ concerns over privacy and data security have increased over the last few years and companies across all sectors need to take this concern seriously,” Mr Aw said.
Online sales rose faster than expected in the US on Black Friday, according to surveys- with more expected next week.
Internet sales totalled £524 million ($816 million), a 26% gain on last year, said Comscore. IBM Coremetrics put the rise at 24%.
Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is treated by many retailers as the start of the Christmas shopping season. They offer one-off discounts to mark the occasion.
Analysts said heavy promotional activity helped drive demand.
By comparison, a report by Shoppertrak suggested that in-store Black Friday sales were up by 7% on last year, at £7.12 billion ($11.4 billion).
Around 50 million Americans visited online retail sites on Friday, according to Comscore.
It said Amazon was the most popular destination, with 50% more visitors than any other retailer.
Walmart, Best Buy, Target and Apple were next in line, said the analytics company.
“Despite some analysts’ predictions that the flurry of brick-and-mortar retailers opening their doors early for Black Friday would pull dollars from online retail, we still saw a banner day for e-commerce,” said Comscore’s chairman, Gian Fulgoni.
IBM Coremetrics also noted a trend towards shopping on smartphones and tablet computers.
It said Black Friday purchases made on mobile devices had accounted for 9.8% of all online sales, compared with 3.2% last year.
IBM described mobile shoppers as having had a “laser focus” since they had been more likely to view a single page on a retailer’s site rather than browse what else was for sale.
IBM said Apple’s iPhone and iPad had generated the most mobile internet visits to online stores, accounting for more than double the traffic originating from devices running Google’s Android system.
The company also noted a jump in Black Friday related chatter on social networks. It recorded a 110% rise in discussion volumes after consumers had shared tips on how to secure products before they sold out and the best places to park.
Friday’s internet sales are expected to be eclipsed today on what is referred to as Cyber Monday – which many experts believe will be the US’s busiest online shopping day of the year.
Close to 123 million Americans plan to make an online purchase according to a survey commissioned by the US National Retail Federation, an industry lobby group. That would be a 15% increase on last year.
NRF said nearly eight in ten online retailers would run special promotions including “flash sales that last an hour” and “free shipping offers”.
The federation also highlighted the shift to mobile devices, saying it expected 17.8 million Americans to use them to shop today, nearly five times the number in 2009.
“Retailers have invested heavily in mobile apps and related content as the appetite for Cyber Monday shopping through smartphones and tablets continues to rise,” said Vicki Cantrell, executive director of the NRF’s website shop.org.
UK internet retailers said it was less clear which day will be the UK’s busiest online shopping day this year.
“Over the last couple of years we have seen a fortnight of peak activity over the period corresponding to both this and next week,” said Andy Mulcahy, a spokesman for the industry body Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG).
“We expect £3.72bn will be spent online over the two week period.”
Mr Mulcahy said that although some retailers are trying to generate interest in the idea of a cyber event in the UK, but they are split over which day to mark.
Visa Europe said it believed today will be the UK’s busiest internet shopping day, with £303m spent online.
eBay has forecast that it would experience its peak in activity this Sunday with more than 5.5 million people expected to log onto the UK version of its auction website.
Amazon said it expected to experience more demand the following day.
“In recent years, the first Monday in December has been Amazon.co.uk’s busiest day with orders for over 2.3 million items being placed on Monday 6th December last year,” said Christopher North, the website’s managing director.
As it’s now December and people are opening the first windows on their Advent calendars Dr Search thought we would give you some insights for the Twelve Days of Christmas 2011 online. 
The 12 Insights of Christmas 2011
1. This December 350 million hours will be spent shopping online by the UK Internet population. This translates to an average of 8 hours and 45 minutes spent per person on shopping websites over the course of the month.
2. 2.1 billion visits will go to online retail sites in December with new record peaks in traffic both pre and post-Christmas.
3. Lego will be the most searched for toy this Christmas, in particular Lego Star Wars games and sets.
4. Cyber Monday (5 December) will be the biggest pre-Christmas shopping day online with 85 million visits to retail websites from UK Internet users.
5. Monday 19 December will be the biggest day of December for online Grocery visits as people do some last minute food shopping but also check store opening times across the Christmas period.
6. iPhones will be a third more popular online than iPads this Christmas. If search intent was reflected in sales, for every 3 iPads Apple sold this Christmas they would sell 4 iPhones.
7. Facebook will see a new peak in UK Internet visits as friends share messages of good will with one another. 25 million hours will be spent on Facebook on Christmas Day alone.
8. Searches for the post-Christmas sales will start earlier than ever this year, with eager shoppers starting to do their research online as early as Christmas Eve.
9. Friday 23 December will be the biggest day of December for retailers receiving traffic from email as the multi-channel retailers prepare their customers for the post-Christmas sales.
10. The fashion sector will be the most reliant on Facebook traffic this Christmas, with TopShop, River Island and ASOS among the biggest recipients of Facebook traffic.
11. 12 million hours will be spent watching video clips on BBC iPlayer this Christmas with the biggest driver of traffic being the Dr Who Christmas special.
12. Hull will be the online shopping capital of Britain of December 2011, with proportionally more people doing their Christmas shopping online than any other city in the UK.
These twelve days of christmas online insights were initially research by Hitwise.
Google is to charge websites for adding their maps to your website.
Google Maps wants to charge larger websites for heavy usage of the service.
From 1 January 2012, Google will charge for the Google Maps API service when more than the limit of 25,000 map “hits” are made in a day.
Websites, especially travel firms, use Google Maps to link customers to a view of the destinations they inquire about.
Google is rumoured to be charging £2 per 1,000 views in excess of the limit.
Google maintains the high limit of 25,000 free hits before charging “will only affect 0.35% of users”.
Google said it was aware that developers needed time to evaluate their usage, determine if they were affected and then take action as appropriate.
“We understand that the introduction of these limits may be concerning,” said Thor Mitchell, product manager of the Maps API at Google.
“However, with the continued growth in adoption of the Maps API, we need to secure its long-term future by ensuring that even when used by the highest-volume for-profit sites, the service remains viable. ”
Dr Search has long debated the accuracy of Google Maps- they are linked to the flawed StreetView and Places options within the Google databases.
Don’t worry if you do feature Google Maps on your website as there are FREE alternatives available from at least Yahoo and Microsoft at: http://www.bing.com/maps and http://www.maps.yahoo.com
