iknowthe.net | Internet and Ecommerce Consultant

E-tailers recorded a cracker of a Christmas as online sales jumped 20 per cent as more people shopped online during November and December 2004.

Research outfit Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) found that half of the UK population shopped online this Chrimbo, spending more than £3bn between them. Their purchases accounted for almost seven per cent of total UK retail sales over the festive period. Overall, the UK sploshed out £14.5bn in online retail sales during 2004.

Predictably, online sales of electrical goods in the run-up to Christmas proved popular, surging 42 per cent higher than last year as people bought MP3 players and other digital gadgets. Booze sales soared 45 per cent.

Brent Hoberman, chief executive of Lastminute.com, said: “Every year since we started the business, we have consistently seen more and more consumer interest in buying Christmas gifts online. Each holiday season the consumer seems to be leaving their Christmas shopping later and later, and this year was no exception – we sold 33 per cent of Christmas gifts in the two weeks prior to Christmas Day, compared to 21 per cent last year.
“We achieved almost 50 per cent growth in gifts over Christmas this year. For me, one of the key reasons we have been able to deliver strong growth year after year is because of the ever-expanding range of unique and unusual gift ideas we offer our customers, as well as increased consumer confidence in shopping on the Internet.”

Well, finally, I’m number 1 in Google for a search of Emma Kane, obviously I used to be, way back when I could only find one emma kane in metacrawler, and that was me, (and I could always get emmak as a login, everywhere) but I’ve taken my eye off the ball while busy with corporate life over the past few years and was surplanted by another Emma Kane in PR in London. No more. Now its me again. Bwahhaa

Dutch firm Florissant is to launch a £13.6m ($25.4m) hostile bid for UK online auction company QXL Ricardo after its takeover offer was rejected.

QXL’s independent directors said a 800p-per-share approach undervalued the company and the Dutch firm is now to put the offer directly to shareholders. The firm has come under threat from the increasing dominance of eBay, but it is battling its way back from losses amid increasing turnover, and its shares have risen in recent weeks.

Florissant is a cash shell, backed by UK-based private equity firm Novator. Its approach followed a move by Tiger Acquisition, a firm that includes QXL management, which had agreed to pay some 700p per share.

QXL, which has website operations in 10 European countries, has also rejected this offer.

In a statement, QXL’s independent directors said the company would consider disposing of some its operations to “maximise shareholder value”.
QXL director Thomas Power said other parties had expressed an interest in buying parts of the group, indicating the Florissant proposal was too low. Howevert, takeover regulations mean QXL’s independent directors are not permitted to talk to other potential interested parties until Tiger decides whether to raise or formally withdraw its offer.

Tiger said on Friday it was considering its position following the statements from QXL and Florissant.
“There is substantially more value inside QXL that the other offers are recognising and I think the market is starting to recognise that too,” Mr Power said.

Meanwhile, QXL is said to be continuing in its efforts through the civil courts to win back its Polish operation, which had been signed over to its managing director through the illegal issue of 92% of its shares. QXL shares were trading up 2.12% at 868 pence.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Napster offers rented music to go

Napster is due to launch a new rental subscription service – dubbed Napster to Go in the UK in the next few months.

The service can be used on players that support Microsoft Windows latest Digital Rights Management technology known as Janus.

Currently on offer in beta-version in the US, the service costs $15 per month for unlimited downloads.

The technology ensures that music downloaded to the player only remains playable while the user subscribes to the service.

Users need to update their license on a monthly basis or the tunes will no longer play.

Well, I can see this being great for the music companies, but really it sucks. Hate to think how much rental I’d have to pay on my original pressing of Sgt. Pepper. Maybe because chart music is so rubbish you only want to keep it for a month or two but why bother. I would never, ever buy music on this basis but perhaps I’m getting old. Anyway its a bit late in the game to try and change the business model for the music industry.

Let me be one of the first.

Mac Mini – its very tiny, beautiful, quiet, firewire, usb2, analog, digital video out, half as high as an iPod Mini, surface of a little dish. It has connections on the back
and comes as either 1.25 Ghz G4 for $499 or 1.4 ghz for $599 available 22nd january. And it looks like this: