Welcome back folks, hope your break was a good one and you’ve returned refreshed and ready to face the challenges of the year ahead. Who knows what’s in store, but it’s safe to say it probably won’t be what anyone expects.
The one bit of news that caught our eye over the holiday period was a piece of research revealing that older teenagers are deserting Facebook in droves; apparently getting the Friend Request from your mum is the final straw for today’s youth. So it will be interesting to see how much of an issue this proves for Facebook, and how the impending battle for mobile ad dollars between Facebook and the other new kid on the mobile advertising block, Twitter, pans out.
From reports I have caught on the news these past few days, Christmas seems to have been somewhat gloomy for retailers, with pre-Christmas discounting the norm, and Debenhams in particular suffering from poor sales – it is forecasting pre-tax profits for the six months to April 2014 of just £85m, compared to £115m in the same period last year – and its ill-conceived attempt to recoup 2.5 per cent of monies owed to suppliers in the run-up to Christmas. In light of both events, Debenhams CFO Simon Herrick has since resigned. There was better news at John Lewis, where in-store sales were up 1.2 per cent in the five weeks to 28 December, and online sales were up by almost 23 per cent.
Maybe T (Tablet)-commerce will offer retailers some post-Christmas cheer. The figures are not in yet, but we expect this Christmas to have been massive for tablet sales, and while many consumers are now accustomed to shopping on their phone, for any savvy retailer, it’s the T-commerce experience, where the consumer is curled up on the sofa with a cup of coffee in one hand and a credit card in the other, that surely offers the greatest potential to increase their online revenues. 
We, of course, have a busy year ahead, with lots of events in the offing, starting with our Barca Starta competition for start-ups, the final of which takes place in Barcelona on 25 February. The deadline for entries is 10 January – just over a week away. You can find out more about the competition and download the entry form here.
In the meantime, fasten your seat belts and stick with us for another roller coaster ride over the next 12 months.
David Murphy
Editor
