Retail

This one hasn't really been picked up online (nothing that I could find, anyway) but a nice story nonetheless--earlier this month Argos, the UK retailer of almost everything, was named the Skype 'Retailer of the Year' in the UK. The new award, bestowed by Skype, was given in recognition of Argos' understanding of the UK consumer market; more people want to connect using Skype and Argos has made Skype-certified products available to them, serving as "an excellent ambassador of the Skype way of life" (according to the press release).

I'm a big fan of Argos--being an American used to massive warehouse stores (think Wal-mart), it always surprises me how an Argos can fit so many products in so small a store, and how so many people will go to the store to just to page through catalogs. But Argos does carry a lot of useful stuff, and it's good to know they're stocking enough Skype products to be recognized for it. The press release is online here.

Big news for US Skypers today--Skype and Wal-Mart have announced a partnership that makes Skype-certified products available at 1,800 Wal-Mart stores across the US starting today. What sorts of gear will Wal-Mart be carrying? There's a pretty wide range:

Continue reading "Skype, Wal-Mart; Wal-mart, Skype." »

If you're a US Skype user, you may have already noticed that the US Skype Store has had a thorough makeover. Whilst most of these home makeover shows suggest neutral colours and well-placed scatter cushions on the sofas, you'll be pleased to hear that Skype have instead gone for a more intuitive navigation, the ability to search by product or category and lots of shiny green rainbows.

With the new site comes a host of new money-off offers for the US as well, including $50 off SMC's Skype Wifi phone package (which includes a FON router, loads of Skype call minutes and Skype voicemail for a year), free shipping on orders over $50, and $40 off the Netgear SPH200D cordless Skype phone. In addition there's $30 off the Logitech® QuickCam® Pro 5000, $10 off the Logitech® Premium USB Headset 350, and $10 off the D-Link DPH-50U Skype USB Phone Adaptor.

There's also a whole load of Skype kit on the site that was previously not available, and so Skypegear's going to take the opportunity over the next few weeks to review some of the kit which (through, I guess, nothing less than sheer and blind negligence), we've managed to miss over the last few months.

US company Digital River are behind the new site, and will also be handling the logistics behind the scenes. For more details, just visit the store here.

"Space Management" may sound like something from a Star Wars movie, but, as any retailer will tell you, managing the space in a store is absolutely critical to successful business. For example, did you know that UK supermarket Sainsbury's managed to achieve a 40% gain in space utilisation from their tinned tomatoes in 2005 just by packing them in rectangular cartons rather than round tins? Genius!

So, what is "Space Management" all about, and what does it mean for Skype retailers?

Continue reading "Space management for retailers: a guide from Think Xtra and Skype at CeBIT" »

Errr, well the Marketing guys at Three don't muck about with the messaging on their new product advertising, as you can see from the above. Reading between the lines on the above ad, it appears that maybe, perhaps, Three are now offering the whizzy E65 as part of their lineup of 'X-Series' phones.

Continue reading "Exclusive Nokia E65 now available from 3's X-Series UK" »

News just in: to find the perfect gift for their loved ones, Brits walk the equivalent of a marathon, and make an average of a whopping 11 trips to the shops. Wow, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

So it's perhaps good news that UK high street retailer The Works have just announced that all 250 of their stores are now stocking the ultimate stocking filler: The Skype Starter Kit.

Continue reading "UK chain 'The Works' stocks Skype Starter Packs in time for Christmas (just!)" »

We've already had Amazon.co.uk predict that Skype phones might be sitting under quite a few Christmas trees this year on the 25th, and now news reaches SkypeGear that Dabs.com are also seeing really healthy sales of Skype phones. In fact, according to Jonathan Wall at leading UK retailer Dabs.com, Skype phones are consistently in the top 3 most searched-for products on their site, and are currently the number 1 most searched for item.

Continue reading "Skype top search term for online retailer Dabs.com" »

With Chinese subscribers to TOM-Skype really ramping up (ie 23.5 million registered users and adding more at the rate of around 100,000 new users a day), it's good to see that all of these new Skypers now have a new online shop where they can find the latest hardware.

Continue reading "TOM-Skype selling Skype products in China" »