New figures appear to reveal that MySpace UK is fast losing ground to other social network sites, in particular Facebook. Firstly, TechCrunch claims to have seen internal figures for MySpace showing total monthly visits down from 10 million to 5 million between January 2010 and June 2010.

When asked to respond, MySpace UK dismissed TechCrunch’s figures as “inaccurate”.

However in another report, this time by comScore, it was revealed that MySpace UK’s monthly unique visits are down from more than 6 million to less than 4 million over the 12 months to May 2010.

ComScore’s research also finds that Facebook was used by 30.4 million people, 79% of the U.K. online population and that use increased by 28% over the past year. Twitter has a user base of 4.3 million Brits, followed by MySpace with 3.3 million and LinkedIn with 3.1 million.

WebCreationUK have a social media package available, speak to us for more or any of your other web design needs.

Despite the fact that so many more people now use their mobile phones to access the internet (and we’ve seen the rising figures in this blog) a recent survey has revealed that only around a third of company marketers believe that optimising digital content for mobile devices was “important”.

The study by eROI also found that almost 30% “weren’t sure” about the merits of optimising digital content for mobile devices.

Meanwhile a quarter of the 500 companies and businesses question said they were “testing to determine the importance”.
Some 15% thought that optimised mobile experiences “didn’t matter”.

A spokesperson for eROI said: “What is staggering is that mobile is here and while a lot of marketers talk about it, not a lot of people are doing it right.”

If you haven’t yet optimised your website for use on mobile devices then perhaps its time to check out WebCreationUK.

Women buy less on-line yet spend almost twice as much as men, according to a new survey. Women in North America are the biggest e-retail spenders of all, found the VGMarket study.

The stats look like this:

• The average woman spent £33 on on-line goods compared to £18 for men.
• 75% of respondents had bought goods on-line, and about half planned to spend the same amount again in the next 12 months.

Another interesting section of the report focuses on social networking games, including FarmVille and Mafia Wars. Researchers found that the most popular types of virtual goods purchased with “in-game currencies” were virtual gifts and “wearables”.
It will be interesting to see what happens later this year when Facebook launches a virtual currency, “Facebook Credits”, that will make it even easier for users to purchase virtual, and eventually physical, products.

If you are interested in having an online shop, stop by WebCreationUK for more information on our fantastic ecommerce packages.

Social media is growing fast but business owners should not forget more traditional promotional avenues such as email. A new survey has revealed that shoppers are far more likely to be prompted to buy by email marketing.

The report from Econsultancy called How We Shop in 2010: Habits and Motivations of UK Consumers revealed that few consumers actually ask for product recommendations on social networking websites. However, almost four in 10 shoppers said they had been prompted to make an online purchase as a result of an email.

Just over a quarter of those asked said they had made off-line purchases after an email promotion.

The report also found that many consumers believed that businesses could do better with their promotional emails. Half of shoppers said emails had too much irrelevant information. The same number reckoned the marketing emails often held no value for them.

It’s clear, therefore, that while businesses should be keeping up to speed with social networking outlets, it’s vital that they do not overlook the value of email marketing, too.

Speak to us about our web design services which can include newsletter marketing integration.

With so many ecommerce websites on the web and, no doubt, a host of competitors in your marketplace, it pays to keep track of the “shopping experience” being offered by your company. Online stores that do not offer customers exactly what they need will end up losing out as consumers head to a “better” place to shop.

One way to check if your site is a great place to shop is to try it out for yourself. This might seem like an obvious thing to do but many ecommerce site owners overlook this basic strategy.

Perhaps you should try a little MBWA, or “Management By Walking Around”. This concept came about in the Sixties and advised shop managers to get out on to the shop floor to see what was going on. These days, the same approach can be applied to online stores.

Online store managers may not have aisles to walk but they can try to buy products from different “categories”. And while they may not have an actual checkout counter they could experience the check-out process online.
It’s worth doing an MBWA session one a week or every fortnight. Simply buy a product, put it in a basket, check out and pay for it, or not. Why not also ask your customer service a few questions while you’re at it?
Then if any problems do crop up you can quickly fix them – so that your real-time customers will not face the same potentially off-putting glitches.
Here are some key points to check while carrying out your MBWA:
•    Look at the most common entry page. This might not be your home page. Check your website stats and analysis to find out where most people enter your on-line store. Perhaps you need to add a few messages and sales points to this page.
•    Do you have a welcome email message? If not, set one up. Why not add in a discount voucher? Many people keep such emails in their inbox.
•    Can you easily find all the products you search for? If not, what can be done to make this process easier?

•    Is the checkout process too long or complicated? Do you ask too many questions?
•    Is there a confirmation page? Customers like to know that the sale has gone through correctly.  And makes sure there is an automated “confirmation email”.
You’ll be surprised what you find and what can be simply sorted. Happy wandering!

If you are interested in having an online shop, drop by WebCreationUK. We currently have on offer an e-shop summer special.

It looks as though sales from on-line shopping on smartphones are only set to grow. Globally, there are 800 million smartphones in use, with this number predicted to rise to two billion by 2016.

A report by Forbes magazine found that ecommerce is set to gain 8.5% of sales from smartphone purchases by 2015. Meanwhile, a report from ChangeWave Research recently found Android smartphones are quickly becoming more popular than BlackBerrys.

Which means all businesses should ensure that their shopfronts and websites will display on smartphones, in particular, as well as other mobile devices. WebCreationUK are leaders in web design for all types of display so it’s worth checking out their great design deals.

Another fast-growing technology is one that allows customers to scan barcodes using their smartphone cameras. Is it time you had a closer look at smartphone apps?