Events & Industry News

March is here and spring is finally on its way. The weather may be feeling hotter, but is the climate on UK high streets improving? 2012 is certainly brightening up for catering outlets, even if large chains such as Game are continuing to fall victim of the crunch. Maxatec has scoured the web to bring you the latest industry updates…

Consumers are increasing the amount of interaction they have with retailers as technology opens up new channels of communications. Shopping experiences were described as increasingly ‘technology driven’ in a report produced by IBM after 28,500 respondents from 15 different countries were surveyed.

According to IBM, customers in the UK said they were happy to use three or more technologies to shop and browse retailer offerings, and 82% of UK consumers believed social networks saved time shopping. 63% also expressed a desire to use mobile devices as a way of comparing prices, rising to 67% wanting to use their devices at check out.

On the high street, it was bad news for Game Group, who announced that it had been put into administration in what the Financial Times has called “the biggest failure since Woolworths in 2008.” Other major names have also been experiencing difficulties – clothing giant New Look has revealed its plans to try to arrange monthly rent payments with landlords to try to deal with over 1bn of debt. Monsoon, Accessorize, Clinton Cards and Sports Direct have also all been seeking monthly rents, as has Dreams, the beds retailer.

However things are looking much brighter for the catering industry: there is an increase in the number of people looking for a more rounded day-out experience when they visit shopping centres. A sociable, relaxed way of shopping is becoming the order of the day, contributing to rise in the number of food and drink outlets appearing in shopping centres. According to a report by www.catersearch.com, the percentage of floor space dedicated to food service provision has tripled in the last 10 years. Sales of food and drink in large shopping centres is on the rise, despite the difficult trading climate experienced by many retail outlets.

Maxatec’s retail news roundup will be back next month with more industry insights.

Back in December, we resolved to give you a round up of how retailers fared during the festive period, and true to our word, Maxatec’s news summary brings you all the lowdown from the high street.

Mistletoe, carols and overeating are all part of a traditional British Christmas. Conversely, in January it is customary to rein in the purse strings and recoup the festive indulgences of the previous month. For one major UK retailer, January 2012 was set to be a particularly frugal beginning to the new year: earlier this month, Tesco reported its first profit warning in 20 years. However the retailer was given a boost when US billionaire Warren Buffett, owner of the Berkshire Hathaway Group invested a reported £500m to raise his stake in the supermarket chain, according to the Financial Times.

On the high street there was positive news as shoppers took full advantage of pre-Christmas price-slashing – sales volumes rose by 0.6% between November and December, according to official figures published in the Guardian. Reported sales were 2.6% higher than the same period in 2010.

In the fashion industry, budget retailer Primark benefited from shoppers making frugal choices over the festive season, reporting a healthy sales period and expansion in Europe. Total sales were up by 16pc in the 16 weeks to January 7 compared to the previous year.

In not-so-cheerful retail news, Home Retail Group, owner of Argos and Homebase, reported a drop in sales compared to last year – 2.6pc at Homebase and 8.8pc at Argos: the retailer has announced that a number of Argos stores will close next year when leases expire. Sales online have increased from 38pc to 41pc of total transactions.

That’s all for January – Maxatec hopes your business fared well in 2011 and wishes you a very prosperous new year.

Christmas is just a few days away, and retailers are certainly feeling a chill in the air this year, with predictions of mass price slashing about to hit the high streets as a last ditch attempt to attract shoppers feeling the pinch of the icy economic climate. The pre-Christmas sales are set to bring ‘unprecedented’ levels of price cuts, according to industry experts.

One major brand feeling particularly frosty this season is HMV. Simon Fox, chief executive of the entertainment retailer, had previously been optimistic in his predictions on sales figures for the Christmas period; citing the ‘X Factor effect’ as a potential boost to sales. However this years’ winners have failed to shift records, with the least sales since 2004’s winner – although Fox blames this on their performance rather than the market in general. HMV has just announced that its live music venues are up for sale, in an attempt to rescue the ailing company, which has recently seen music sales fall by 20pc in six months.

Luckily it’s not all doom and gloom on the high street – grocery sales are far from vegetating, with supermarkets predicted to take 35 billion this week as shoppers stock up on festive fayre. This is a marked increase on last year’s figures,  and will complete a Christmas three-week trading period up to 24 December;  forecast to be worth around £9.2 billion.

We hope your business is thriving this Christmas period. Here at Maxatec we’d like to wish all of our valued customers a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.  The news round up will be back in January with a post Christmas review of the retail sector.

The busy Christmas season is on its way, and our monthly news roundup is back just in time to unwrap up the latest retail news straight from the high street and online. Read on to find out how retailers are innovating to make the most of the shopping period in the lead up to the festive season, and how new technology is playing a leading role in driving business. More

This month has been one of ups and downs in the retail world. With shops being targeted by rioting in major cities the high street has been left looking battered. John Lewis has been one of the first to release figures detailing how they were affected. Lush has also faced a difficult month due to an online security breach. A ray of sunshine has appeared on the high street though, in the shape of the launch of the UK’s largest travel company. More

The retail world has always been a fast-paced industry, and this month is no different. July has seen Converse and John Lewis embrace the future and delve into mobile technology as well as in-store technology, whilst Intechnica has preached the benefits of cloud services for the retail world. More

This month has seen many developments within the EPOS, POS and retail industries, some good, some bad. Alongside the 2011 Retail Power List being released, Habitat has announced they will be closing all of their stores outside of London. This month also saw the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival showcase some of the finest developments across the industry, including Google’s predictions for mobile payments. More

Maxatec, joined by manufacturing partners Bluebird Soft and Datamax-O’Neil, will be exhibiting at The Service Management Expo on 20 and 21 September 2011.

For more information visit http://www.servicemanagement.co.uk/

Another month has gone by and so have a host of developments from the world of EPOS, POS and mobile. This month has seen Apple finally release their much talked about EPOS app, the papers predict the end of cash payments and Nokia experienced its lowest market share in over a decade. More

The world of EPOS, POS and mobile has been full of the joys of spring this month with a host of new releases and advances. This March has seen Apple release the iPad 2, which contains a mass of new features, Beanstalk Loyalty turn POS social and Vauxhall install the Panasonic Toughbook into their new Astra. More

It seems the world of EPOS, POS and mobile marketing is looking forward to the year ahead, with many people speculating as to what it might bring. This month Retail Week has peeked into the future of EPOS and UTalkmarketing.com has made predictions that PAYG EPOS could save the recession battered high street. Retail technology however, has given us some good news for the year so far as the travel sector has experienced a substantial year on year growth. More

The new year is here and we are raring to go, no matter how gloomy it is outside the world of EPOS and mobile never stops. This month we are bringing you news of reports of retail banks spending more on IT , all the news the National Retail Federation’s ‘Big Show’ and RSR conduct a study on today’s retailer. More

Even though Christmas is here and everyone is looking forward to a few days relaxing with their feet up the world of EPOS and retail has been very busy, here are a few of the top news stories from this month.  This month we have seen businesses preparing their POS systems for the imminent VAT increase, Apple prompting businesses to create EPOS apps and Cloud services being tipped to become increasingly more popular. More

With the chill in the air and jingle bells on every advert it can only mean one thing – Christmas is just around the corner. So why not relax with a mince pie and read our quick monthly round up of all the EPOS news that has gone on this month? This month we have seen Matalan embrace online selling in a new way, Morrison’s bring in a new IT system and a new use is found for receipt printers. Enjoy! More

Another month has passed and many developments in the world of EPOS and POS systems and mobile marketing have gone along with it. We here at Maxatec have picked some of the biggest or the most interesting stories and saved you the trouble of searching. October has seen eXConnect’s in-plane broadband take off, Intel promise to create thousands of new jobs, and Debenhams join the ecommerce world with their new app. More

Once again, Maxatec, are here to let you know what’s been going on in the world of EPOS, POS and mobile technology this month. It seems it has been a good month for some people and not such a good one for others. September has seen loyalty specialist Taggo and Karen Millen embracing new technology and, as a result, seeing a positive effect on their businesses. But it has also seen a restaurant in Tallahassee become the victim of hackers. More

Once again, another 4 weeks has flown by and it seems we are at the end of yet another month. Now with the summer fading and talks of Christmas getting more frequent, it is time to look back and see what August brought to the world of POS and EPOS technology.  Mobile phones are set, it seems, to become an even more integral part of everyday life with the ever-developing point of sale technology.  Somerfield and Co-op have begun the long task of integrating their separate IT systems to create one streamlined super-system, while Australian company Harvey Norman has paid $2 million to upgrade their entire POS system. More

Each month here at Maxatec we like to post a quick round up of interesting news items relating to EPOS, mobile computing and the technology sectors.

During June we have seen UK retail outlets becoming more serious about cutting their carbon emissions, mobility as a growing trend in EPOS systems for retailers, and Blockbuster embracing mobile vouchers.

Please read the summaries below: More

Each month Maxatec posts a quick round up of interesting news items relating to EPOS, mobile computing and technology sectors.

In May we have discovered that; garden centres are making more efficient use of their epos systems for customer retention and research, independent pharmacies in the UK are using new retail systems. No more queuing at the train station hurray! – We can now use barcode rail tickets on our mobile phones, and don’t forget that here at Maxatec we have just re-launched our MT-200 receipt printer!

Read the summaries below: More