Shop Direct has confirmed that it plans to close three call centres with the loss of 1,500 jobs.The home shopping group said the three affected sites were in Sunderland, Burnley, and Newtown in Powys. Shop Direct blamed the announcement on the big growth in the number of people choosing to shop online rather than phoning to speak to its operatives.

 Waitrose is the UK’s favourite supermarket while bargain superstores Aldi and Lidl came joint third in a survey from consumer champion Which? *. The ‘big four’ supermarkets – Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons – may be where most Which? members did their main shop**, but customer satisfaction scores ranged from just 49% to 58%

 Struggling retailer JJB Sports has said its chairman is to step down on 31 January because of ill health. Sir David Jones - who was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease in 1982 - had overseen the financial rescue of JJB in the past year. JJB also said the rate of decline in its sales had slowed. Same-store sales were down 21% in January from a year ago, against a fall of 37% in August. For the year to 24 January, like-for-like sales were down 28%.

 Former Wal-Mart director Dalton Philips, will replace Marc Bolland, the departing chief executive of Wm Morrison, Morrisons said that Mr Philips, the chief operating officer of Loblaw Companies, Canada’s biggest retailer, would become chief executive in March but said it was still negotiating a leaving date with Mr Bolland, who is waiting to replace Sir Stuart Rose as chief executive of Marks & Spencer.

 
The IMRG Capgemini Index broke the 7000 barrier for the first time in December, reaching an all time high of 7099. The UK e-retail market grew a healthy 17% year-on-year, which is higher than the 14% annual growth recorded in December 2008.

Catalogue store group Argos will tomorrow unveil a refreshed brand, coinciding with the launch of its latest Catalogue. The company has been under pressure to reinvent itself as Tesco’s, ASDA and other  retail sections invade their  traditional market place in catalogue business. It is no secret that with the event of Tesco and ASDA offering large catalogue books that Argos will have to take off the gloves for 2010. In industry circles the rebrand is seen as better late than never in an effort to rejuvenate and appeal to a younger customer base,  but the larger retailers have stole a march on Argos in adapting a position as true multichannel business.

 
WM Morrison, supermarket chain reported far stronger seasonal sales than its larger rivals but but echoed the same concerns that their larger rivals Tesco & Sainsbury’s that the consumer economy will remain challenging throughout 2010.