Will 2014 be a white Christmas in the UK? According to the Met Office and Ladbrokes, the chances are slight December 22, 2014 As we enter the business end of the festive season, many people will be wondering what the odds are of a white Christmas. That depends on the definition. The most widely definition for this isn’t all that practical: rather than enough of the white stuff to build a snowman or igloo, all that is needed [...]
Black Friday 2015: What UK retailers need to do to make the most of the retail bonanza on 27 November October 28, 2015 Last year, shoppers in the UK spent a staggering £810m during Black Friday and this year is set to break all previous records. For the first time ever, consumer spending across the nation is forecast to top £1bn in one day, representing an enormous opportunity for UK retailers. The impact of Black Friday for retailers [...]
The Burgundy Puzzle: a frustrating wine that can astonish or appall, here’s how to get it right November 13, 2015 The other day I was invited to a friend’s birthday party where the wine was given star billing. It was a Santenay 2012 and we were told it was “amazing”. I was bitterly disappointed: it was green and desperately thin, like over-diluted Ribena without the vitamin C. And probably cost a fortune. It put me [...]
Christmas shopping will help high street spending hit record highs December 24, 2014 Spending on the UK's high streets is expected to smash records this year as shoppers splurged over the Christmas period setting tills ringing. Retail sales are expected to reach an all-time high of £342bn this year, a rise of £48bn compared to 2010, government figures suggest. Spending is also expected to break records tomorrow as [...]
Countdown to Christmas 2015: Seven losers of the year featuring Sepp Blatter, Ukip and the England rugby team December 5, 2015 For every glorious sporting triumph, history-making achievement, scientific breakthrough, artistic masterpiece or political triumph achieved in 2015, there has been a fall from grace to go with it. Whether it's an ousted president, collapsed share price or corporate disaster, for this lot, 2016 can't come soon enough. Read more: Beer, burritos and gifs: This was crowdfunding in 2015 [...]
Smartphones compared: How much storage do they really have? December 13, 2014 Most smartphones do not have as much free storage available as the companies that produce them claim, according to a new study by reviewing service Which? By looking at eight of the most popular smartphones, they found that a phone with an advertised 16 gigabytes of storage could have as little as 10 gigabytes [...]
The payment buzzwords to expect in 2016: Wearables, biometrics and banking APIs December 30, 2015 As the new year approaches and the retro reviews for 2015 and predictions for next year start to fill my Twitter feed. I take a look back at the year and put out my early calls on what 2016 will have on the books (or is that on your device, or is that in your Virtual Reality [...]
Vote with your wallet: It’s time to turn shoppers into investors November 16, 2015 It frustrates me that consumers are so valued as shoppers, yet so underserved when it comes to putting money to work in other ways. From the moment we are born, we are marketed to thousands of times a day, “trained” as consumers through hundreds of billions of pounds in advertising, yet are left to our [...]
Did Sony lose the plot when it cancelled The Interview release after pressure? December 21, 2014 A film about the assassination of the North Korean leader has led to a diplomatic crisis. Sony Pictures has been in the doghouse ever since it announced last week that it would not go ahead with the Christmas Day-release of new film The Interview, following a series of cyber attacks on the company and threats [...]
The Interview makes £9.6m from online sales December 29, 2014 The Interview pulled in $15m (£9.6m) from online rentals and downloads in just four days, making it the studio's most successful online film to-date. The movie, which swept to notoriety following the hack into Sony Pictures, attracted two million rentals and purchases over the festive period as fans clamoured to see what all the fuss [...]