All your useful retail links

Brand Home Sites (some nice ones…)

Abel & Cole
Food delivered to your door from free ranges to fresh fruit, meat, cakes, dairy and so on. The recipe area lets you discover umpteen different recipes per each food item.

Boden
This clothes site was founded in 1991, initially launching with just 8 menswear products. They have withstood five burglaries, one office dog, nine Christmas quizzes, twelve nights spent in the warehouse and one consignment of refugees arriving with a clothes delivery and now employ over 600 hard working staff and dispatch over 3,000 orders every day from their warehouse.

Ikea
The site has a room planner application for each room in the home and the ‘IKEA Help Centre’ allows you to ask any question, which then redirects you to the closest related page.

John Lewis
Voted the UK’s favorite retailer, the website allows you to browse via brand name or product and pick through ‘buyer guides’ covering all major consumer products.

Juno
The ‘world’s largest dance music store’ with a comprehensive source of new and back catalogue dance music and they now offer over 700 new releases each week, with more than 62,000 titles in stock.

SimplyGames
Launched in 1998 and surviving the dotcom bust, Simplygames is one of the longest-established online retailers of video games.

Wickes
The site contains 3,500 products for DIYers and tradesmen undertaking DIY projects, general repairs and maintenance. You can make use of a comprehensive range of free ‘Good Idea’ and ‘Build Your Skills’ leaflets on the site, which have been designed to inform and advise customers on a number of key DIY topics.

Yoox
Fashion aficionados should make use of this site as it holds clothes from the past and the potential styles of the future as the No.1 virtual boutique of multi-brand fashion & design. As the Y and X in the name reveals, it caters for both men and women. And super cool sites from around the world…

And super cool sites from around the world...

Hema
The inclusion of a Dutch website may initially seem strange, but you do not need to speak the language to appreciate the creative approach to product display on this site. Land on the homepage and watch it literally explode to life.

Threadless
One of the best examples of an e-retail site successfully tapping into the social media boom. Users can submit T-Shirt designs and the community votes on their favourites which then get made.

Manufactum
A site based around the simple ethos that “they don’t make ‘em like they used to”. Manufactum stock somewhere in the region of 1,500 quality household goods, clothes, tools and toys, some of which are true classics which have stood the test of time. They are made from materials of the highest quality, they function well and it’s promised they will outlive any trend or fashion.

Lady bird prints
A quirky new site that brings to life the pictures from the Ladybird Books. Ladybird prints contains over 4000 images from the Ladybird Books, now available to browse and buy as prints and canvases. Each one is available to buy in different sizes and finishes to suit you.

Forums

Consumer Action Group
Concerned with all aspects of consumer rights, they also host the ConsumerWiki and a Consumer Review Forum where you can share thoughts about any product or service which you have bought – good or bad.

Dell
This is a place where Dell customers can discuss topics about their purchases and get expert support from Dell Staff.

Fashion Capital
This site is the one-stop online support resource for all areas of the clothing and fashion industry. Forum discussions include jobs, chat, desperately seeking and business issues and much more.

Handbag
The site includes expert insight, discussion forums, comment and email, plus tips and articles on everything from fashion to sex and diet. The typical handbag.com user or “handbagger’ visits handbag.com three times a month, on average, for tips and advice about a future purchase or for inspiration.

Local Food Forum
Questions from all across the UK are posted regarding organic recipes, near by places to eat and topical questions about food.

Money Saving Expert
Dedicated to saving you money on anything and everything by finding the best deals and ‘beating the system’. It’s based on detailed journalistic research, cutting edge tools and has one of the UK’s largest forum communities.

Waitrose
Here Waitrose customers are encouraged to share new ideas, tips and information about the website, cooking ideas, food issues and such.

Blogs

Guardian
The Guardian food blog encompasses all aspects of the food retail from supermarkets to new foods and industry gossip on recipes, events and competitions.

Kineda
Part blog, part lookbook, Kineda isn’t your typical online style guide. While the blog offers a comprehensive look at fashion along with lifestyle features, music reviews, and celebrity interviews, the lookbook offers a rare glimpse at what Kineda’s half a million monthly readers are wearing right this moment.

Stylefinder
Explain the trends and showcases favourite fashion items and beauty products, handpicked from everything that’s available on the high street and online. The site covers the whole spectrum of labels, from Primark to Marc Jacobs with the ‘Reader Favourite’ function where users share their new clothes, forums and ask the expert facility.

TreeHugger
Tree Hugger is the leading media outlet dedicated to driving sustainability into the mainstream. Partial to a modern aesthetic, they strive to be a one-stop shop for green news, solutions, and product information.

For us in the trade...

Ecommerce Blog
The Ecommerce Blog is an online resource to help you get information relating to all aspects of ecommerce. It is geared to the small business owner who probably doesn’t have the funding to hire a firm or several other people to help run the website.

Getelastic
Get Elastic is a way to start a conversation with all online retailers and Internet marketing buffs, whether you’re using our platform or not. It provides ideas on how to sell on the Internet by covering emerging media and technology.

Interactive Media in Retail Group
Membership community for the e-retail industry, whose vision is to maximise the commercial potential of online shopping.

Review and Comparison Sites

Kelkoo
Kelkoo is the third largest ecommerce website in Europe and the largest e-commerce advertising platform both in the UK and Europe.

MSN shopping
Allows you to compare millions of products from thousands of stores. It provides you with all the latest products and deals in your favorite shopping categories.

PriceRunner
PriceRunner compares thousands of products and millions of prices aided by video reviews. It also boasts guides and advice to buying, and has a forum and competition area.

Reevoo
Reevoo are an independent company that collect and publish genuine reviews, to help you decide what to buy (and what not to buy).

Review Centre
Review Centre is the UK’s largest consumer review website and covers a variety of popular channels such as Finance, Travel, Entertainment, Fashion, Sports, Supermarkets, Lifestyle products and Electrical goods.

TipaTipa
TipaTipa is an online community that helps you get the sort of deals that price comparison sites can never find. Deals you only get through concerted effort, having a contact in the trade, a discount code or because you’re a gifted haggler.

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