Christmas is coming fast along with continues data streams and articles  as how the economy is holding up are holding down, depending on what side of till you are on.  All ecommerce systems should be primed and oiled with a barrage of channel offerings for Black Friday and Cyber Monday ^{( Dec 6th)}.  Discounting and clearance sales will be name of the game in attempted to drag out whatever is left in the pockets of Joe public before the axe drops .

There is a feeling in the air that austerity will play its hand as fear of tomorrows is keeping cash for a rainy day. Retail is going to have to work hard to bring customers in. What ever they say about the raise in the price of clothing and that we will pay more!  On paper yes! in the stock rooms no, all has to go. Get ready for the 50% off pre Christmas sales

A new retail casualty list will start to circulate as the cracks appear for those who get it wrong. We are already seeing erosion of Argos as the big players Tesco and ASDA take bigger bites out of market share. Time will tell.  With inflation still raising on the back of commodities and price increases in utilities the household budget is just about to get a whole lot tighter not forgetting VAT.

Technology still has a large say on the success and failures of business. Channel integration we all know about, getting them to work and deliver is another story. Some of the larger, UK award winning technology providers that have been around for a while are beginning to look like dinosaurs, with etailers and catalogers trapped in old technology, bond with contracts and high costs of transfers (I could tell stories to make your eyes water) With technolog cost coming down new entries can still have and will have a bite out of larger heavier players markets......and the wheel keeps turning.