Jan ORCA Talker


Hello (subscriber_fullname),

Welcome to another ORCA newsletter. We hope that you're in great form and fully recovered from the festive season. As usual, here's an update of the latest news from the World Wide Web.

Catalogue Giants Are Back From The Dead

Catalogue retailers are the surprise winners from the shift to online shopping at Christmas.

Struggling giants such as Freemans and Littlewoods had been all but written off five years ago, but have now been thrown a lifeline by shrewd investments in web trading.

Littlewoods Shop Direct says group sales across its catalogues and websites rose seven per cent in the six weeks to January 4. The figure was boosted by a 44 per cent increase in online sales.

Otto UK, owner of Freemans, says sales at its newly launched oli.com site and accompanying catalogue, which is promoted by TV presenter Holly Willoughby, reached £19million in its first 24 weeks of trading to December 19. Mike Hancox, chief executive at Otto, says 70 per cent of orders were via the internet.

- The Mail on Sunday 20/01/08 

Make the Internet work for your business Click Here.


How to...Back Up a Hard Drive

  1. Connect a drive such as a Zip drive or a second hard disk drive that can hold the information you want to back up.
  2. Open the Start menu and select Programs.
  3. Click Accessories, then System Tools.
  4. Click Backup to run Microsoft’s Backup program.
  5. Answer the questions presented to you by the Backup Wizard (what needs backing up, where you want to store the backup etc).
  6. Click Start to commence the backup.

Britons Spent An Estimated £84m Online On Christmas Day

"The only way we Brits can enjoy the nation’s favourite leisure activity - shopping - on Christmas Day, our biggest holiday of the year, is online. 

So it is hardly surprising that millions of us now do a spot of Yuletide bargain hunting, especially as on online shopping trip can take five minutes or less, as opposed to a half-day traipse downtown.” James Roper, CEO at the IMRG

Make the Internet work for your business Click Here.


Internet Shopping Boosts Sales

Retail sales rose more than expected in November as Internet shopping surged at its fastest rate in more than a year, suggesting consumer demand is still holding up in the face of a housing market slowdown.

Sales rose 0.4 per cent last month, the Office for National Statistics said, twice the rate predicted by analysts, putting them up 4.4 per cent on the year. Food stores and the non-store retailing and repair category led the charge.

The latter, which includes specialised Internet retailers like amazon.co.uk, rose by a whopping 5.9 per cent on the month – the biggest jump since August 2006 – in a sign that high street stores complaining about poor demand may simply be losing market share to online retailers.

Make the Internet work for your business Click Here.


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  Jan ORCA Talker

Jokes

Two aerials meet on a roof, fall in love get married.

The ceremony wasn't much but the reception was brilliant

Q. Did you hear about the man who was tap dancing?

A. He broke his ankle when he fell into the sink.


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An-x on their ORCA website

"Due to the success of our website we are generating an average of £1000 from online sales per week. What we were amazed to discover was that 53% of these online sales occurred after 18:00, which is when the store had closed. Without the website we would have missed out on a great deal of customers" - Alex Shaw, Owner

View Site  

 
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Fun Facts

New Jersey has the tallest water tower in the world.

The collecting of beer mats (coasters) is called tegestology.

In Scotland it is illegal to be drunk in possession of a cow. 


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Karen Enver on being an ORCA Franchisee

“After 20 something years in advertising and marketing, I had decided to set up my own web design business but found it harder making headway on my own having to rely on ‘preferred’ web builders and designers. Then I discovered ORCA. They provided me with the opportunity to be in business with a fantastic support team and, crucially, an amazing product.

There is nothing quite like it in the marketplace. The ORCA business model allows franchisees to sell tailor-made website solutions to clients that grow with their businesses. This allows franchisees to build ongoing relationships with clients so we are able to add value as consultants or mentors.

ORCA provides outstanding design, flexible, user-friendly websites that pretty much ‘sell’ themselves. Coupled with fast, efficient turnaround, an open door policy with people (you can pick up the phone anytime when you need to speak with any member of the team, including other franchisees) and a virtual office system to make the admin a doddle, and you’ve got an unrivalled web franchise”.

Find out more about an ORCA Franchise

 
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