For most retailers, their online presence and stores are two very different worlds – very few are joined up to the extent they should be. Rather, they relay on shoppers themselves to make the connection when they are instore – typically through their smartphones, even this can be frustrating for customers – many UK stores fail to provide web connectivity, meaning customers have to struggle to connect using a basic 3G signal at their own cost!
Representatives from some of the solar industry’s most prominent players have announced the foundation of the Global Solar Council. The council is a CEO-level coalition of international companies involved in the solar photovoltaic value chain.
A new national body has been launched to provide industry with Green Deal expertise and identify energy efficiency opportunities in the UK through collaboration with DECC.
Wind energy developers have welcomed findings from a major new study which for the first time confirms that wind turbines do not lead to a long term decline in bird populations, despite sometimes having a short term impact during construction.
German’s state-backed bank, KfW, is to step up its advisory role to the UK’s Green Investment Bank (GIB), as the £3bn bank prepares to announce its first investment.
One of the UK’s leading carbon credit brokers is, along with three connected companies, facing a winding-up order after Government inspectors lodged a petition in the High Court on the grounds of the public interest.
Unveiled in 2010, the Green Deal was to be “a once-and-for-all refit”, making “every home in Britain ready for a low-carbon future”. The idea was simple: a participating company pays to install efficiency measures such as insulation in a home and the consumer repays them out of the resulting savings on their energy bills.
This isn’t a formula for success for every retailer, but lessons can be learned. Embrace the technology that is already available and emerging, be bold and creative with it, keep it simple and make sure you have a strategy to keep it alive and evolving. Make customer experience the top priority for doing it and turnover will follow. Make the store a ‘destination’, a place where we can tie our social needs into our physical shopping, make it interesting and worth the effort for us to come in – because unless you do, we will spend our money with your competitor that does!
Three of the Big Six energy companies, Marks & Spencer and Tesco are missing from the initial list of companies offering home insulation. Leading supermarkets such as Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury’s were expected to offer home improvement services as part of the loan scheme, which is designed to increase energy efficiency in draughty British homes, nearly half of which do not have loft or cavity wall insulation.
Traditional media used for backup are prone to failure. Tapes, hard drives, CD-Rs and DVD-Rs have a surprisingly high failure rate. Online backup uses enterprise-grade infrastructure that is significantly more reliable, with built-in redundancy across multiple locations.
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