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Deal Zippy

By Cheryl | Posted in Retail | July 4, 2011 – 1:52 pm

Deal ZippyEveryone loves a good deal and sites such as Groupon have taken advantage of the craze, posting daily offers for a wide range of products and services.

Deal Zippy don’t offer their own discounts, but they do bring a number of different sites together, making it easier for you to spot the best deals from around the web.

Dexter Grima, one of the founders of Deal Zippy, had the following to say on the launch of the site -

“Our mission at Deal Zippy is to make that process as easy as possible for our subscribers, pulling together all daily deals into one easy to navigate daily deal search engine along with the added benefit of allowing users to select what types of deals they would like to see and when they would like to see or receive them by email.”

To help find the offers that appeal to you, you are able to refine the search so it only shows deals for particular products and services such as Spa, Fitness, Travel and Restaurants & Bars.

Deal Zippy features daily offers from Groupon, KGB deals, Wahanda, Mylo Deals, Top Table and Kelkoo.

www.dealzippy.co.uk

 

LoveFilm

By Cheryl | Posted in Entertainment, Retail, Twitter at 12 | January 10, 2011 – 12:54 pm

Love film? I do. Even though LoveFilm has been around since 2002 its customer base has never been stronger.

The British based company, which is now available in Germany, Denmark, Sweden and Norway, provides online rental-by-mail for DVD’s, Blu-ray and video games.

The idea of the site is to add rentals to your list using the search option or genre specific menu.  Titles can be added to your list using a simple high, medium or low priority option; this means that if your title is set to ‘high priority’ they will aim to send it out to you first if available.

Clicking on a title will lead you to a page dedicated to the film. The page features film reviews from professional movie reviewers (and even your fellow LoveFilm users) with a trailer for the movie also available to stream straight from the page. This has come in handy for me in the past, descriptions sometimes sound a lot better than the trailer looks!

Once you have watched a title you can leave a 5-star review or even write your own if you fancy yourself as a bit of a movie buff.

Title can be kept for as long as needed – for instance, if you are allowed 3 titles a month with 1 available at a time, you can keep that one DVD for as long as you need (even over a month), but it means you will not receive any more titles until that one is returned.

The disc comes in a simple paper sleeve which is to be used to send them back, with delivery of new titles taking roughly 2 days once the company receive your previous disc back.

Growth

The company claim to have the largest collection of DVD’s available in the UK, serving a customer base of over 1,000,000 members and delivering more than 4 million rentals per month.

In November LoveFilm continued to grow as it was released on to the PlayStation 3 for members on the £5.99 or more package.

LOVEFiLM Player

The company originally had a download service which they ceased in early 2009 and now offer a ‘watch online’ service. The player offers customers the ability to stream over 3,500 films online as part of a subscription package. Many of these films can be viewed for free, with premium titles available for a small fee.

LOVEFiLM shop

The rental site has an online store offering low prices on DVD’s, Blu-rays and games for purchase with free delivery around the UK.

Controversy

The company came in for criticism from ‘unlimited packages’ customers who found the company delayed the shipping on their DVD’s so as to reduce the amount of films that were rented each month. This complaint was upheld by the Advertising Standards Agency and LoveFilm hit back with its own claim that the fair usage policy means that all customers get the same standard of service.

As someone who has used their service for over a year I’ve had my share of good and bad titles, but what could be better than having movies delivered to your home?

Groupon

By Cheryl | Posted in Retail, Twitter at 12 | January 7, 2011 – 1:06 pm

groupon logoGroupon was launched in late 2008 and is a deal-of-the-day website.

The site is localised to the United Kingdom, Canada, Brazil and the United States, and has over 35 million users.

There’s been a lot of talk about it lately, so what exactly is it? Groupon offer deals on many things from hotels and restaurants to spa treatments and theatre tickets.

The company offer one Groupon a day for each of its global markets. If a certain number of people signup for the deal it becomes available to everyone, if not the offer is taken away. All deals can be tracked by a countdown on the homepage, were you will also find the number of people who have already purchased the deal.

It’s deals like these that have made Groupon popular with many companies as it reduces the risk of them loosing money and guarantees customers through the door.

The site has around 40 million subscribers for its daily deals and as it is mainly used by young female customers, the daily deals are often focused on health, fitness and beauty markets.

Buyout rumours

In October there were numerous rumours flying around that Yahoo was working on a deal with Groupon to buy the company out. The company was apparently offering $3 billion for the company that was last valued at around $2 billion.
Most recently Groupon was in talks with Google about a takeover thought to be in the region of $6 billion which were later called off at the start of December.

Now a lot of talk has turned to whether Groupon will be a possible candidate for an IPO by 2013.

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Google TV hit by poor sales – Delayed UK launch

By Cheryl | Posted in Entertainment, Google, News, Retail, Twitter at 12 | December 21, 2010 – 1:04 pm

After all the talk and much awaited launch, Google TV has been hit with poor sales and major setbacks with television networks in the US.

The company has been unable to meet their targets and many shops have been forced to announce discounts on the product. During the Black Holiday Friday weekend in the US, some stores took as much as $200 off the price tag.

Sony are one company that has been considerably effected by bad sales as they try to improve their failing Bravo TV range by launching a brand new set integrated with Google TV. Now, like many other retailers, the
company is being forced to sell the TV at discounted prices.

So what has caused the poor sales after such a promising release?

A lot of people in the industry have put the lack of sales down to many TV networks blocking Google from playing content on the device. Two of America’s biggest networks ABC and CBS have stopped their content streaming on the Google TV with Fox and NBC looking ready to follow suit.

When the device was first released, Google said they wanted to combine TV with the internet to create the ultimate entertainment experience, so why don’t networks want their shows being made available?

I believe it all comes down to advertising. Prime-time TV shows stream four minutes of ads per hour compared to 16 minutes on a standard TV. For subscription channels such as HBO, which doesn’t show adverts, having their content streamed is no problem.

The issue many feel is that Google are unwilling to pay for TV shows, therefore networks are unwilling to co-operate.

The Google TV release for the UK was originally slated for January but with the troubles it’s been having the company have kept quiet about when it will finally hit our market.

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Turn left, turn right: The top five Sat Navs on the market

By Jemma | Posted in Retail, Twitter at 12 | December 20, 2010 – 1:08 pm

We have all needed one at some point… who hasn’t been sat in their car in the middle of nowhere, wishing they had a Sat Nav to hand to get them out of a sticky situation?

In the last five years, the small digital devices have become a definite must for a large proportion of the UK’s drivers and many people have added them to their Christmas list this year.

To save you time and hassle traipsing around the shops, we have listed the top five best Sat Navs out on the market at the moment.

1. TomTom Go Live 1000

TomTom is a well known brand when it comes to Satellite Navigation and the Go Live 1000 is no exception. It has an 11cm/4.3″ Fluid Touch Screen and a magnetic dock with makes life so much easier.
Priced at around: £280.00

2. Garmin nuvi 3790T

This device has a look of the iPhone 4 with its 4.3 inch touch screen and slim design. It’s packed with clever technology including voice-activated navigation and 3D buildings and terrain.
Priced at around: £319.95

3. Navigon 8450 Live

This is a great Sat Nav with exciting multimedia applications and a large 5″ touch screen. It also has great 3D city views that give you a rough idea of nearby architecture. Impressive.

4. TomTom ONE Europe v3

This TomTom is a small device with a width of 9.6cm and a height of 8.2cm and a touch screen. This has simply one button for the power the rest is done on touch screen.
Priced around: £145.00

5. Garmin Nuvi 765T

This Garmin Nuvi also has a 4.3 inch screen, includes Bluetooth, can also be charged with a USB.
Priced around: £100 – £150

Just another ‘Manic Monday’… online shoppers set to spend, spend, spend

By Nicola | Posted in Retail, Twitter at 12 | November 25, 2010 – 1:01 pm

Shoppers around the country are set to hit the web on Monday for what is predicted to be the busiest internet shopping day of the year.

A staggering £537 million will be spent on November 29 – dubbed Manic Monday by experts- meaning online cash registers will hit the equivalent of £22.4 million an hour!

In the same study from online shopping and price comparison site Kelkoo, it is also predicted that the busiest day on the high street will be December 18, when more than 10 million consumers will flip into panic mode to buy their Christmas gifts at a total cost of (wait for it…) £1.1 billion, or £764,000 PER MINUTE.

The Centre for Retail Research revealed the research after surveying 50 major retailers.

Already, a number of major brands have begun warning customers that they need to order their gifts as soon as possible, in order to give time for delivery. Online stores such as ASOS, Topshop and Ebay are also offering free delivery to tempt shoppers into buying.

And despite the recession, online Christmas sales are expected to rise to £11.5 billion this year – that is an equivalent to 17p for every pound spent during the festive period.

Kelkoo chief executive Richard Stables said: “This is the most important day in an e-tailers’ calendar.

“Online retailers can see sales rise by up to 60% in the six weeks running up to Christmas compared to the rest of the year, and at no time is this more evident than on Manic Monday, when online sales are forecast to peak at £22.4 million per hour.”

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Poll reveals ‘worst online retailers’

By Nicola | Posted in News, Retail, Twitter at 12 | November 11, 2010 – 12:57 pm

homebaseHave you ever been online and not been happy with the service you’ve received? Did you order something from a popular website and never receive your item? As the number of e-commerce sites increases to hundreds of millions around the globe, so does the number of unhappy customers it seems… In a survey published today by consumer watchdog Which?, home improvement retailers B&Q and Homebase have been voted the worst online shops in the UK. Instead of being described as everyone’s favourite DIY stores, the duo have been letting themselves down on the web according to reviewers, thanks to poor pricing and products, which has led to them getting just two stars out of five in the recent report. But other websites excelled in their services, including beauty label LizEarle.com, which was voted the best online retailer. The brand was followed by ChainReactionCycles.com, JohnLewis.com, wiggle.co.and 7DayShop.com in the poll that saw more than 11,000 people voting. Reviewers said that LizEarle.com was the best due to its “beautiful packaging, free samples and a sense of a personal touch”. (Note to ladies in QuadroNation team: must remember to visit that one!) Which? magazine editor Martyn Hocking said: “With Christmas around the corner, many of us will be turning to online shopping to avoid the crowds and bag a few bargains. “However, our independent research shows that inconvenient deliveries from some online shops might make you wish you’d hit the high street instead, so do check the small print before you click ‘buy’.”

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Try clothes online before you buy

By Jemma | Posted in Retail, Twitter at 12 | October 28, 2010 – 11:58 am

fitsmeFor some, online clothes shopping can be a tedious process with problems with sizes, style and basically not receiving what you think you’ve ordered.

Could this all be a thing of the past? With the news of virtual fitting rooms coming to our screens we should think so.

The creators of this amazing solution are Fits.me. The company is led by Heikki Haldre who has experience in e commerce and Paul Pällin who has background in apparel mass-manufacturing.

How does it work?
Basically they just take your measurements (height, chest size, waist size, etc) and an on-screen mannequin will appear. It will be your exact size so you can try on different items of clothing (e.g. shirt, trousers).

Fits.me has now landed funding worth 1.3 million euros from Estonian Development Fund , so things are looking good for the Company.

At present it only works on male mannequins but the company hopes to bring in a female version by the end of 2010.

With the growth of online shopping expanding daily this could be the start of something extremely popular.

Take a look http://fits.me/

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The end of the Netbook?

By Cheryl | Posted in Retail, Twitter at 12 | October 12, 2010 – 12:18 pm

Just like video killed the radio star, has iPad killed the netbook…?

Sales of tablet devices have sky rocketed this year, while the sale of netbooks has seen a steady decline. Does this spell the end for the original portable device?

Are companies such as Apple to blame for the decline?
Simple answer, no. People haven’t stopped buying netbooks just because they want the next new thing; they are buying it because they believe the product is better. Are they right…?

Netbooks
Netbooks are generally slow and with such a small screen, it can be hard to use for long periods of time. The battery life is short compared to laptops and most come without a CD/DVD drive. Okay, there must be some good points, right? They’re cheap and they do the job. A lot of people don’t need a high-powered device, they just need something that will perform simple tasks and a netbook fits the bill.

Pros
Run any OS
Most have built in cameras
Larger hard drive
Upgradeable RAM
Ability to change battery – 3, 6, 9 cell
Cheap

Cons
No CD/DVD drive
Around 3-4 hours battery life
Small screen

Tablets
Tablet computers seem to have taken over the market this year, with Apple’s offering of the iPad being the most prominent, but are these types of devices ready to control the market? A lot of people seem to think so.

Sales have surged since its release early this year, it’s the ultimate portable device, although not without its limitations. The iPad has many drawbacks; lack of support for USB devices and Flash, no camera and not forgetting the disadvantage of not being able to upgrade memory or battery size.

As stylish and useful as most tablets are, a lot of users would rather have a physical keyboard rather than a touch-screen, and even though an external keyboard can be used, surely it takes away from the fact it should be portable.

The price of these new technologies can become a sticking point with a lot of consumers, with the basic iPad Wi-Fi model starting at £429 and the basic Wi-Fi + 3G at £529.

Pros
Size and weight
Design
Horizontal or vertical
Up to 10hrs battery life

Cons
No camera
Memory capacity cannot be upgraded
Smaller hard drive
No USB ports
Can’t run Flash
Battery cannot be replaced

Comparison
Both netbooks and tablet devices have their good and bad points, but it looks like tablets are going to win in the long run.

Generally netbooks retail at a much lower cost than tablets, so could this persuade customers to go for the cheaper option? Yes, for the time being. It’s probable that netbooks will still be on the market for a while but will eventually be phased out by new technology. The iPad has a lot of missing features, but with the release of the Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, the future looks bright for tablet computers.

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All I want for Christmas is… a new mini iPad?

By Nicola | Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Retail, Twitter at 12 | October 6, 2010 – 11:55 am

iPad MiniI don’t want a lot for Christmas, there is just one thing I need… la la la… okay, I take the hint – less of the Mariah Carey act.

Yes, this story is about the most wonderful time of year when we get to eat mince pies, drink mulled wine and fall asleep in front of Doctor Who.

News just in to the QuadroNation office is that Apple is busy working away delivering a new mini iPad just in time to be on the shelves before Christmas. Rumours flying around at the moment (which were mostly started by a Chinese newspaper) say that the new version would be seven inches in size, which is 2 inches smaller than the one on the market at the moment.

“Chimei Innolux will supply seven-inch LCD screens, which use the same IPS (in-plane switching) technology found in the original iPad, which improves viewing angles and colour on LCD screens,” the newspaper reported.

Following a successful 12 months, this could create yet another huge hit for Apple with some bloggers saying it could have the potential to ‘become the iPad nano of tablets’.

The current iPad model sold a staggering three million units in just the first 80 days of its release back in April of this year.

Best start writing our Christmas letter to Santa…

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