Welcome to this week’s retail round up of news. This week is mostly about Waitrose, and starts with the imminent launch by the supermarket of the nation’s first purely food-related set of online video channels. It will feature six channels dedicated to food, drink, health, ethical sourcing and events such as Christmas.

Waitrose will launch the channels later in the Autumn, providing recipe ideas from Delia Smith and Heston Blumenthal, The Fabulous Baker Brothers and Sam Stern, and how-to guides and interviews. Our supermarket social media research shows that Waitrose did very well last year at achieving engagement on its online Christmas content, due largely to its Facebook video recipes featuring some of these chefs.

Demonstrating the importance of interactivity, Waitrose will provide a ‘buy ingredients’ button which will link people through to purchase ingredients and related products. People will also be able to share and comment with friends on Facebook and Twitter. Again, our research shows precisely the value that can be attributed to such activities to Waitrose and other supermarkets.

Waitrose’s food online video channel is preceded by figures which show John Lewis and Waitrose sales soared in the week to September 22 thanks in part to impacts of BBC Two’s The Great British Bake Off. Overall bakery sales rose by 6% and egg sales up 9%. Cake coverings and decorations soared 46%, and cake mixes 47%.

This is a great example of how brands can take advantage of BBC content, and reminds me of how brands such as Samsung have used Zeebox and sponsored tweets to leverage BBC programmes.

Bakery and cooking related sales may be up at the John Lewis Partnership, but Dunelm Mill has knocked John Lewis off the homewares top spot. The homewares market is worth £11bn, and whilst Dunelm now has a 6.9% share (up from 6.1% last year), John Lewis has a 6.8% share, according to Retail Week. This is the first time in ten years that a retailer has overtaken John Lewis.

In other news around retail, eBay’s shopping apps have been downloaded 100m times since the launch of its first app in 2007. A full quarter of these have been downloaded in the last six months.

Demonstrating how mobile is helping to change the online retail world, eBay expects this Christmas to be its most successful mobile Christmas ever. EBay predicts that 30% of eBay items will be bought via smartphones. More broadly, one item is sold in the UK every second via a mobile device, the highest proportion of mobile sales in Europe according to Retail Week.

After too long a break, Retail round up of news is back.

Primark opens second Oxford St Store; coincides with Morrisons’ announcement

Fashion retailer Primark opened a second store on London’s Oxford Street, and one of its biggest stores in the UK.

The new 82,400 sq ft store is spread over four trading floors and features large screens displaying products and promotions throughout. Opening ahead of the Christmas trading period, the store will create 1,443 new jobs and has a capacity for almost 2,500 shoppers.

Source: Retail Week

Primark has a strong reputation for good quality, stylish fashion and basics at very competitive prices targeted principally at the under 35s – assets on which the supermarkets need to compete in the fashion market.

The opening coincides with Morrisons’ announcement that it will launch its first clothing range next March. The initiative follows two years of planning, and the supermarket aims to challenge rivals Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s.

Tesco’s Philip Clarke calls an end to the space race

Tesco’s Group Executive, Philip Clarke, has said that the supermarket has called time on the old retail ‘space race’. In this new world, retail will not be about buying large swathes of new real estate, but about how supermarkets relate to its customers and their communities.

In a comment piece in Retail Week, Clarke insightfully argues that apps have become the new high street. He added: “Digital does not just offer smart new ways to shop. It gives us the opportunity for a warmer, more meaningful conversation with our customers, local communities, our colleagues and the suppliers who we work with.

In an additional piece in the FT, Clarke calls on the government to address both the problem of squeezed household budgets and the opportunities for consumers created by the digital and mobile technology.

Tesco stresses service by ‘Making Moments Matter’

Tesco has launched a new campaign - ‘Making Moments Matter’ - to stress the improvements it plans to make to customer service. It coincides with the end of a conference this week in which store managers from across the country learned more about the Making Moments Matter programme, and follows major increases in staff numbers, staff training and ongoing store revamps.

Our spaceID research which looks at the values of supermarket shoppers shows that ‘pleasure’ is a key battleground for supermarkets. Even amid tightening wallets, the research shows that more enjoyable shopping and ad experiences are becoming even more important

Lidl launches its first TV campaign

Lidl has launched its first national TV ad campaign aimed at converting top-up shoppers into full weekly ones.

The German discounter has looked on as rival Aldi has boosted popularity and sales through its well-received series of ‘Like Brands’ TV ads. Lidl has stuck to its traditional press ads.

But it is currently touting its advertising account, thought to be worth around £18m, to agencies to create a concept to rival Aldi’s successful TV campaign.

Online retail sales down during Olympics

Contrary to expectations, internet retail sales dropped during the Olympics, devoting their time instead to watching sport.

Data from Office for National Statistics show that internet purchases fell from 9% of total retail sales in July, to 8.1% in August.

This is not to say people were not dual screening. Our Olympics Twitter research shows that the Olympics were a huge success in terms of online interactions. It does show however, that if people enjoy TV content sufficiently, they are less likely to be doing unrelated activities online.

Waitrose Twitter gaffe? No...

Waitrose recently asked its Twitter followers why they shop at the supermarket, starting with the phrase "I shop at Waitrose because" and using the hashtag #WaitroseReasons.

The result? A wave of jokes about the supermarket’s upper crust image, including gems such as, "I shop at Waitrose because I once heard a 6yr old boy in the shop say "Daddy does Lego have a 't' at the end, like Merlot?", "I shop at Waitrose because Tesco doesn't stock Unicorn food #waitrosereasons", and I shop at Waitrose because the butler's on holiday. #waitrosereasons".

Do these mean the event was a disaster? Social media demonstrates how brands cannot control what people are going to do with content. People have interacted with the brand, they’ve had some fun, and it's resulted in praise from some quarters and good feedback. Doesn't sound bad to me.

Sainsbury’s launches venture with Nectar owners

Sainsbury’s announced on Thursday a joint venture with Nectar owners Aimia, to allow its suppliers to advertise across all of its communication channels.

Insight 2 Communication (I2C) aims to provide a ‘one-stop shop’ solution to suppliers across both targeted and non-targeted channels and will allow suppliers to showcase advertising material through in-store displays, direct mail and online and in magazines.

Welcome to this week's retail round up of news.

Waitrose followers most likely to interact with supermarket on Facebook

A short study from SMG Research shows that although Tesco has the most number of followers on Facebook out of all the supermarkets, Waitrose comes out top when it comes to followers interacting. For every one hundred followers Waitrose has, it received 1.82 comments against all of its posts this week. This is nearly three times the number of comments ASDA got, in second place.

Beyond shopping - The future of supermarkets

The more that people embed a brand into their everyday routines, lifestyles and pastimes, the more those people depend upon that brand.

Supermarkets are looking for people to do this with their brands.

This week, the first Tesco backed Harris+Hoole cafe opened in Amersham. Although only a minority shareholder, Tesco hopes to add value to the brand as the coffee chain grows. Its second store is due to open in Uxbridge very soon, and Harris+Hoole’s owners are in talks with Clintons administrator Zolfo Cooper to buy 10 to 15 stores.

Also this week, Sainsbury's announced the launch later this year of a partnership with Rovi to provide a digital video service. The service will offer people video-on-demand and downloadable copies of film and TV titles at the same time the discs become available in store. Although it will initially be limited to computers, it will roll out to Smart TVs, connected Blu-Ray players, smartphones and consoles. This follows Sainsbury’s purchase of e-book retailer Anobii and music company Global Media Vault.

Shoppers warm to contactless payments

The Co-Operative supermarket reported positive results this week from its trial of contactless payments in its London and Manchester stores.

Although I am positive about some mobile innovations around contactless payments, the research demonstrates how people are more likely to use a new service if it is similar to the old one. A spokesperson at the supermarket reports that one reason the trial was a success was that it made sure that the service was part of the Chip & PIN device so that customers didn’t have to look for a different terminal to make a contactless payment. “Once shoppers have used contactless technology they really seem to appreciate it is quicker, and are choosing to use it on a regular basis.”

In response to the story, Barclaycard retailer relationship director Richard Armstrong revealed that Barclays customers now make more than a million contactless payments per month across a wide range of B2C businesses, including transport, supermarkets, entertainment and leisure.

Vouchers losing their stigma

Recent research by the retail research specialists IGD shows that people are using more shopping vouchers as they seek to keep costs down and increase value.

Six out of ten shoppers say they are buying more of their products on promotion, up from 40% who said the same in 2008. Over half use more money-off vouchers, while 59% say they plan on using more of them over the next six months to make savings on their grocery shopping.

People most likely to use vouchers are younger shoppers and those with children.

Supermarket UK is a series of research studies from Starcom MediaVest Group which investigates the changing values and behaviours of supermarket shoppers.

Wave 1, Space ID

Wave 1, Space ID revealed ‘Community’ and ‘Pleasure’ as the new key battlegrounds for supermarket shoppers amid the economic doom and gloom. Supermarkets Sainsbury’s and Co-Op were found to be best positioned to capitalise on these changing attitudes.

Wave 2, Social Media Behaviour Index (SMBI)

Wave 2, Social Media Behaviour Index (SMBI) found shoppers engaging with a brand on social media are twice as likely to shop there, with Waitrose found to be the best at converting social media users into paying customers and Sainsbury’s and Tesco’s activity having the least impact.

Wave 3, Regional Shopper Risk Index (RSRI)

Wave 3, Regional Shopper Risk Index (RSRI) found 8.75m of the 45m regular supermarket shoppers in England and Wales (20%) lack loyalty towards any of the big six supermarkets: Asda, Co-op, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco or Waitrose.

• Waitrose has the least loyal and promiscuous customers with nearly 23% of its 2.03m regular shoppers likely to shop with a rival.
• Tesco most at risk from turncoats due to dominant market share
• Co-Op and Morrisons least at risk

Wave 4, Community Igniter and Grocery Groupies

Wave 4, Community Igniter is used to identify an audience of retailer advocates that actively promote supermarket brands to their friends and family. They’re called Grocery Groupies.

• There are 400,00 of them in the UK and on average they recommend their favourite store to 25 friends and family every month
• Morrisons and Waitrose have the highest proportion of Grocery Groupie customers
• Asda and Sainsbury’s have the least

Welcome to this week's retail round up of news. I hope you enjoy it. Have a good weekend.

Grocery development grows 57% in five years

The economic slowdown means non-food retailers continue to struggle to maintain presence on the high street. Not so for supermarkets. Supermarket development activity now accounts for 38% of all shops in the development pipeline. This is up one quarter on 2008.

During the first half of this year, new supermarket space rose to 5.34 million square foot, according to property firm CBRE. Much of this is due to openings of smaller stores, such as Tesco and Sainsbury focussing on developing in-town rather than out of town.

To hit this point home, data from CBRE shows that some very large stores are struggling to win sales as non-food had proven disappointing. This is despite how supermarkets’ share of the non-food market has nearly doubled to 14% in the last ten years.

John Lewis launches new own brand

John Lewis will launch its biggest-ever own brand online and in shops in September, in terms of investment and number of lines.

Focusing on home, ‘House’ will initially comprise of 600 products, but by sprint next year this could rise by another 300, according to Paula Nickolds, buying director for home at John Lewis.

Illustrating the importance that JLP Chairman Charlie Mayfield places in own brand, John Lewis will open 3,000 sq ft branded shop-in-shops, as well as a branded area online.

Also showing the challenge of John Lewis to M&S, design manager Theo Williams added that the launch is the latest step in making the department store “the destination for great design”

The prospects for the Home range is good, coming at the same time as news sales in household goods stores increased from a year ago for the fourth successive month. Some of this may be down to the struggling housing market. Instead of investing in house moves, some households seem to be investing in new home products.

Mobile commerce triples in a single year

Mobile commerce has jumped a massive 356% in just one year, as payments via mobile devices and tablets have growth in popularity, according to IMRG Capgemini.

At the same time, BRC reports that food was the fastest growing sector for mobile search during the second quarter of this year, climbing 163% year-on-year.

Mobile search is translating into sales, with around 20% of all online spend being on food and drink. Nevertheless, only 4% of total grocery spending happens online. This presents good opportunities for the supermarkets to growth their internet businesses, and this will be a big area of competition between them.

Mobile search has also helped eBay record a 23% increase in revenues to $3.39bn, ahead of Wall Street’s anticipated $3.36bn.

eBay’s chief executive, John Donahoe, said he expects eBay to record $10bn in mobile transaction volume this year, which is more than double 2011 figures.

Iceland opens grocery shopping site

Seven years after it closed down its grocery shopping site, Iceland is due to launch a new shopping site next year. However, given the importance of mobile to grocery search, it needs to optimised for mobile devices. It also faces stiff competition from more established online grocers, most notably Tesco and Sainsbury.

M&S bank to charge customers

Earlier this week, M&S announced it will introduce two current accounts, one charging £20 per month, the other charging £15.

Although it is not unusual for banks to charge for ‘premium’ accounts, this is risky for a new entrant. Although it will provide an automatic £500 overdraft, with the first £100 interest free, I am not certain take-up will be as quick as the department store hopes. For one, it is partnering with HSBC, which was at the centre of the money laundering scandal earlier this week. Secondly, is this going to be enough to tempt people to change bank?

It also comes at a time when the Financial Services Authority has been investigating current accounts with added costs. It is concerned that consumers are spending unnecessarily on services they do not utilise.

Shoppers turn to the discounters as household finances continue to suffer

New figures from Kantar Worldpanel show that Aldi and Lidl have each achieved remarkable sales growth of 26.1% and 11.5% respectively year on year, for the 12 weeks ending July 8th 2012. This translates into them totalling a record 2.9% market share.

This comes at the same time that grocery market growth halved from 4.2% over the same period in 2011, to 2.1 this year.

In a further sign of tough economic times, sales of premium own-label products have declined by 6% year-on-year, while Tesco’s Everyday Value range has seen 13% growth.

Tesco holds a market share of 30.7 per cent, a drop compared to last year’s 31.1 per cent while Morrisons has seen a 0.2 per cent decrease in market share, now at 11.9 per cent.