The post-Olympic figures are out showing a disappointing decline in online retail sales. Whilst many anticipated a hike owing to the number of Londoners working from home for the month, sales in fact fell 11% from July. Maybe people were simply taking advantage of the break from the office because M-commerce (mobile) sales saw a massive increase rising by 294% year on year or 280% if you extract travel.

Today is Nelson Mandela's 94th brithday. A living legend, there is no doubt that he changed the world for good, but how differently could he have done it today using Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Google?

Christmas shoppers change their shopping patterns throughout November and December.  Monday December 5th has been predicted by Amazon to be Cyber Monday, the day when most  online Christmas transactions will take place. However retailers should account for well established Christmas shopper behaviour patterns both on and ofline. In my 9 years spent as a marketing head at Selfridges, we had well defined expectations and strategies for our instore Christmas traffic.

One of the important things to bear in mind when designing a website is the different needs that users have. Some will be accessing your homepage for quick information - your contact details for example. Others will be visiting your site to find out more about your brand and decide whether they want to become a customer or not.

As Facebook continues its drive for world domination, savvy businesses are already using F-commerce tools to drive brand presence and sales.  Whether with a simple link to their main site, or with full transactional capability, here is a handful of the most inspirational FB shops:

London stores are decked out in their wedding finery - so who's doing it well?  The Apparatus role of honour goes to:

Windows

Liberty wins our vote for its dry British humour

Runner Up: New Look for being bang on the mood of the nation. 

Point Of Sale

Body Shop

Merchandise

John Lewis

Budget Busting

Swarovski

Booby prize

Shockingly for us goes to Selfridges for not trying very hard and being too commercial

Havaianas, the cult flip-flop brand, has circumvented seasonality by introducing a range of wellies into the UK.  A triumph of strategic thinking, they echo the range of colours and designs of the flip flops and are priced comfortably below Hunter (the current object of desire).  Launching at Easter, well in time for the festival season and the British summer, they are bound to be an example of great brand extension in action.