Ecommerce works

' HOLLY TUCKER and Sophie Cornish are struggling to cope with the rapid growth of Notonthehighstreet.com, the business they set up two years ago. Sales are up 350% on last year and are predicted to reach £3.5m this year.
Despite gloomy predictions for the economy, Tucker and Cornish don’t plan to stop there. They have just secured £1m from a private investor for further expansion.
The online boom is helping many other small retailers and suppliers to flourish in the downturn. Online shopping grew 38% year on year in the first six months of this year, says IMRG, a trade body for online retailers. This is in stark contrast to the trend of falling high-street sales, which declined 3.9% in June, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics.
In fact there is evidence that as consumers are squeezed by the soaring cost of petrol, energy and food they are searching for the keenest prices, something that is easier to do on the web, according to Michael Petevinos of Cap Gemini, which tracks online retailing.
As internet shopping enters the mainstream it offers a powerful advantage for small, nimble players. “Setting up online gives you a much greater reach for your products and at much lower cost,” said Petevinos. “It has completely changed the proposition for many smaller retailers and suppliers.”
The future looks bright. Online spending now represents 17% of consumer spending, and web shopping is expected to account for 30%-50% in the next five years.
Smaller players with the right strategies are already benefiting, according to David Smith of IMRG.
“It is often the smaller retailers with niche products or with interesting retail propositions that seem to be having success. There will be a lot of opportunities for smaller players to profit if they can manage their start-up costs, get their supply chains right and work closely with their customers.”
Notonthehighstreet sources good-quality clothes, gifts and homewares from small producers who could never survive with their own retail outlets or by dealing with the big chains, said Tucker.
“We provide an opportunity for thousands of independent suppliers to sell their products,” she said. “Sites like ours are acting as a kind of shop window for the long tail of the internet.” ' Sunday Times, July 2008

UK Views Most Videos Online

"UK audiences are the largest consumers of online video, watching more than 3.1bn videos in April, according to data from measurement company ComScore. It found 27.4m UK users watched an average of 127.7 videos each, putting the UK ahead of the US, Canada, France and Germany. YouTube continues to dominate the space. Of all online video watched in April, 48.2% (1.53bn videos) were on YouTube." New Media Age, July 2008

Shhhheepz

'Launched at the 2006 Brand Licensing by Cathy Nolan, Shhhheepz is aimed at three to five year-olds and features three sheep named Lili, Blaine and Mouton which appear only in children’s dreams, helping them conquer their fears and accomplish their dreams while fending off nightmarish wolf Awoof.The mission of the property is simple; to enable children to use their own problem solving skills to handle difficult situations. Shhhheepz is available for licensing in the publishing, stationery, gift wrap and apparel categories.Earlier this month saw the launch of a new website (MAKE LINK LIVE), which enables pre-schoolers to test their memory, match shapes and learn words, created by Nolan and Stephanie Preston from Fireboar LLP. “The internet is a great way to build brand awareness and develop its audience base. Instead of board games, families are playing online games together more than ever,” says Nolan. “Online virtual play is now the new play pattern.” ' Licensing.biz, July 2008

Neopets founders launch new studio

"Neopets' co-founders Adam Powell and Donna Williams have set up a new games studio, Meteor Games, based in West Hollywood, California. The pair launched the studio following the success of Neopets, the virtual pets website, which they founded in 1999 and sold to MTV Networks in 2005 for USD 160 million. Powell will serve as Meteor Games chief executive officer and creative director, while Williams takes the role of chief operating officer and president. "Our experience developing the world and characters of Neopets provides us with a unique advantage as we create a more robust and in-depth experience with Meteor Games," said Powell. "Our goal is to create a game world that is immersive, technologically advanced and more accessible than the current slate of online games available today. We want gamers to play on their terms - when, where and how they want." Meteor Games' first project is an, as yet unnamed, MMO aimed at the younger market. "Massively multiplayer games, casual web-based games, and social networking are all areas of explosive growth and taken together, they are defining how the Internet Generation communicates with one another and are entertained," said Williams. "Meteor Games is creating an online world that will blend these emerging elements into a single persistent experience that gamers of all ages can enjoy." Gamesindustry.biz July 2008