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They were once a regular feature of many a housewife’s social calendar, the hosts selling the latest goodies direct to their nearest and dearest.
Now home-shopping parties are making a comeback – thanks to the difficult economic climate.
Though the format may be largely unchanged, the wares on offer are increasingly upmarket, with Tupperware and risque lingerie swapped for products such as Jamie Oliver’s cookware range.
Home ‘party’ sales have surged by 120 per cent in the past two years to an annual total of 400 million, with the rise put down in part to friends seeking a cheaper alternative to going out for the evening.
Tupperware party time: Sales of products at home have rocketed thanks to the difficult economic climate
And, facing a tough job market, around 20,000 more have become ‘direct sellers’ in the past two years, taking the total to 400,000.
Last year saw a 26 per cent increase in men signing up, according to the Direct Sales Association.
Paul Southworth, DSA director general, said: ‘Whereas people might have gone out for dinner or drinks before the recession, direct-selling parties are a cheaper night in socialising with friends and family.’
On sale: Jamie Oliver's pressure cooker
Jamie Oliver’s popular cookware range is now sold at home parties across the land. Women gather at a friend’s house over drinks and nibbles, watch a video of Jamie in action and then are asked to buy anything from a ceramic rice steamer to an olive oil drizzler.
Few can resist the unspoken pressure to help out the host and make a purchase.
Other new brands cashing-in on the home shopping circuit include Pampered Chef, US jewellery brand Silpada, Best in Glass, Barefoot Books and Forever Living aloe vera products.
In the current tough job market, with part-time employment on the increase, almost 400,000 people are attempting to make a living out of direct selling.
Despite the wide variety of new products Avon, which has global sales of 7billion, remains the biggest direct seller.
Bargains are unlikely to beat what is available over the internet, but the social aspect of home shopping parties has added to their appeal at a time when people don’t go out as often.
‘The reason people liked village shops was because of the friendship and gossiping,’ said Jeremy Baker, retail analyst and affiliate professor at ESCP Europe Business School.
‘Modern retail has become so efficient that it’s quite nice going back to the village shop idea where everyone is sitting around being friendly and using shopping as an excuse.’
New food hygiene score legislation will be launched this week - WalesOnline
New legislation to force all food businesses, including takeaways and restaurants, to display their hygiene scores will be launched this week.
If the Food Hygiene Ratings (Wales) Bill is passed, the nation will become the first part of the UK to make it an offence not to display the score publicly.
It is understood businesses, including wholesale food producers, school and hospital canteens, could face a fixed penalty fine of £200 for failing to display their score.
At present, food businesses such as restaurants and takeaways can choose whether to display their hygiene rating, which is based on their compliance with the law.
All the scores – from 0, which means urgent improvement necessary, to five, which means very good – are currently available online.
Scores of three or more are accepted as showing a business is compliant with food hygiene standards and regulations.
Research by the Food Standards Agency, which devised the ratings scheme, found less than a third of food businesses display their score. This falls to just 6% if a business has been given a rating of two or below.
A survey by Consumer Focus Wales has shown overwhelming public support for the mandatory display of hygiene ratings, with 94% saying it should be compulsory.
Liz Withers, head of policy for Consumer Focus Wales, said: “We have campaigned for mandatory display on food hygiene ratings to provide better information to consumers and to help them make more informed decisions about where they chose to eat.
“These proposals provide a real opportunity to drive up standards in premises serving food and reduce food-borne illness.
“The overwhelming majority of people in Wales have told us they want a simple and transparent food hygiene standards system. For that to be effective there has to be mandatory display of food hygiene ratings.
“Under the current voluntary scheme, businesses with poor scores are hiding them away – keeping consumers in the dark.
“Mandatory display will give consumers the information they want, and the power to make safer choices about where they chose to eat.
“We hope the Welsh Government’s bill will help make Wales a beacon of food safety.”
The Food Hygiene Ratings (Wales) Bill is expected to say businesses will be allowed to apply, for a fee, to be re-inspected after it has been awarded a rating and it has carried out any remedial work, rather than wait for their next routine inspection.
But the legislation is not expected to give people automatic access to the inspection reports explaining why a particular rating was awarded.
The ratings are not just based on how food is handled but they also take into account the physical condition of the premises and how the business manages and records what it does to make sure food is safe.
Julie Barratt, director of the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health in Wales, said: “We think this will be good for consumers as it will enable them to make informed decisions about where they buy food and it is good for compliant businesses to be able to show the standards to which they operate.
“As the hygiene ratings scheme gets embedded we hope it will help drive up standards in the food industry and, as a result, help improve public safety.”
A Welsh Government spokesman said: “This is good for consumers and has cross-party support. We are committed to driving up standards in Wales and this Bill will do that by giving everyone information that helps them to make informed choices about where they eat.
“For consumers going out to eat there will be a simple choice between eating at a five or a zero business.”
Mobile Online Shopping Holds The Real Opportunity In Mobile Payments - TechCrunch
Editor’s note: Bill Ready is CEO of Braintree, an online and mobile payments provider.
Every day there is a new headline about mobile payments focused on using a mobile phone to pay at retail locations. Paypal, Google and other industry giants are racing to provide new in-store mobile payment solutions. Large merchants, such as Wal-mart and Target have contemplated their own mobile payment solutions. The debate about whether NFC will be the preferred technology to enable mobile payments rages. However, despite all this press and efforts by industry giants, there is stunningly little traction to use a mobile device to pay at retail locations. This is largely because the solutions offered by industry giants thus far don’t solve a meaningful problem in the daily lives of consumers or merchants. Few things in life are easier for consumers than swiping a credit card at checkout and in-store payment systems are as easy and ubiquitous as dial-tone for merchants.
However, There is a massive mobile commerce opportunity that is a severe pain point for both consumers and merchants, but large industry players are failing to meaningfully address it. That opportunity is e-commerce on the mobile device or m-commerce. M-commerce is ramping up, proving that consumers not only like to shop via their mobile device, but also will purchase. However, the numbers also show that there’s significant room for improvement in the mobile device purchasing experience – mainly through optimizing the shopping and payment processes for consumers.
Online holiday shopping in 2011 showed substantial growth in mobile shopping activity, with both traffic and sales on mobile devices more than doubling their volume over the same period a year earlier, according to research from IBM. During the holiday shopping season, 14.6 percent of all online sessions on a retailer’s site were initiated from a mobile device (up from 5.6 percent the year before), and sales from mobile devices reached 11 percent versus 5.5 percent in December 2010. Clearly, more consumers are becoming comfortable shopping and buying from retailer web sites using their smartphones.
But this volume of mobile shopping is far below the potential. Total time online via mobile device already exceeds the amount of time spent online via traditional desktops and laptops according to data from Flurry. That’s largely because the web browsing capabilities of mobile devices and mobile apps have improved dramatically over the last few years. If consumers spend more time browsing the web on their mobile devices than traditional devices, they’ll ultimately end up shopping and purchasing more on those mobile devices as well. The mobile buying experience just needs to catch-up to where users are already. The opportunity now exists in making the mobile shopping experience as easy as possible for the consumer. This would increase sales and decrease the number of times a consumer gets frustrated with purchasing experiences that haven’t been optimized for mobile and likely abandons the purchase.
Here are four immediately actionable items that e-commerce companies and payment providers can take today to improve mobile purchasing and capture the m-commerce opportunity:
1. One-click checkout: As exemplified by Amazon, nothing beats the one-click checkout experience for online shoppers. The more steps we put between the consumer and the final transaction, the more we risk them dropping off (which, many times means the consumer never returns). This opportunity is amplified on the mobile device where it is significantly more cumbersome to enter your credit card data. E-commerce providers should be using a card vault solution that enables one-click checkout for both online and mobile transactions.
2. Mobile security: Security is an issue whether you’re shopping online using a laptop computer or a mobile phone. However, consumers are more likely to lose a mobile phone than a laptop or desktop and they are less likely to have password protected the phone than the laptop or desktop. Consumers need to know that if they lose their phone or it gets stolen, their credit card information is secure. Taking steps like encrypting credit card data directly on the device as soon as the user enters it or implementing a one-click checkout so that the user never has to enter credit card data on the device help to ensure that if a mobile device is lost or stolen, a fraudster can’t gain access to their credit card data.
3. Speed of transaction: Speed really does matter, particularly in the limited bandwidth environment of the mobile device. If a retailer’s process is not optimized for mobile, they are likely losing sales to a slow and painful experience consumers just don’t have patience for today. Through benchmarking, we have found that just the payment process alone with many payment providers requires multiple round-trips between the mobile device and the payment provider’s servers, some as many as sixteen, just to complete the payment transaction. Look for a payment process that makes a single, efficient round-trip to the server to complete the purchase. Otherwise, the consumer will likely be waiting a very long time for the transaction to complete or may even abandon after clicking purchase.
4. Websites that are fully optimized for the mobile shopping experience: If a consumer has to pan around, pinch and expand things in order to make a purchase, they’re likely not going to do it. Without a site and shopping experience that’s fully optimized for mobile, retailers risk losing the consumers who are shopping on their phones. When a user encounters a site that isn’t mobile optimized, they are increasingly likely to go to other sites that have optimized for mobile since there are a rapidly growing number of sites that are catering to the mobile experience. A good mobile shopping experience is one that is fully optimized for the smaller screen, takes advantage of touch screen technology and also offers a fast checkout in as few steps as possible.
But won’t mobile shopping cannibalize online shopping?
I’ve heard merchants say that optimizing mobile hasn’t been a priority for them in the past because they assume the consumer would just switch devices and fire up the laptop or desktop computer to complete their purchase. While this seems like a perfectly logical assumption, the evidence out there now doesn’t back it up. Mobile browsing didn’t surpass online browsing by cannibalizing online browsing. Traditional online browsing is still growing, but mobile browsing eclipsed traditional browsing through the addition of significant additional browsing time by the user in spare moments away from their computers (we’ve all seen people walking down the street or in the store looking at their mobile device). Therefore, mobile presents added opportunity to make purchases. If you compared this to offline shopping, the mobile device presents an opportunity equivalent to having your storefront on every street corner that a user walks by, given the always-on, always-available nature of mobile browsing.
Chasing the real opportunity
So far, the mobile payments debate has revolved around solving a problem that doesn’t really exist. There are few things in the life of a consumer easier than swiping a card at checkout. There are a number of reasons we’re not seeing major pickup in “use your phone as a credit card” technology, but one of the most significant is that we’re forcing change where it’s not yet needed.
Mobile shopping or m-commerce on the other hand is real and growing rapidly. In a 2011 survey by Pew Research, 25 percent of smartphone users in the U.S. said they do most of their online browsing on their phone. The real opportunity is in converting those browsers – who are growing by the day – into purchasers.
Braintree helps online and mobile businesses process credit card payments by providing a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing and credit card storage. The company is disrupting the payments industry by providing elegant tools for developers coupled with white-glove support. Founded in 2007, Braintree works with the world’s most discerning online merchants, including LivingSocial, 37signals, Airbnb, Fab.com, OpenTable, Heroku, Engine Yard and GitHub. The company is processing more than $4 billion in annual credit card volume from more than...
Wholesale Sunglasses and handbags suppliers are successful in today's world - pressbox.co.uk
Added: (Sun May 27 2012)
Pressbox (Press Release) - In the present world, what people like to have is good reputation in the market and status on top of that. Once they have reputation and status what they do is live in style. For them, style means having perfect products which has the ability to reflect the status. Sunglasses and handbags are the common things which they prefer. Most of the potential buyers go for wholesale sunglasses because they use it daily. Adding to it, wholesale handbags are fancied by women because they need to take it in their daily lives.
Setting up a business of manufacturing or selling such a product in bulk which has high demand in the market is really a good idea. If we analyze our society, we can notice that goods such as sunglasses and handbags have very high demand in the market as there are tremendous numbers of people who are fond of these things. Basically, why these things are demanded by the customers of present generation is for fashion. Therefore, setting up a business of wholesale sunglasses is never a bad idea in present market. Being wholesale handbags suppliers is also a successful business idea as one can earn high amount of money by getting into these businesses.
From small shops to big companies of sunglasses, the main motive of the firm is to increase sales by attracting more number of customers than their competitors. For this, they look forward for certain creative sales promotion ideas which include several types of discounts and rewards. Wholesale handbags suppliers also promote their business by giving certain discounts, coupons and vouchers which can create a win-win situation for both, buyer as well as supplier.
Wholesale sunglasses are bought by increased number of people in recent years. Previously, only retailers used to buy wholesale sunglasses from wholesalers. But now, retailers as well as ultimate customers look forward to buy in bulks. The main reason why ultimate customers buy in bulks is they avoid the profit of retailers as they directly contact wholesalers in order to buy wholesale sunglasses.
Certain things are considered by wholesale handbags suppliers when they buy handbags from manufacturers (if they are not the actual manufacturers). First of all, they analyze the taste and preferences of the market. A wholesale handbags suppliers will not producer or buy those handbags from manufacturers in bulks which they think will not be demanded by the customers. Wholesale handbags suppliers set up their business in such a place from where goods can be transported to different places where handbags are in high demand. They also see to it that they have chosen the best offerings in all fields of business so that their profit can be maximized and customers can reach these wholesale handbags suppliers conveniently.
Do you get attracted to offers of wholesale sunglasses? Adding to it, are you willing to contact wholesale handbags suppliers?
Qatar goes on European shopping spree - Daily Telegraph
Meanwhile, in Doha, another QH executive, Hussain Al Abdulla declares: "Anything at the right price I'm willing to buy."
Such remarks provide a rare insight into the activities of the usually secretive fund, which competes against larger, more experienced sovereign wealth funds and is on the hunt for top tier brands or strategic assets that have a development angle for Qatar.
Bankers, however, say that Qatar's scatter-gun approach of late has been hard to understand.
Building stakes in Total and Shell - amid rumours it's also sizing up Italy's Eni - hardly squares with attempts to diversify its assets away from oil and gas. It also built a stake in Lagardere, the publishing house behind Paris Match and Elle, while its sister fund has built a stake in Germany's Siemens.
But according to sources close to QH, "it is not necessarily correct to label the investment institution as 'opportunistic'. From time-to-time opportunities arise to invest in high quality businesses, both listed and unlisted, in a meaningful way. Sometimes, the prevailing macroeconomic environment creates a large number of such opportunities".
QH's stake in Xstrata, which is valued at around £2.4bn, has spooked other shareholders who worry the stake building has tipped the balance Glencore's way as it tries to win over enough of the Swiss miner's shareholders to back a proposed $90bn merger. But a sources said: "QH is generally supportive of management and not agitating for change."
Mr Al-Sayed has also stressed the firm's ambitions in the commodities sector, saying the recent lack of investment across the sector points to looming shortages and a price spike from 2016. QH has also been looking at direct investments into mines as well as building its Xstrata stake.
But across all of Qatar's investments there is usually more than one angle. This can be put down to "relationship investing", strategic thinking or sometimes just desperation to put money to work. One example is the 5.98pc stake in Credit Suisse, which is matched by ownership of the bank's HQ, and the decision to use them as advisers.
The staging of the 2022 FIFA World Cup has accelerated Qatari investments into football, whether through funds like QH or directly from the royal purse. "Wherever they put money, there will be more coming, from a different source - but with a single mindset behind it all," said one City source.
Where you see the direct pay back for the wider population of the country is in investments like Porsche and Volkswagen, which has led to science parks being built in Doha with intellectual property coming from both the car manufacturers.
But Qatar's opulence is relatively new. By an accident of geography, this one-time impoverished British protectorate - for a long time most closely associated with pearl fishing - has transformed into a monied principality with more hold on Europe than the old Venetian trading empire.
It now finds itself sitting on 26 trillion cubic metres of gas – the world's third largest reserve. As a result, its per capita income has soared to $83,000 - second only to the banking enclave of Liechtenstein.
Its ruler, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who trained at Sandhurst and sent his son to Dorset's Sherborne public school, took the throne from his father in a peaceful coup when the latter was holidaying in Switzerland. Since then, the Sheikh has been super-sizing the emir's global political and economic influence - as well as the nation's sporting prowess.
This has included becoming a pivotal military ally to the US and the region's ground breaking Al Jazeera media network which helped shine light and galvanise the Arab Spring.
But Qatar has deduced that it will only raise its profile if it flexes its financial muscles in Europe, where rival investors are having such a torrid time.
US wholesale prices fell 0.2 percent in April - Yahoo Finance
WASHINGTON (AP) -- U.S. wholesale prices fell in April, reflecting a big decline in gas and energy costs. But outside that drop, inflation was tame.
The Labor Department says the producer price index, which measures price changes before they reach the consumer, dropped 0.2 percent in April. It was the first decline since December and the biggest drop since October.
Excluding volatile food and energy costs, the so-called core index rose 0.2 percent.
For the 12 months that ended in April, wholesale prices have risen just 1.9 percent, the smallest 12-month change since October 2009.
Modest wholesale inflation reduces pressure on manufacturers and retailers to raise prices. That helps keep consumer prices stable.
Gas prices spiked earlier this year. But they have dropped 5 percent since peaking last month.
I've been invited to one of these parties and I'd like to go and catch up with friends but I'm worried about not wanting to seem rude and ending up buying something I don't want just to be polite. Seriously thinking of declining the invite, it seems a bit off to me, getting your mates round and then pressuring them into spending money!
- Teresa, England, 28/5/2012 01:05
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