Strong half-year web sales for M&S
Half-year online sales at Marks & Spencer were up 29 percent from last year. Total sales for the 26 weeks to 26th September were £4.34 billion, an increase of 2.8 percent from the first half of the previous year, with UK sales up 1.8 percent. Profit before tax inched downward 0.4 percent, to £306.7 million. The retailer plans to roll out its click-and-collect service, which allows customers to order online and pick up their purchases in-store, to all of its stores after Christmas; the service is currently available for 166 stores.

White Stuff sales climb 47 percent
Half-year sales at fashion cataloguer/retailer White Stuff jumped a whopping 47 percent from last year. Even better, EBITDA rose 70 percent. Much of the revenue growth came from the opening of roughly one new store a month.

Hillarys launches spin-off website
Window-dressing merchant Hillarys has launched Web-curtains.com, which sells made-to-measure curtains. The new site is a sister brand to Web-blinds.com and the core Hillarys website. 

Koodos sold to StockShifters parent
E-trader Group, a specialist in the clearance and overstock market and operator of StockShifters.com, has bought discount fashion etailer Koodos for an undisclosed sum. 

Simplify gift-giving for online shoppers
Getting consumers to your ecommerce site is only part of the battle for winning a share of the Christmas wallet. Once those busy holiday shoppers are on your site, you’ve got to make it impressively easy for them to find what they want. For advice on how to do just that, click here.

Coming up in Catalogue e-business magazine

• November/December issue: special postal-strike, digital version, with a special focus on delivery options, plus predictive analytics, scalable logistics, and more
• January issue: business health check — what you need to know and do to ensure your company is ready to make the most of 2010