LAURA SLATTERYperuses the world of business
Pay day
How much does it cost to lead a life of what Minister for Justice Alan Shatter termed "unjustified luxury"? For ex-AIB managing director Colm Doherty the answer is more than €3 million – the sum he was paid in 2010 for his unique services to the nationalised bank. AIB made a pretax loss of €12 billion last year and is due to cost the State somewhere in the order of €20.5 billion. Doherty's pay packet was helped along by a termination payment, aka a golden goodbye, of €707,000 in lieu of a year's notice. Even politicians now think this might be a dodgy idea, with Shatter calling the wages "grossly immoral" and suggesting Mr Doherty did not deserve quite such a comfortable retirement.
Shop talk
Tesco has taken another stride forward in its bid for chunkier shares of the home entertainment market by buying an 80 per cent stake in movie-streaming site Blinkbox. No, us neither, but apparently, this video-on-demand service attracts about two million users a month. Retail analysts described the purchase as a pre-emptive move by Tesco, which has a firm grasp of the market for physical DVD sales, which have sunk as online streaming (and illegal downloading) has become more popular. Planet Business isn’t an expert or anything, but it sounds like more bad news for Xtra-vision.
18.65m
– the number of iPhones that Apple sold in the first quarter of 2011, up 113 per cent the same period a year earlier.
Status update
Green underwear: Marks Spencer has launched a carbon neutral lingerie collection, indicating it will find "better alternatives" to the carbon-intensive manufacture of lace.
Penthouse purchase: Ukraine's richest man, Rinat Akhmetov, has bought the UK's most expensive flat at One Hyde Park for £136.6 million. But which football club will he buy?
Beetle's about: Volkswagen has unveiled the third generation of the Beetle. Longer, wider and less bulbous than its predecessor, the model is designed to woo male drivers.
The question
Is online fashion shopping reaching a turning point?
Retailers will have to find a way to make the mirrors in changing rooms even more flattering to the human form than they are currently because evidence is pointing to breakthrough levels of online clothes shopping. A new study by market research company Mintel says online sales of fashion in the UK increased by 152 per cent in the five years to 2010, creating a £4.3 billion market, as people were reassured by claims that returning unsuitable items is easy. By the end of last year, more than a third of British consumers were shopping online for clothes, up from 25 per cent in 2009.
The main barrier against online clothes shopping is that you never know if what looks good on screen will look good on the flesh. However, improvements to sites such as 3D imaging at least allow browsers to check that the sensible-looking office dress they have their eye on isn’t hiding a plunging backline. Lower online prices charged by certain bricks-and-mortar high-street retailers have also enticed consumers online, as has the appeal of online-only brands such as ASOS, SamCam- favourite Boden and designer portal Net-a-porter.com.
According to Mintel, it’s the “addictive nature of online fashion” that’s propelling the market – some 40 per cent of 16-24-year- olds say that shopping online doesn’t really feel like spending money and that they tend to spend more than they would in an actual shop.
The issue of returns still preys on consumers’ minds, however, with inconsistency in sizing and security concerns also keeping people away from the online check-out. Mintel’s research suggests that 22 per cent of shoppers have browsed online for clothes but never bought.
