Category Archives: Retailer News

Aldi Starts Selling Wine Online

Articles, Hybris, Retailer News
Aldi have launched a site selling wine online. From looking at the cookie we can see they are using a JEE application, which points towards Hybris as we know they are developing their Grocery site on Hybris. Aldi have placed their wine site very prominently on aldi.co.uk home page. The Aldi online wine store launched today (19 January), with the retailer offering home delivery for the first time to UK shoppers. More than 90 wines will be available online and customers will be able to choose Read more [...]

Sainsbury’s bids for Argos and Homebase (HRG)

Retailer News, Websphere Commerce v7
I enjoyed working at Sainsbury's for 18 months and Argos / Homebase for over a year, so this is particularly interesting for me. Both use IBM WebSphere Commerce. HRG definitely has a more mature Multichannel operation, but Grocery is a very different beast to General Merchandise, so they can both learn a lot from each other. I will be watching with interest! Here is an article from Internet Retailing. There was a similar article in the FT yesterday, but it said it could not work out what each Read more [...]

Big 4 Supermarkets Cutting Ranges

Retailer News
Research from market intelligence specialist IRi has shown how different product categories are suffering from major supermarkets’ recent campaigns to cull their ranges. IRi has released data showing that the number of chilled food lines in supermarkets was down 2% year-on-year in the six months to July 2015. OTC and healthcare was down 3.6%, whilst the number of BWS (beers, wines, spirits) lines decreased by 2%. Martin Wood, Head of Strategic Insight for Retail at IRi UK, said “So Read more [...]

Asda’s Sales Slip & Trigger “Project Renewal”

Retailer News
Yesterday Asda, a subsidiary of the US behemoth Walmart, announced that like-for-like sales had slipped 4.5% in the thirteen weeks to September 30. That’s little better than the 4.7% dip in its previous quarter, its worst in 50 years. All of its major rivals are struggling but it seems that none has been hit quite so hard by the rise of Aldi and Lidl, which Kantar says grew by 16.5% and 19% respectively in the period. ‘There’s no doubt this represents another challenging quarter,’ said Read more [...]

Poundland Shares Plunge After 99p Stores Purchase

Retailer News
Poundland shares have plunged an unprecedented 17% to an all-time low as the company revealed the poor state of the 99p Stores portfolio it has just bought. Chief executive Jim McCarthy also admitted that recent trading had been tough due to the warm autumn, store refurbishments are costing more than expected, currency fluctuations are affecting the bottom line and the new national living wage will hit profits next year. Shares fell 48p to 230p. Pre-tax profits crashed 26.3% to £9.3 million Read more [...]

Amazon is Latest to Add Two-Factor Authentication

Retailer News
Amazon is now offering two-factor authentication to help customers protect themselves against having their accounts compromised. From now on, those who choose to have the option activated can receive an authentication code sent to their mobile phone, which they have to enter on the site before a purchase can be confirmed. Twice as nice In order to enable the new settings, users have to access their Advanced Security options in their Amazon account. From there, a page on two-step verification Read more [...]

Amazon Pantry Launches

Articles, Retailer News
Amazon has thrown down the gauntlet to the UK’s supermarkets with the launch of a nationwide grocery delivery service, which analysts expect will soon offer fresh food. Amazon Pantry launched across the UK yesterday, delivering a range of food and grocery products to its Prime customers, who pay an annual subscription of £79. The company said the service would initially cover 4,000 everyday non-perishable essential items, with customers able to purchase a 20kg box of groceries with next-day delivery Read more [...]

Effect on TalkTalk Shares After Cyber Attack

Retailer News
Investors may have begun flocking back to crisis-struck TalkTalk after better-than-expected quarterly results, but the company’s shares have still plunged twice as deep as other hacked companies. Over 150,000 of the embattled telco firm’s customers had their personal data exposed in a hack that was made public on 22 October. In the weeks that followed, TalkTalk shares plummeted 20 per cent. But how does that compare? City A.M. has compared TalkTalk’s fall to other hacked companies, Read more [...]

Asda wins Best Supermarket for Wine After Years of M&S & Waitrose Monopolising Awards

Retailer News
Asda has beaten rivals such as Marks & Spencer to win best supermarket for wine at the 2015 Decanter Retailer Awards. See who else won prizes. Decanter Retailer Awards judges praised Walmart-owned Asda‘s commitment to creating a diverse and varied wine range with the launch of its Asda Wine Atlas, using the tagline ‘a passport to wine discovery’. See a full list of winners below and see profiles of winners in the November issue of Decanter magazine, out 7 October. This Read more [...]

Aldi’s Supermarket Secrets – Channel 4 Dispatches

Retailer News
Aldi has taken umbrage with last night's Channel 4 Dispatches expose, which cast scrutiny over the retailer's practices, and said the TV programme was based upon "selective information". The documentary, called Aldi's Supermarket Secrets, featured two undercover reporters at stores in Scotland and the North West of England, who discovered breaches in health and safety, out-of-date products and unrealistic time pressures on staff to stock shelves. An Aldi spokesperson waved off the claims Read more [...]