E-commerce technology

Interview: James Smith, director of digital, Nationwide Building Society

James Smith says heading up the digital unit at Nationwide Building Society is the best job in the business Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Why CIOs must digitise internal IT processes to keep pace with change

Nothing ever stands still, and IT is now expected to be more adaptable than ever before to help businesses keep in step with the pace of innovation Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Industry opposition to no-deal Brexit hardens, says TechUK

A survey of TechUK members has found that 71% believe a no-deal Brexit at the end of October will negatively affect them in spite of their preparations Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

That don’t impress Ma much

Over to Hangzhou now, where the richest man in China has thrown himself the mother of all retirement bashes by performing in front of an audience of 60,000 employees. Alibaba founder Jack Ma donned ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

The emergence of the shopping centre-as-a-service model

Shopping centres have been morphing into wider entertainment, leisure and hospitality venues for some time, but their role is set to evolve yet further Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

IT leaders need to speak up about the voice channel

Voice assistants represent the next frontier, and a range of new skills will be needed to move beyond pilot projects to a true voice channel Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Executive interview: How Figleaves uncovers a data Eden

Online lingerie business that started out at the height of the dot com boom is now focused on using advanced analytics to reveal new data insights Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Samsung KX gives consumers and retailers a glimpse of the future

Samsung puts its Galaxy range, the internet of things and community events at the heart of its new central London consumer space – but don’t call it a store... Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

From cleaners to architects – lessons learnt by a serial entrepreneur

After the emotional sale of her first company, Alex Depledge, co-founder of and CEO of Resi, explains the lessons she has learnt and what she will and will not do again Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

UK banks outage caused by problem at US payment service provider

UK consumers were unable to access some banking services due to a hardware failure at a US payments provider Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 29

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna, Caroline Donnelly and Clare McDonald take a look back at the last 28 podcasts ahead of the summer podcast pause Continue Reading

By

• Brian McKenna, Senior Analyst, Business Applications
• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK
• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Over 40% of UK shoppers want store-specific stock information

Shoppers want to use mobile or the web to see availability of items in stores near them in a growing trend towards convenience shopping Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

7 ways to improve your retail sales

Retailers, especially traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, need to throw caution to the wind and follow these seven tips to spur sales and provide remarkable retail. Continue Reading

By

• Jesse Scardina, News Writer

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 26

In this special edition of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload, Brian McKenna and Caroline Donnelly are joined by Bill Goodwin and Sebastian Klovig Skelton to dig into the pair's recent run of in-depth investigative articles on Facebook and its privacy practices Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

The next stage in football’s digital revolution is ready for the new season

Technology is playing an increasing role in football, as the Premier League adopts video assistant referees for the first time and clubs turn to data to capture more of their fans’ attention Continue Reading

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• Richard Edwards, Freeform Dynamics

Surge in UK businesses switching bank account providers

The UK system that makes it easy to change bank account has seen a surge in businesses taking up the service Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

US Department of Justice launches antitrust probe into dominance of online platform providers

The US Department of Justice has called for an antitrust investigation into how “market-leading” online platform operators in the search, social media and retail space operate Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Convenience, digitisation and the impact on the physical store

Digital technologies and the need for convenience have changed the way consumers shop, but what will this mean for the purpose and size of physical stores? Continue Reading

European Commission launches antitrust investigation into Amazon

Amazon is being officially investigated by the European Commission to assess whether its use of data from independent retailers is anti-competitive Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 24

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna, Caroline Donnelly and Clare McDonald talk about using Alexa to search for medical advice, how a good cup of tea can solve most problems and whether more should be done to provide childcare at tech events Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Retailers engineer new ways to recruit and retain IT talent

Senior leaders at Holland & Barrett, Feelunique and BrandAlley offer tips on finding and keeping sought-after engineering and developer talent Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Challenger bank shuts up shop in UK amid uncertainty

Digital bank Fidor is ending its time in the UK, blaming uncertainties in the market Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Why Facebook’s Libra digital currency could run rings round the regulators

Facebook’s cryptocurrency isn’t really a cryptocurrency, nor is it really a money transfer network, but it’s been formulated in such a way that regulators might not be able to do anything to stop it Continue Reading

By

• Tim Worstall, Adam Smith Institute

Rise of the machines: How AI is changing unified communications

Artificial intelligence is now moving into live UC environments at scale. We look at the impact it will have and what lies ahead Continue Reading

By

• Christian Annesley

Almost half of shoppers still prefer brands with stores

Despite an increasing amount of people shopping online, factors such as product pricing and whether a brand has a physical store still come into play Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

How privacy could breathe new life into personalisation

As much of the advertising technology used by marketers to deliver personalised content online is deemed unlawful, there are signs regulation could actually be a win-win for both consumers and business – as long as the industry embraces change Continue Reading

By

• Jim Mortleman

Open banking could generate £18bn in value for UK SMEs and citizens

Consumers and SMEs could generate billions of pounds in value if open banking adoption reaches its potential Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 21

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, Brian McKenna, Clare McDonald and Caroline Donnelly are joined by Computer Weekly’s acting management editor, Angelica Mari, to talk about some of the past week’s biggest news stories Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Asos trials AR catwalk technology

Online retailer Asos has partnered with HoloMe to trial an augmented reality catwalk for users of its fashion app Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Facebook officially unveils cryptocurrency plans

Facebook has released details about its Libra cryptocurrency, but questions still remain over how, and if, it will work Continue Reading

By

• Sebastian Klovig Skelton, Data & ethics editor

Facebook announces global digital currency Libra

Facebook is launching digital coin to open up affordable financial services to the world Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Whittard spills the tea about its use of technology

CFO and IT manager of British hot beverages brand Whittard explains the firm’s recent investment in technology ahead of the business’s expansion into China Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Convenience, digitisation and the impact on the physical store

Digital technologies and the need for convenience have changed the way consumers shop, but what will this mean for the purpose and size of physical stores? Continue Reading

By

• Glynn Davis

Co-op pushes to make customer care teams more co-operative

The Co-op operates in market segments ranging from funeral care to food, and its customer service strategy was disparate until it adopted Salesforce Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Yoox Net-A-Porter launches female-focused fashion app competition

Online fashion retailer Yoox Net-A-Porter is asking young women to submit ideas for an app which helps drive sustainability in the fashion industry Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

How retail store technology is filling the ‘imagination gap’

Retailers are using in-store technology to reduce the time between shoppers’ consideration phase and purchase, but how is it engaging them and triggering conversions? Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

More than half of UK workforce lacks essential digital skills, says Lloyd’s

In the modern world, digital skills are becoming increasingly important, but a large amount of the UK workforce doesn’t measure up, Lloyd’s has found Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Gant uses Cegid to streamline functions across all markets

As retailer Gant begins to mirror its core operations across all of the countries it operates in, global IT manager Ricky Dematagollage explains what part Cegid will play in the process Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Hyperscale datacentre operators report first drop in capex growth for seven quarters

Datacentre investments of cloud and internet giants dropped in the first quarter of 2019 after seven consecutive quarters of growth, but market watcher claims it is just a blip Continue Reading

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• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Swedes need to keep a week’s cash under the bed

The Swedish population is being advised to keep enough cash at home to last a week in case of problems such as online banking crashes Continue Reading

By

• Jane Hamrin

Paul Smith looks to tailor its back-end systems with Cegid software

British tailor Paul Smith has been working with Cegid since 2015, but it is now considering upgrading to the provider's latest software to reduce costs and increase efficiency Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

CW Nordics: Nordea links up with IBM to meet fintech challenge

IBM’s €473m managed services contract with Nordea reflects an increasing trend among Nordic banks to outsource more of their IT to help meet the challenge of fintechs. Also read how a shortage of women in the boardroom is a problem in the Nordics but the tech sector points to a more promising future, and find out why the Norwegian government has launched a regulatory sandbox for the fintech sector. Continue Reading

Amazon vs Amazon

What happens when the Amazon rainforest, globally cherished as the lungs of the planet, asks a company that named itself after it not to enjoy exclusive use of the .amazon domain extension? Where ... Continue Reading

By

• Ryan Priest

Hundreds of European retail banks will disappear as challengers scoop up customers

One in every 10 banks in Europe will no longer exist as digital challengers take customers from them Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

How do you choose an e-commerce platform to integrate with a CMS?

Before choosing an e-commerce system, companies need to identify their business objectives and determine what capabilities they need to add to their CMS. Continue Reading

By

• Geoffrey Bock, Bock & Company

Retailers need to rethink KPIs in the face of digital shopping

Customer experience is becoming of increasing importance in an omni-channel world, but technology adoption has stores cornered, forcing them to rethink what value stores bring to an organisation and the customer journey Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Middle East Interview: Dubai-based Fetchr

Delivery app Fetchr is spreading across the Middle East with its mobile-to-mobile delivery service. We talk to its founder Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 16

In this week’s episode of the Computer Weekly Downtime Upload, Clare McDonald and Brian McKenna are joined by prolific Downtime author Ryan Priest to discuss retail sustainability, internet influencers and the tech battle between China and the US Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Physical stores – the place to meet your tribe

In a digital world, stores still have a place as community hubs, representatives from Lego, Vans and M&Ms told Retail Expo Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Early adopters expect to pay 32% premium for 5G

Potential early adopters of 5G say they expect, on average, to pay more for their devices and services, but they expect measurable improvements on 4G from the get-go Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Swedish government tells citizens to hoard cash in case of cyber attack

Civil Contingencies Agency says cash is needed in case of emergencies such as technology failures and cyber attacks Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

From friction-filled to till-free: The path to a checkoutless Sainsbury’s store

Daniel Hills, group digital product manager for Sainsbury’s, tells Retail Expo the journey his team had to take to eventually launch a till-free store trial featuring its new shopping app Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

CIO interview: Mark Holt, CTO, Trainline

A data-led strategy underpins the growth of the public transport app, which sells over 200 tickets a minute and logs more than 80 million customer visits a month Continue Reading

By

• Mark Samuels

Digital shopping endangers retail employment

A shift towards online shopping and digital retail technologies has led to a decrease in investment in retail employment Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Online fashion brand Boohoo sees year-on-year revenue growth

Online fashion retailer Boohoo.com has seen a spike in revenue over the past year across all of its operating brands, and has announced the completion of several digital projects Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

How Kubernetes has simplified Bet365’s software deployments

Online betting company has begun using Kubernetes to make it easier for its IT infrastructure and product teams to share complex configurations Continue Reading

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• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Facebook takes extraordinary legal steps to contain document leak

Facebook targets journalists and news organisations for computer searches Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

Lush gives up on social media

Since the birth of social media platforms, brands have been carefully adapting their marketing strategies to reach the cool kids on whatever their chosen channel of choice. From MySpace, to ... Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

The dominance of big tech might not always be such a bad thing

Governments increasingly talk about regulating big tech to preserve competition, but an alternative view says that big tech only exists because there is already sufficient competition in the market Continue Reading

By

• Tim Worstall, Adam Smith Institute

Marie Claire develops platform to encourage in-magazine shopping

An in-house team at Marie Claire has developed a platform to encourage readers to shop while browsing the site Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

E-commerce information systems, content management join forces

Content management to power e-commerce systems takes on greater importance in personalizing customer engagement by aligning processes, data and tools in unified platforms. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Fidor founder leaves as parent bank plots future

The founder of digital challenger bank Fidor leaves company as traditional banking parent company tries to sell business Continue Reading

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• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Magento e-commerce sites urged to apply security update

Security experts are urging companies using the Magento e-commerce site to apply security updates without delay to avoid a disastrous hacking campaign Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

What are the options for regulating internet companies?

The UK – and other countries – are likely to introduce new regulations for internet and tech companies like Facebook and Google. We consider what sort of rules they might introduce Continue Reading

By

• Guy Cartwright, Coffin Mew

Swedish companies increasingly using private networks to communicate with ecosystem

Swedish IT leaders are increasingly turning to private networks to communicate with other businesses in their ecosystem Continue Reading

By

• Jane Hamrin

Nominet urges SMEs to register .uk domains to thwart squatters

The automatic right of .co.uk domain name holders to register the shorter .uk domains ends in June Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Podcast: The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload – Episode 8

In this week’s episode of The Computer Weekly Downtime Upload podcast, the team reminisces over 30 years of the World Wide Web, gets the low-down on what happened at this year’s Cloud Expo and digs a little deeper into the user IT implications of Brexit Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Why the web needs patching

Regulators want to curb the web giants, while World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee believes problems with the web's misuse can be fixed Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Web @ 30

It has been 30 years since Sir Tim Berners-Lee's initial proposal for the World Wide Web Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

UK among most expensive countries for mobile data

The UK ranks 136th in the world for the average cost of 1GB of mobile data, according to new statistics Continue Reading

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• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Futuristic logistics: retailers focused on rapid delivery

From Asos Instant to Ocado Zoom, and a host of new services in between, rapid delivery is gaining traction in UK retail in an attempt to meet customer demand Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

M&S and Ocado announce £750m food delivery joint venture

Deal will see M&S take a 50% share of Ocado’s UK retail business, with access to the Ocado Smart Platform Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

CW Nordics: Sweden to test e-krona and plans cashless society

Sweden’s vision of a cashless society has gained traction after the Riksbank (central bank) rolled out plans to test a digital currency, the e-krona. Also read how the Nordic region’s longer-established companies are playing a forceful role to advance digital transformation, and how Finland’s IT sector has rebounded strongly after Microsoft’s takeover of Nokia’s mobile phones and smart devices business units in 2014. Continue Reading

Kellogg’s tests VR for developing merchandising strategy

Breakfast food brand Kellogg’s is working with Accenture and Qualcomm to test the use of virtual reality to develop a retail strategy for the launch of new products Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Six experiential retail businesses chosen for Jlab

The businesses and startups that will take part in John Lewis’ 2019 Jlab programme have seen selected following a pitch day Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

When is it best to stick with paper?

In this week’s Computer Weekly, sometimes going digital is not necessarily the best thing to do – we weigh the pros and cons of paper versus technology. Our new buyer’s guide examines the challenges of asset management as you move IT infrastructure to the cloud. And we look at the growing role of software developers in the future of networking. Read the issue now. Continue Reading

Central Saint Martins hosts Three’s 5G trial for London Fashion Week

Three’s trial 5G network will enable the world’s first augmented reality fashion show at Central Saint Martins, while consumers can test out a prototype network at its flagship store Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Apple Business Chat powers Npower’s smart meter switch

Energy supplier is using Apple Business Chat to help users through the process of switching onto new smart gas and electricity meters Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

Legacy systems holding banks back from meeting demand for instant accounts

Banks are struggling to meet customer demand to open accounts instantly because of legacy IT systems and processes Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Click & collect will grow 45% over next five years

Clothing and footwear lead growth as UK’s click & collect market is set to hit £10bn by 2023, research suggests Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Vodafone announces winners of Techstarter accelerator

Vodafone has announced the winners of its startup accelerator programme, aimed at helping young companies developing technology for social good Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Lloyds Bank rolls out open banking functionality to mobile app customers

Lloyds Bank customers can now see current accounts from multiple banks through their mobile banking app Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Tech sector tells government that digital identity policy is 'urgently required'

The UK tech sector has urged the government to publish policy to support the creation of a “fully functioning” digital identity market, to boost the digital economy Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

Marks & Spencer launches charging banks as part of startup partnership

Retailer Marks & Spencer has announced it will be adding battery charging banks to its stores as part of startup partnership Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Fundamentals of retail won’t change despite tech disruption, say experts

Digital is becoming a big part of the way customers shop and how retailers deliver services, but the focus will always be on the customer, says panel of experts at BRC event Continue Reading

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• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

How to accelerate digital identity in the UK

Trusted online relationships are essential to the digital economy, but the UK is lagging behind. What needs to be done? Continue Reading

By

• David Black, ID Crowd

LA Metro pursues integrated CRM system with Salesforce

The Los Angeles Metro system integrates the Salesforce CRM with existing payment infrastructure, helping to bridge the gap between old and new technologies. Continue Reading

By

• George Lawton

Adobe Magento Commerce Cloud adds progressive web apps

Adobe is upgrading its e-commerce product by adding AI-fueled image-search capabilities and progressive web application building tools to Magento Commerce Cloud. Continue Reading

By

• Jesse Scardina, News Writer

Mastercard fined over half a billion euros for unfair payment fees

Mastercard has been heavily fined for having rules on interchange fees which distorted the EU single market Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Marks & Spencer introduces photo search for online shopping

British retail brand Marks and Spencer has introduced a photo searching capability to its mobile site to help people find products they like using other images Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Bahrain plans to create a world-leading tech ecosystem

Bahrain is building a technology ecosystem that will help the country further reduce its economic reliance on the oil and gas industry Continue Reading

By

• Alicia Buller

Mobile and broadband markets fail digitally excluded groups

Financially vulnerable people, disabled and mentally ill people and elderly people all face significant challenges in accessing appropriate communications services, according to a new Ofcom report Continue Reading

By

• Alex Scroxton, Security Editor

More than half of customers will shop for food online by 2021

Just over 40% of customers currently do their grocery shopping online, but with that number expected to rise to more than half by 2021, are retailers doing enough to meet customer expectations? Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

CW Middle East: Bahrain aims to be fintech hub

Bahrain’s government wants to make the country the go-to place in the Middle East for financial technology companies. It hopes to capitalise on its banking know-how to establish an ambitious fintech “ecosystem”. Also read about Dubai’s plans for the Smart Data platform and the UAE Pass, a digital ID and signature, and how Shell is using AI to amplify the human impact of its workforce. Continue Reading

Banking apps overtake online banking

Mobile apps are the most popular channel for banking as consumers swap online platforms for smartphone software Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Interview: Andy Berks, digital product director, Asos

Asos’s digital product director Andy Berks talks about how the online retailer has used AI and machine learning technologies – and why the needs of the customer have to come first Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Norwegian cryptocurrency miners lament proposed loss of energy use-related tax relief

A wide-ranging push by the Norwegian government’s tax collection agency to clamp down on cryptocurrency miners has incurred the wrath of a company planning to build the world’s biggest datacentre Continue Reading

By

• Caroline Donnelly, Senior Editor, UK

Top 10 retail tech stories of 2018

Computer Weekly looks at what 2018 had in store for the retail industry – what technologies were retailers rushing to adopt and which brands fell behind? Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor

Ready, headset, go: Retailers racing ahead with VR for staff training

Has virtual reality found its prime retail user case as a staff training tool? Recent moves from Costa Coffee and Walmart suggest it has Continue Reading

By

• Ben Sillitoe

Cancer Research works to improve users’ digital experience

UK charity has been working with Optimizely to develop a better user experience through its website, as well as improve the way the organisation works Continue Reading

By

• Clare McDonald, Business Editor