Although Ideal Shopping Direct reported a 2.6 per cent
rise in sales for the first half of the year, to £47.5
million, its gross profit fell 6.2 per cent, to £18.1
million. Worse, it posted a loss before taxes of £1.2
million, a reversal from the £1.2 million profit before
taxes it had enjoyed for the first half of 2007. The company
relaunched its core website and its Create and Craft site earlier
this year, leading to sales increases of more than 50 per cent on
both. Web sales now make up 28 per cent of total revenue, with its
TV shopping channels and wholesale division accounting for the
rest.
“Blog and buy” is how Australia’s Inside Retailing refers to Stitsh, a
blog that posts photos of fashionable folks found on the
streets of London and embeds links to the shops where the photo
subjects purchased their clothes. Stitsh reportedly plans to
expand to cover Manchester, Stockholm and New York as well.
The British Red Cross has launched a digital catalogue selling health and safety
products. It had launched a similar online brochure for its
training courses earlier this year.
Share