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Judge Finds That Stores Online Deceived Customers

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The Federal Court has found that an e-commerce marketing company that advertised products as being discounted when they had never been offered at the full price operated in a misleading and deceptive manner.

The action bought by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission against StoresOnline is the same complaint that the ACCC laid against online web site Kogan who were selling flat panel TV’s at a discounted price without first offering them at the full price.

The judgment represents a successful conclusion to the second lengthy proceeding taken by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission against StoresOnline.  In each case it was claimed that there was misleading and deceptive conduct in the promotion and sale of StoresOnline home business e-commerce software packages.  The packages were promoted through a series of seminars, primarily to those wishing to set up small businesses online.

Justice Edmonds made orders by way of declarations that StoresOnline, since October 2006, had engaged in false and misleading conduct in breach of the Trade Practices Act 1974 in relation to the promotion and sale of its software packages.

StoresOnline was found to have breached theTrade Practices Act 1974 at workshops and seminars when they their software for sale at a discount.

The Cout heard that StoresOnline offered packages for sale to workshop attendees at a particular offer price for 90-days from the date of the workshop when in reality they  had no such intention to offer a discount.

The ACCC claimed that at workshops and seminars StoresOnline represented that the difference between the full price and the 90-day offer price for StoresOnline packages was the amount a consumer could save by attending a Stores Online workshop and purchasing the packages when that level of saving did not exist.

The court ordered that StoresOnline pay the ACCC’s costs.

See store at: http://www.storesonline.com/

Myths Of Mobility

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Nokia believes true mobile working should be extended down the organisational chart. A new study, Myths of Mobility, says employees in the office may spend more than a third of their time away from their desks.

“While corner office executives may have access to mobile e-mail, more than half your workforce uses mobile technology to some extent or other for work,” the report says. “There is a need for mobile technology in business.

Organisations can support this level of mobility in a cost-effective, secure and easily deployed manner.

“Misconceptions abound about what can and can’t be achieved. The report aims to educate businesses about these misperceptions and inspire them to investigate the issues around enabling workforce mobility.”

“Many decision makers believe that mobility is not cost-effective, not secure, and is a nightmare to manage. These notions are based on assumptions from fragmented sources and second-hand comments, and we hope to help clarify today’s mobile landscape with this report,” says Mathia Nalappan, Nokia’s VP, Asia Pacific.

“Customers are reaping the benefits of mobility, seeing return on their investments, an increase in productivity, and improved employee morale.”

Myths of Mobility is available on www.nokia.com/nokia/0,8764,330,00.html

Australians Are Better Off And Will Spend Say Citigroup

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Australians in particular those with families are better off now than they were before the economic downturn claims Citigroup one of the world’s leading investment banks. Mortgages have fallen by 2% Petrol prices are at an average of $1.04 Vs $1.41 twelve months ago and share market dividend yields have risen substantially. This they say has added $75 to the average weekly income.

They also claim that drawing conclusions about the “average” Australian can be dangerous. Only 35% of Australian households have a mortgage. 29% are renting and 45% of Australian households are families with children, while 20% are retirees.


They say that families with children are better off by $119 a week because they have benefitted from Government handouts. Retirees and renters have a substantially smaller benefit.


Citigroup’s recent report claims that retail sales growth was solid in January with the strongest growth recorded in food retail. Supermarkets, takeaway food outlets plus restaurants and cafes were all stronger. The sharpest slowdown was in appliance retailing and footwear sales.


They say that mortgage debt is concentrated within 35% of Australia’s population however they do predict that Australian households are facing a number of challenges with rising unemployment and falling asset prices.


However, both the RBA and Federal Government are cushioning the average household through interest rate cuts and tax cuts, especially for families.


The say that the recent Federal Government fiscal stimulus for households will boost household income by an average of $2,000 per household because of income tax cuts, tax bonuses and payments for seniors.

 

 

Citigroup say “We estimate the average Australian household’s income will be $75 per week higher in 2009 compared with 2008 (+$3,881 per year). Families with children are even better off, with an increase in income of $119 each week. We arrive at these estimates by rolling forward the expenditure that each demographic group had in FY04, as reported in the ABS Household Expenditure Survey.”.

The net increase in income is highest for families with children (45% of all households) and smallest for those retirees reliant on investment income with fewer benefits from mortgage rate reductions and tax cuts.


Currently unemployment is at 4.8% and is likely to rise to at least 5.4% by the end of 2009. Each 1% rise in the unemployment rate reduces income dramatically for a family, but the overall impact on household income is 1%. The bigger concern with unemployment is weaker consumer sentiment and a fall in the willingness to spend.
While disposable income is rising for households, the high level of debt and uncertainty has resulted in an increase in savings, detracting from retail spending. The household savings rate jumped to 8.5% in the December 2008 quarter compared with virtually no savings in 2007.

They conclude by saying “Consumers have never had it so good. For the past fifteen years, retail prices have not kept pace with overall inflation.” They also conclude that Companies like Harvey Norman and consumer electronics retailers will benefit from Government stimulus programs however appliance sales are expected to remain flat.

Dowload the full report here.

New Toshiba Notebooks

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Toshiba ISD has introduced three new models to its Portege, Libretto and Tecra ranges. All include Toshiba EasyGuard, a new suite of hardware and software tools that provide data security, system protection and connectivity to notebook PCs.

Toshiba’s new notebook
Port_g_ R200

The Port_g_ R200 measures 9.9 mm in height, weighs 1.29 kilograms and has a battery life of four hours and 40 minutes, made possible through the inclusion of an Intel Pentium M Ultra Low Voltage processor and specially-developed low-power enhancements. It also features a ruggedised magnesium alloy casing for style and protection of the notebook, and a full range of expansion capabilities and connectivity options making it one of the most portable productivity devices available.

 Libretto U10

The Libretto U10 marks the reintroduction of Toshiba’s ‘miniaturised’ fully-functional notebook PC range, the Libretto.  At 210×165 mm (width x length) and less than a kilogram in weight (980 grams), the Libretto is roughly the size of an A5 notepad.  Despite its size, Toshiba has included some of the Qosmio AV-note multimedia functions into the Libretto U10. These include:  

–A TruBrite widescreen display with LED backlighting;
–A quick boot function to enable people to immediately watch DVDs or play CDs without having to boot the computer via its operating system;
–A specially-designed DVD dock that features a DVD Super Multi drive (bundled as standard).

Tecra M4

The Tecra M4 tablet PC includes Intel’s newest mobile technology (a 2.13GHz Pentium M and Mobile Intel 915PM Express chipset), healthy 80GB HDD, and a nVidia 128 Mb graphics card. The 14.1″ screen offers 1400 x 1050 resolution, with a 145 dpi ratio to allow more light to be transmitted for a clearer viewing experience. Toshiba has also included a thin protective polycarbonate panel to protect the screen whilst it is in use and provide users with a ‘natural’ writing experience.

The Tecra M4 uses a DVD SuperMulti double layer read/write drive in a Slim SelectBay which supports a number of different devices including a second battery, second HDD or weight-saver. It also includes a full range of connectivity options including wireless 801.11 a/b/g, two USB2 ports, to make it easy to share and save information between devices.

 Toshiba ‘EasyGuard’

EasyGuard enhances data security with feature such as a biometric fingerprint reader, HDD shock and vibration protection, encryption and digital signature implementation through the inclusion of both hardware and software and a software device lock that enables locking of devices to prevent unauthorised access and theft of data, as well as an external Kensington lock for physically protecting the notebook from attempted theft.

 RRP Pricing

Libretto U10 with a bundled DVD SuperMulti dock: $3,450. (this notebook is available exclusively to Harvey Norman until late July)
Port_g_ R200: $3,520
Tecra M4: $4,950.
 

 

Clive Peeters Share Rocket 11% As Market Slides 4.7%

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Shares in Clive Peeters have bucked a 4.7% downturn in the ASX by rising 11.1% in late afternoon trading. However by the close they had lost all their gains to close at $0.90.

Late yesterday the Company finally admitted that they were calling in KPMG Corporate Finance in an effort to solve their problems which has resulted in their shares nose diving 94% this year.

Shares in Clive Peeters have bucked a 4.7% downturn in the ASX by rising 11.1% in late afternoon trading. Late yesterday the Company finally admitted that they were calling in KPMG Corporate Finance in an effort to solve their problems which has resulted in their shares nose diving 94% this year. 
First tipped by the Financial Review last Tuesday the Company has finally confirmed that they have called in KPMG to conduct a “strategic review” of their operation. Insiders have also said that the Company is cutting stock levels in an effort to preserve cashflow. 
In recent weeks GIO who have the lion’s share of the consumer technology credit risk market have admitted that they are keeping a close watch on the Company’s performance.
In a statement to the ASX the Company said that they are set to consider both corporate and operational strategies with a view to maximising value for all shareholders”.
Clive Peeters said it has retained KPMG Corporate Finance to advise the process and it does not intend to disclose any details of the review until it’s completed.

Consumer Technology A Big Winner For Woolworths

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Woolworths has cranked up their consumer electronic operations in an effort to capitalise on the growth being recorded by most CE retailers. In their latest report to the ASX Woolworths has recorded consumer electronic sales of over $400 million for the first quarter of FY09

 

Their success follows a major restructuring of their Dick Smith operations. However Woolworths have warned that the Australian market is slowing.

In the 14 week period ending 5 October 2008, Woolworths CEO Michael Luscombe said that CE sales had increased when compared with the same period last year.

“This is a good start to the financial year and particularly pleasing is the continued momentum in our Australian operations, with an overall improvement in comparable sales growth.” Luscombe wrote.

Consumer electronic sales increased from $365 million for Q1 FY08 to $408 million for the first quarter of this current financial year a growth of 11.8 per cent year on year.  Last year sales grew from $347 million to $368 million, a $21 million or 6.1%.

“Consumer electronics has continued to enjoy solid growth with sales for the quarter increasing 6.1%. Comparable store sales increased by 4.9%…during the quarter, an improvement on the 3.8% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2008, reflecting an improved result from our Australian operations,” wrote Luscombe.

 

Overall Woolworths saw sales growth accelerate to 9.6 percent in the first quarter as food and liquor sales withstood slower consumer demand, and it maintained its full-year sales outlook.

Sales growth rose from the 7.5 percent reported in the fourth quarter, boosted by store refurbishments, the company said.

Woolworths Chief Executive Michael Luscombe said that subject to the uncertainty about discretionary spending, full-year sales growth would be in the upper single digits, as previously forecast.

Consumer spending in Australia has slowed sharply this year, but economists say there are signs confidence improved after the central bank unexpectedly slashed official interest rates by 1 percentage point this month in response to the global financial crisis.

Woolworths’ same-store sales in Australian food and liquor rose 6.0 percent, up from 4.9 percent in the fourth quarter.

Why I Would Think Twice About Signing Up For Telstra’s Cloud Based Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics Service

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If you are a small medium business and you are thinking of moving to Telstra’s offering of cloud based CRM Dynamics and their Microsoft Office 365 suite of applications, I would seriously think twice about their offering if our experience is anything to go by.

The first thing Telstra executives wanted to do when we signed up for a five licence package was charge a credit card with the cost of getting the service.

Now three weeks later and after more than 40 emails and numerous calls to Telstra we still do not have our five CRM licenses up and running, in fact all we have is a cost to a credit card.

The first problem we encountered was Telstra’s inability to deliver an Outlook email service via their Office 365 service which is significantly more expensive than what US users are charged, in fact it is more expensive than what Microsoft Australia is now selling their Office 365 licences for via JB Hi Fi.

Telstra have come up with excuse after excuse, they blamed our firewalls and DNS settings despite the fact that we already had an Office 365 licence via Microsoft and not Telstra and this working perfectly. 

We also have several licenses of Adobe’s cloud Creative Suite service and that too was working perfectly via our existing server infrastructure. 

We also deliver content direct into retailers web sites via cloud based services. 

The reason that we had to go to Telstra to get the services we required was because we had chosen to drop Salesforce for the simple reason it is expensive and lacks a lot of the features that Microsoft’s Dynamics CRM delivers.
 
Unfortunately Microsoft Australia have a sweet heart deal with Telstra that allows the carrier to exclusively sell the Microsoft Dynamics CRM service to small medium business in Australia and the minimum licence is five. This strategy eliminates over one million Australian businesses such as small retailers, real estate agents and small service businesses who do not want the cost of five licences a month.

This is despite the fact that it is these type of businesses that need mature CRM systems that easily interface with accounting packages and Microsoft’s Office 365.

Six days ago we were told that it would only be a matter of hours “defiantly by the end of the day” that our service would be up and running, that was Thursday of last week.

What Telstra claim in their marketing is that “Big companies have been able to afford the sophisticated CRM of Microsoft Dynamics for years. For many, it’s the secret of their CRM success”.

“Now, any sized business can afford to use this powerful platform. You’ll get sales, service and marketing all in one neat package, with options of 5GB or 30GB storage. For smaller businesses, it’s a golden chance to combine agility with ability and deliver outstanding, responsive customer service to the highest standards”

Really, maybe Telstra needs less marketing spin and more service if they are to be believed. 

EMC Moves Into Content Management

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EMC has agreed to but Captiva Software Corporation a move that will extend EMC’s content management solutions capabilities.

The purchase is also set to boost EMC’s Documentum offering, enabling the kind of application integration that is essential to digitally capturing information for content management.

Captiva’s products capture documents digitally, using scanners, fax machines, and the Internet, and extract meaningful information. Business rules are applied automatically to ensure the data is accurate, and the resulting information is input into content management systems.

The digital capture of information is becoming increasingly important for organizations as they attempt to reduce the amount of paper they store, by transferring paper-based documents, particularly forms, to electronic formats.

Content management is increasingly being used to manage content-centric processes, such as insurance claims processing or order processing, where the initial document may be received in a paper format. The form will be scanned, with extracted information being automatically input into a database, and the image of the document being stored in the content management system. Using this type of functionality allows much of the processing to be automated, often with minimal human intervention.

Data capture is functionality that is currently missing from content management solutions but that is vital if organizations are to automate tasks, such as forms processing, and reduce the amount of paper they must store. Content management systems are good at creating content, and content can be imported from other applications, but the digital capture of information has relied on integration with products, such as those from Captiva. By purchasing Captiva, EMC is ensuring that Documentum will be able to provide a full service from the capture of information, through its processing, to its publication.

However, the publication functionality of content management systems is not as extensive as that of niche content publishing applications, and many organizations have to purchase a publishing application as well as a content management solution. This is the next area that EMC needs to move into in order to further its ambition of offering total information management.

Expect to see other content management vendors vying to acquire data capture vendors, as this will become the next ‘must have’ functionality in a content management solution.

Vodafone + Optus Cop Most Complaints About Their Network

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Vodafone and Optus are still top of the pops when it comes to complaints about their network and service operation.

A new survey reveals that Optus scored the highest level of complaints

between April and June 2015 with 8.5 while Vodafone scored 6.3. In comparison

Telstra scored 6.0 while Pivotel was the lowest with 1.8.

Vodafone who has often been referred to as the “worst”

carrier network in Australia with tens of thousands deserting the network for

Telstra is still struggling to build their base back up with the introduction

of new networking capability.

Complaints made to the TIO as a proportion of telcos’ services

in operation are at their lowest rate in 18 months, according to the

Telecommunications Complaints in Context report released today.

The result for all participating providers, 6.5 complaints

per 10,000 services in Operation (SIO), has decreased 9.7 per cent when

compared to January-March 2015 (7.2) and 14.5 per cent when compared to April

to June 2014 (7.6).

These results reflect the overall decrease in TIO new

complaints, which reduced by 10.5 per cent during 2014-15. This is the lowest

level of new complaints since 2007-08.

Telstra recorded its best Complaints in Context result to

date with 6 complaints per 10,000 SIO.

The Complaints in Context report is a quarterly release

jointly published by the TIO and Communications Alliance. The April-June report

can be found on the TIO website, and Communications Alliance website.

Harvey Norman Surges 8.8% On Improved Retail Trading Data

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A $20K tax incentive for small business initiated by the Coalition Federal Government coupled with a boom in house sales has paid off for Australian retailers especially for consumer electronics and appliance retailers.

New Data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed that retail turnover increased by 0.7% in seasonally adjusted terms in June following a 0.4% rise in May. 

The June figure is nearly double the 0.4% increase that economists polled on Bloomberg were expecting.

Electrical and furniture retailer Harvey Norman Holdings Limited surged 8.8% to a more than one-month high of $4.84 – making it the best performer on the ASX 200 index in early afternoon trade.

In the latest ABS data it was household goods retailing that proved to be the brightest star with the category growing by 2.2% as New South Wales led the states with 1% growth. 

Next week JB Hi Fi is tipped to announce an increase in sales despite some CE categories slowing. 

Embattled department store Myer also went up earlier today jumping 3.2% to $1.30 even though the ABS data showed that department store sales slipped 0.1% for the month.

Motley Fool said that “The fall wasn’t as bad as some had anticipated but that is hardly a catalyst for a re-rating in the stock as management is undertaking a rejuvenation program”. 

This year JB Hi-Fi Limited is 20% up since January 2015 and is now trading at $19.46 with a further rise tipped next week.

Another CE retailer that analysts are watching is Dick Smith who yesterday confirmed what ChannelNews has been saying for several months in that they are finally expanding into consumer appliances, setting it up for head-to-head competition with JB Hi-Fi Limited and Harvey Norman as well as the The Good Guys and Bing Lee. 

Dick Smith CEO told ChannelNews that he is looking to grab 10% market share in the $1.7 billion small appliances market which some analysts claim is an optimistic target as he has to firstly get access to several brands and then compete head on with the likes of Harvey Norman who recently expanded their range of small appliances. 

The move comes as several appliance retailer admitted to ChannelNews that it was Aldi who was stripping appliance market share away from them a move which several said was “a real threat”. 

CEO Nick Abboud told Fairfax media, “Just after Christmas a lot of suppliers will bring in products with apps – you won’t have to press buttons on those products, you’ll operate them through your  phone or tablet or even get them on your smart TV .  as we evolve that’s where electronics will end up.”

Dick Smith will establish a small appliance store under the ConnectedHome brand inside Dick Smith retail stores, which will sell toasters, kettles and coffee machines. The retailer plans to install ConnectedHome into 100 stores over the next five months, and will expand its range of personal care devices such as shavers and electric toothbrushes, and introduce new products such as blenders, vacuum cleaners, irons, fans and heaters.

JB Hi-Fi successfully branched into white goods a few years ago, so there doesn’t seem to be much reason why Dick Smith can’t do the same thing said Motley Fool. 

They added “Yes, there will be more competition, but that will generally impact much more on the highest cost retailers, rather than those with ultra-low costs of doing business”