eCommerce and Business News Items From Websynergi Design

Websynergi design News

WebsynergiDesign achieves success as finalist in Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Business Awards 2007.

Designed to celebrate innovation and success in the four main business sectors, the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce and Industry's Business Awards are a major accolade for successful businesses in Birmingham and Solihull.

Birmingham Jewellery Quarter based WebsynergiDesign fought off competition to qualify as a finalist in the Creative, Media and Arts sector of the prestigious contest, demonstrating that their innovation and sales success had contributed to excellence in their business pursuits over the last 12 months. Advancements in WebsynergiDesign's products include:

• Video streaming using Flash technology for Mustard.uk.com, IBM Universities Business Challenge and others
• Sophisticated corporate presentations for clients such as Toshiba Research Europe and Davis Langdon
• Event booking systems, speeding clients' business transactions and increasing their income, benefiting Midlands World Trade Forum and India Pakistan Trade Unit.
• Customer polls, providing more customer information for clients such as Studyflex
• E mail marketing for Studyflex and University of Central England
• A client newsletter keeps customers up-to-date with new products and the world of ecommerce.

WebsynergiDesign's experience as a Business Link consultant of more than five years' standing was a qualifying factor in their success in demonstrating a significant and longstanding contribution to the city's business community, as well as their role as a Mustard.uk.com consultant through which they have assisted many high growth local businesses.

Introducing customers to the benefits of search engine optimisation for their business websites proved to be another winning service to push WebsynergiDesign to the top in supporting their city's business community

WebsynergiDesign look after their staff as well as their customers: further achievements in their commitment to people development and internal management secured their place in the finals.

Rachel Elnaugh's partnership with WebsynergiDesign continues

Rachel Elnaugh, ex-Dragons' Den tycoon and entrepreneur, endorsed her on-going business relationship with WebsynergiDesign, at the Birmingham Chamber's annual 'Women Who' Luncheon at the Hyatt Hotel, Birmingham.

Rachel Elnaugh and Chetan Naik at the
'Women Who' Luncheon event in Birmingham

Rachel, the business brain behind Red Letter Days, was impressed by Chetan's web designs at their first meeting in 2001 and asked him to develop her new entrepreneur site, www.rachelelnaugh.com.

WebsynergiDesign then became involved in creating commercial sites for Dragons' Den contestants whom Rachel sponsored. Extreme time pressures were the norm, as websites had to be launched to match the timing of each contestant's show and to have the ability to meet the surge of traffic after their episode.

The working relationship has thrived over the last 5 years, with WebsynergiDesign carrying out search engine optimisation services, providing consultancy and advising Rachel about online marketing. Now WebsynergiDesign are planning the imminent upgrading of Rachel's website.

"Rachel is a joy to work with," said Chetan. "Her instructions are always clear and straightforward and she certainly knows what she wants. It is stimulating to work with such a high profile businesswoman, and although her high profile means that we often work under serious time pressures this is never a problem, even though she has been London-based, because she is so professional. I am proud that we beat competition from London agencies to win Rachel's contract!"

Birmingham web and design agency meets Toshiba's advanced technology requirements.

Birmingham Jewellery Quarter based WebsynergiDesign's corporate presentation design skills are on show at the international ITU Telecom World 2006 conference in Hong Kong.

Toshiba presentation
at the ITU TELCOM 2006 event in Hong Kong

WebsynergiDesign's director, Chetan Naik, said, "We were asked by Toshiba to design a professional PowerPoint presentation for their new Quantum Cryptography System that would match the sophistication of their product. The product prevents the digital theft of corporate data."

A new corporate presentation template was created, reflecting Toshiba's corporate identity and standards. Animation was used to simplify complex processes and explain the advantages of the system. It was designed in close co-operation with the Toshiba representatives, even though they were at the time working between the UK and Japan.

"It was a test of our communications skills and design ingenuity," said Mr Naik, "but it was a very successful project. We used PowerPoint animation to represent the total security of Toshiba's QKD system. Our corporate presentation design skills were used to their full potential."

"Toshiba Research Europe Ltd exhibited at ITU TELCOM 2006 (a global telecom networks and services conference)in Hong Kong...Toshiba are very satisfied with WebsynergiDesign, who provided them with the professional animation PowerPoint slides and advice by thoroughly understanding our technology involved and presentation requirements, closely communicating with Toshiba (even though we had already flown to Hong Kong!) to achieve the desired presentation and animations."
Yutaka Sata, Deputy Managing Director of Toshiba Cambridge Research Laboratory

View WebsynergiDesign's corporate PowerPoint presentation design for Toshiba.

WebsynergiDesign Search Engine Optimisation service delivers results for Birmingham Chamber of Commerce!

Birmingham Web and Creative Design Agency WebsynergiDesign's SEO consultancy has once again achieved pole position in the search engine rankings for a client.

WebsynergiDesign's organic Search Engine Optimisation style was highly praised by the International Projects Manager for Birmingham Chamber of Commerce

Ms Nandra said that WebsynergiDesign's work had massively improved the search engine rankings for their international trade team website, IPTU. "The Websynergi SEO service delivers results. It's a simple as that" said Ms Nandra.

Taking two out of several of the company's selected key phrases,'India trade' and 'export to Pakistan', WebsynergiDesign gained the IPTU website the number 1 place in the Google UK rankings.

Chetan Naik, Director of WebsynergiDesign, said, "Most search engine users do not look beyond the first two or three pages of results, which are the web sites with the highestsearch engine rankings. Skilled modification of the web site for search engines is designed to bring searchers and suppliers together."

WebsynergiDesign places great emphasis on the art and science of ethical search engine optimisation, and has consistently achieved first page rankings for their SEO customers across a range of sectors to assist their businesses.

So WebsynergiDesign..SO LONDON Publishing website launch

The newly launched www.solondon.co.uk is the website equivalent of the prestigious, new lifestyle magazine 'So London' with award winning writers, established in Spring 2007. The magazine and, of course, the website target an international readership including some of the wealthiest people in the UK, Europe, the USA and the Middle East. Published fortnightly, the magazine and website feature articles on contemporary issues, the arts, property, philanthropy, food and drink etc.

Chetan Naik, of WebsynergiDesign, describes the website and bespoke content management software as being 'designed to the highest .Net 2 and CSS programming standards.''This enables the 'So London' staff to renew their magazine content each week and to manage images, features, advertising and the ranking of articles', said Mr. Naik, who went on, 'WebsynergiDesign achieved this exciting contract in the face of stiff competition from other web design agencies. I think this was because we were able to give the 'So London' management team the confidence that we could take responsibility for the entire website and content management side of the magazine. We developed an excellent working relationship with them as we are used to working to tight deadlines and we had everything up and running for their high profile launch.'

So London Website
Launched 15th March 2007

SO LONDON's directors include highly respected members of the media world such as Mike Ironside, a member of the Advertising Standards Authority since 2001. Mike Ironside has 30 years' experience in marketing, advertising and the media including senior management responsibilities at the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday and a London-based advertising and marketing consultancy.

The magazine's editor is Christena Appleyard, a distinguished journalist who is well-known for the original conception of 'Weekend', the Mail's outstanding Saturday TV and Features magazine. Ms Appleyard edited 'Weekend' for some time before leaving for a period at The Times after which she returned to the Mail for a relaunch of Night and Day. Christena Appleyard is also a renowned and well-travelled travel writer.

So London Magazine Issue 1
Launched 15th March 2007

Magazine contributors include Orange prize-winning novelist Lionel Shriver, journalist, broadcaster and author David Aaronovitch, novelist and 'Independent' columnist Howard Jacobson, Sarah Kent from 'Time Out' on Art and old Etonian writer, Tom Parker-Bowles.

The 'So London' website produces a complete version of the printed magazine online every two weeks through the professional but easy to manage Content Management System that WebsynergiDesign have developed.

General News

Boost your business with Enterprise 2.0!

Exciting developments with Web 2.0’s exploitation by consumer giants such as Wells Fargo Bank and McDonald’s to extend and progress their businesses are welcomed by us at WebsynergiDesign, where we have been promoting Web 2.0 development for our customers for several years.

Web 2.0 technology enables the development of complex, interactive bespoke websites. Enterprise 2.0 is the new generation of the Web. Now, with Enterprise 2.0, the social networking versatility of Web 2.0 can be harnessed to develop online business even more. The bonus of Enterprise 2.0 means that new search, syndication and subscription techniques will be used by innovative businesses to streamline internal and external communications.

San Francisco Web 2.0 Conference

A Web 2.0 survey carried out by Forrester to coincide with the 2008 San Francisco Web 2.0 Conference has found that over $5billion will be spent by European and American businesses in the next 5 years to develop Web 2.0. The new technologies to be exhibited at the Conference represent, say Forrester, “a fundamentally new way” for businesses to communicate with employees and customers.

Enterprise 2.0 Leaders

The development and implementation of the new Web 2.0 technologies are being driven by multi-national giants such as McDonalds and General Motors. Of the Web 2.0 tools analysed by Forrester - blogs, mashups, podcasting , RSS, social networking, widgets and wikis - social networking will be the most popular form of Web 2.0 investment. Over half of European and North American companies see Web 2.0 as a priority development for the forthcoming 12 months.

(BBC News, 22nd April 2008)

Hi-tech tools divide social sites

Social network sites are moving to make it much easier for software developers to write add-ons for the hugely popular web destinations.

Bebo, Facebook, Meebo and Friendster have unveiled plans to help them become more than places to keep in touch.

The add-ons will allow users to add extras, such as video and music clips, to the personal profiles they maintain.

The alliances behind the technologies also reveal the fierce competition between social sites for users.

Tough choices

In one of the broader announcements Bebo unveiled its Open Application platform which will produce a set of common interfaces that developers can use to create programs and applications that will work with the social network site.

At the launch Bebo unveiled partnerships with more than 40 developers, including NBC Universal, Flixster and Gap. A sample application produced using the tools allows Beboers to create an interactive avatar that models Gap clothes.

Significantly, Bebo's interface tools will work with Facebook's already announced development system. This will make it possible for the many developers who have written applications for Facebook to use their code almost unchanged for the Bebo network.

Despite the tie-up on tools, Bebo and Facebook will not become a unified network.

Social networking giant MySpace is backing Google's initiative.

In a further boost for Facebook instant messaging network Meebo announced its support for the tool set. Meebo said it had no plans to support Google's initiative.

At the same time Friendster announced that its development tools would be "open" so they can work on as many networks as possible. It has declared its support for Google's Open Social initiative.

Finally, Facebook has announced plans to license its development system to other sites. Since it was announced in May 2007 more than 7,000 applications have been written for Facebook.

This series of announcements shows how keenly contested this sector of the hi-tech market has become.

The deals and technological tie-ups are all about building up as large an audience as possible in a bid to dominate the sector.

Courtesy BBC news online, 14st December 2007

Web 2.0 projects form an essential part of the WebsynergiDesign website portfolio. We specialise in such complex interactive bespoke websites (Web 2.0 application development), often utilising online video, which can be an important ingredient of Web 2.0, and other modern technologies such as .net2, Ajax, SQL, Server 2005 etc.

Full details of our Web 2.0 development experience and expertise can be found...

UK 'keener on online networking'

More adults in the UK use social networking sites such as Facebook than in other European countries, a report by communications watchdog Ofcom says.

Four out of 10 UK adults with internet access use social networking sites compared to 17% in France, 12% in Germany and 22% in Italy.

The UK is eclipsed only by Canada where 53% of internet users go on social networking sites.

In Japan and the US the percentage is 32% and 34% respectively.

International comparisons

The Ofcom report into the £873bn telecoms, radio and television sectors compared the UK with 11 other countries, including Canada and the US.

It also looked at emerging giants Brazil, Russia, India and China, where mobile phone growth is particularly strong.

The report found that the US and UK are the only places where men do not use the internet more than women.

In the UK, the split is equal, while in the US 52% of internet users are women.

Cheap deals

The watchdog also said that the UK enjoys some of the cheapest deals for telephone, pay-TV and broadband.

In the UK, about 40% of households already take a bundled service, where they pay a monthly fee for a telephone landline, pay-TV and the internet.

This can be as low as £25 in the UK for a typical family household including two parents and two children.

This compares with £27.22 in France, £39.77 in Germany and £69.54 in the US.

Price may be one of the reasons the UK has the highest take-up of digital television in the 12 countries surveyed.

At the end of 2006, about 76% of UK households were digital.

But it is still Japanese and US consumers who spend the most time watching television, averaging 4.5 hours a day.

This is one hour more than people spend in front of television in the UK.

Revenue boost

Internet advertising revenues are also on the rise, particularly in the UK.

At £33, advertisers in the UK spend more money per person on internet advertising than any other country, twice as much as that spent in France, Germany and Italy combined.

Overall, the money to be made from telecom services is increasing, reflecting the growing importance of the sector.

Telecom services revenue per head increased by 20% - from £288m in 2001 to £345m in 2006 - across the countries surveyed, the report found.

Global take up

Globally, mobiles are driving growth in the communications sector, now accounting for 53% of total telecoms revenues.

By the end of 2006, there were 402 million landlines and 634 million mobile connections in the 12 countries surveyed.

Brazil, Russia, China and India are driving much of this growth.

Since 2001, more than 660 million subscriptions were added in these four countries, accounting for 40% of total new mobile subscriptions globally.

Last year, mobile phone users in China sent 429 billion text messages, or 967 text messages per user, compared with 621 per mobile user in the UK.

New subscriptions in India doubled to 150 million, more than twice the number of UK subscribers.

Courtesy BBC news online, 12st December 2007

Monster security breach

Users of the US job website, Monster.com, have been tricked into releasing personal details after receiving an email encouraging them to download a bogus Monster job seeking tool. This was in fact a program that encrypted files on their computer and left a ransom note demanding money for their decryption.

The program used to access the Monster user data was a Trojan, commonly used to gain access to bank details, usernames and passwords. More than 8,000 new variants of Trojans are found each month, according to internet security specialists Sophos.

Symantec, the internet security organisation, explained that log-ins were used to harvest usernames, email addresses, home addresses and phone numbers which were uploaded on to a remote web server. This stolen data puts innocent users at risk of phishing and spam emails.

Symantec said users should always limit contact information posted to job websites and to use a disposable e-mail address.

"Never disclose sensitive details such as your social security number, passport or driver's license numbers, bank account information to prospective employers until you have established they are legitimate," said the firm.

BBC news online, 21st August 2007

Its research showed that 70 per cent of businesses questioned in the West Midlands do not currently trade online and are missing out on lucrative Christmas sales as millions of shoppers shun the high street to shop online.

The research comes from the first Barclaycard Business Retail in Detail Survey - an annual survey of more than 1,000 retailers across the country.

The aim of this new survey is to build a comprehensive picture of the nation's high street and to gauge the views of retail owners in the UK today.

The survey also gives an insight into the potential benefits to a retailer of trading online. It found that of those retailers in the West Midlands who were able to accept business over the internet, half (50 per cent) had seen an increase in their business over the last 12 months.

To investigate the motives for trading online the research looked at why so many retailers in the West Midlands were still not trading over the internet and benefiting from the new online marketplace.

It found nearly one in five retailers in the West Midlands (18 per cent) cited the cost of setting up online as a barrier to implementation and more than one in five (21 per cent) responded that they didn't have the technical expertise to get started.

Barclaycard Business commercial director Bill Thomson said: "The growth of online shopping over the last five years has opened up a lucrative new revenue stream for retailers in the West Midlands. "However, it is clear from our research that many retailers are not yet benefiting from this new income by making their goods and services available online.

"Our research shows that many retailers in the West Midlands perceive setting up online as a costly exercise.

"In fact the opposite is true. Starting to trade online can be extremely quick and cost effective; a move that can deliver new business which will quickly repay any initial costs."

Birmingham Post online, December 2006

UK shoppers spent 9.79bn euros (£6.7bn; $12.2bn) online in 2005, compared with 9.71bn euros in Germany, Mintel said.

Competition between internet providers has lowered the cost of fast broadband services, making it easier for consumers to shop online.

Total internet sales in Europe rose by 51% to 40.2bn euros in 2005. Mintel expects that figure to triple by 2010.

"Mintel is confident that online sales of goods will grow strongly over the next few years as this channel matures," said senior retail analyst Neil Mason.

Mintel said there was plenty of room for growth in online spending, with sales made over the internet making up 2% of total European retail sales.

Companies are expected to benefit as online security becomes tighter and consumers become more comfortable with shopping over the internet. Last month, search giant Google launched an online payments system which aims to compete with auction giant eBay.

BBC News online, July 2006.

Please see our Website applications; Website Services, e commerce.

Rachel Elnaugh

Rachel had an entrepreneurial spirit from an early age, selling home made gifts and cards from her dad's shop. After leaving school she worked her way up from Office Junior to become a tax consultant at the world's then leading accountancy firm Arthur Andersen, advising top-flight entrepreneurs like Sir Terence Conran. Then at 24 she left to set up her own company Red Letter Days which as market leader pioneered the UK's £200million experiences industry, selling gift experiences such as balloon rides and shark-diving. Websynergi Design are continuing to work with Rachel Elnaugh on future projects.

http://www.rachelelnaugh.com

Google offers personal searches

A bespoke search engine that can be included on people's websites or blogs is the latest offering from Google.

Google Custom Search Engine, as the tool is known, allows users to choose which webpages to search.

Users can also customise the look of results, how web content is prioritised or add paying adverts to the results.

Focused search

Groups using the program include climate science site RealClimate.org that searches a subset of the web it believes is scientifically credible.

The custom engine on the organisation's website only searches pages that have been scrutinised by climate scientists and are deemed to provide "solid and reliable information".

The custom engine will help users to find their chosen information more quickly.

Users wanting to make use of the tool log on to a Google "Co-op" page where they can specify a list of websites to search.

The search engine can be set up to search the entire web but emphasise the chosen sites, or search only the specified pages.

The custom application can also be used to create a search engine that just focuses on a person's own site.

Cashing in

Users can also specify whether or not the tool uses the Google AdSense program to generate advertisements from search terms.

Advertisers pay Google every time someone clicks on these adverts.

"We want to make it easy for anyone to create a search engine about all of their favourite topics," said Marissa Mayer, vice president of search products and user experience at Google.

BBC News online, Oct 2006

Please see our Search engine optimisation services (SEO), Website applications, Website Services.

Christmas sales on net 'to soar'

Shoppers in the UK will spend £200m a day on the internet in the run up to Christmas, with the total holiday spend likely to hit £4bn, a survey suggests.

The bumper Christmas online spend - set to be about 50% more than last year - will be followed by big internet sales in 2008, Deloitte's report forecasts.

Growth is driven by greater consumer ease with shopping online and the fact more firms now sell via the internet.

But rising online spending may cut high street sales, another report suggests.

Christmas dash

"We expect 2008 to deliver double digit growth in terms of internet retailing," said Tarlok Teji, head of retail at Deloitte.

Click to spend: - but people worry about fraud

"The number of people shopping online and the number of retailers with online stores are increasing quickly," he added.

"The strongest sectors will be grocery and clothing," he said.

Some consumers still favour the shops, wary of internet fraud, while others prefer handling products before they pay for them.

Those wanting last-minute presents still have to dash to the shops.

December's online boom will shudder to a halt on 20 December, the date people usually stop ordering because of delivery times.

The rise in online shopping has led to fewer people visiting shops, a separate report suggested.

More people visited shops in November than in October, with footfall up 6.4%, a report by Footfall showed, though the number of shoppers in November is down 2.9% against the same month a year ago.

But the number of visitors to shopping and classified websites jumped 22.4% in November on the previous month, the report suggested.

"Our research suggests that the relatively poor show on the high street is due to shifting channel choice rather than declines in spending. The boom in online activity shows that UK consumers are still prepared to celebrate this Christmas, " the firm's Martin Davies said.

BBC news online, 1st December 2007

Wet summer triggers boom in online sales!

Research by the Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) has shown that the wet July weather persuaded shoppers to stay at home and make their purchases in comfort online.

Internet sales in July nearly doubled in relation to the amount spent in July 2006 and this is directly related to the unseasonal weather, IMRG believes. The online spend in July 2007 was £4.2bn, compared to just £2.4bn the year before.

Improved ecommerce websites

The research also showed that online sales were increasing because retailers were improving their ecommerce sites and consumers had the benefit of faster internet connections.

The fastest growing sector of online sales is electrical goods which, says IMRG, has almost doubled from 2006, whilst sales of clothing and accessories has increased by nearly 60%.

BBC news online, 20th August 2007

A successful ecommerce solution consultancy - WebsynergiDesign

As Birmingham based ecommerce web designers, WebsynergiDesign have ensured that their customers in Birmingham, London and all over the UK recognise the advantages of the huge, rapid growth of ecommerce / online shopping. As a result many customers have commissioned their own ecommerce websites from our ecommerce solution consultancy.

Online shopping sales increased by 33.4% to £10.9bn in 2006, new research has shown. In addition, ecommerce sales are set to roughly triple over the next five years. The decisions made by our customers below to utilise our shopping cart design for their bespoke ecommerce website development have produced a marked increase in online sales performed via secure transactions using ecommerce software and provoked some gratifying comments.

Integration with Payment Gateways such as Worldpay to process the ecommerce payments or take them on a Secure Server (SSL) within your own management.

With the ability to use a bespoke CMS (Content Management System) to update their products and product ranges - ongoing ecommerce maintenance is cost-effective.

UK consumers bought £8.2bn of goods from websites last year - up 28.9% on 2004, according to market analysts Verdict.

A quarter of all UK shoppers now buys goods over the internet, Verdict said. The surge in "e-retail" means online shopping is now winning its biggest-ever slice of the UK retail market.

Overall UK retail sales grew by just 1.5% in 2005 - the slowest rate since the early 1960s.

Verdict's retail analyst, NickGladding, said that the internet not only offered lower prices, but also allowed customers to shop at times convenient for them.

Internet shopping rivals high street stores

Verdict says the figures show internet shopping is closing in on the £9.4bn spent in department stores in 2005.

Mr. Gladding said online shopping was now a "formidable competitor" to the High Street as it allowed people to trawl for prices.

Seasonal boom

One of the biggest growth sectors in online shopping is among the over-55s, with numbers almost doubling to 2.7 million users between 2004 and 2005

And the amount spent by this sector rose 46.7% to an average £458 per head, while shoppers aged 35 to 44 are the biggest spenders, accounting for £3 in every £10 of retail sales.

The report comes a month after a report from e-commerce trade body IMRG said internet shopping among UK consumers soared almost 50% in the 10 weeks before Christmas.

BBC News February 2006. Please see our Website Services, e commerce; Website applications.

BBC news online, February 2006

The results of the ONS 2005 E commerce Survey of Business, which was based on businesses with ten or more employees, show growth in the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and large increases in the value of trade over the Internet

Value of Internet sales rises 56 per cent in 2005

The value of Internet sales by businesses rose to £103.3 billion in 2005, an increase of 56 per cent on the 2004 figure of £66.2 billion.

Other key findings of the survey

• The value of Internet sales to households rose to £21.4 billion in 2005 from £16.5 billion in 2004, a rise of 29.7 per cent.
• 14.6 per cent of businesses sold over the Internet in 2005 (12 per cent in 2004) while 56.3 per cent made purchases over the Internet in 2005 (50.3 per cent in 2004).
• Internet purchases by businesses rose 50.4 per cent, from £48.4 billion in 2004 to £72.8 billion in 2005.
• 69.8 per cent of businesses had a website in 2005, compared to 66.9 per cent of businesses in 2004.
• 24.8 per cent of businesses reported having electronic systems for placing or receiving orders in 2005.

Issued by Office of National Statistics 13th October 2006. Please see our Website Services, e commerce; Website applications

The UK fashion retailer had pre-tax profits of £179m in the six months to 30 June, compared with £173m in the same period a year earlier.

Like-for-like store sales fell 7.5% while sales from the Next Directory catalogue and its e marketing facility rose 15.3%,

Looking towards the end of the year, Next admitted that it saw like-for-like store sales falling between 2% and 5% during the second half of 2006.

It expects overall sales to continue to rise due to new store openings and the ongoing popularity of the Next Directory division and e commerce.