There are endless metrics a store has access to when it comes to when, what, and who is buying merchandise. But surprisingly, there's not a heck of a lot of data on why a customer decides not to buy something. So Fujitsu is hoping its new Kinect-based research tool provides more insight into how customers browse, and why they may decide against a purchase. Read More >>

There are some things you should really see/inspect/measure before you buy, but in the age of item reviews and free return shipping, laziness often dictates that we just take a best guess and see how things play out. Read More >>

Some Google Play gift cards, of course. They're apparently now available in Tesco, Morrisons, and other UK shops for the princely sum of £10, £25, and £50 a pop. No doubt they'll go for less pretty soon too, so might be worth keeping an eye on to subsidise your weekly app binges. [Google] Read More >>

Amazon's got a new way to buy stuff for anyone who has a Kindle Fire. Amazon Coins are a virtual currency that will come out in May in the US, and work for all app and in-app purchases on the Kindle Fire. Read More >>

On Christmas Eve 2008, I found out I would be losing my job. There is no day of the year to find out something like that, but it seems that Christmas Eve is a particularly bad one. I remember it very clearly, even down to what I was wearing. I was packing to go home over Christmas and I got a text off my friend Susie, telling me that the shop we both worked in had been taken over by administrators. And just like that, I knew my job would be gone. Read More >>

So it’s official -- with the news that HMV has gone into administration, very soon we’ll have no way of buying music on the high street. While I feel bad for those affected by the closures that are set to come, forgive me if I don’t shed a tear for the demise of HMV (and with it the last of the big record stores). As my fellow commenter Eadingas phrased it in a previous Spiels From "Them Below", “The high street electronics store as we know it is dying, and not a day too soon.” As a music fan and musician, I feel the same way about high street music retail. Read More >>

A Tory MP and legal expert has accused HMV of literally stealing money from customers over the past few weeks, claiming that management's decision to continue selling gift vouchers while the chain teetered on the brink was tantamount to "obtaining property by deception." Read More >>

Last night we heard the sad news that yet another of the UK's big High Street brands was forced into administration. HMV has appointed Deloitte to handle things from now on in, and the temporarily good news is that all 239 stores across the UK and Ireland will stay open, for now. Read More >>

I've only ever been on the other side of an administration; I'm normally the one getting up early to try and get 20 per cent off a TV or a few Xbox games for cheap. This year, for 2013, I'm the one in the firing line. Approximately one hour before I was meant to close my store, I was informed of the news not by my manager, not even by my area manager, but by Sky News. My employer, Jessops incase you hadn't already guessed, was in administration with PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. Read More >>

You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy than a UK electronics store. We've all been there. The stench of mouldy '80s carpet. The constantly-whining theft alarms. The cheap plastic pedestals which seem to bio-degrade in your hands. The display phones and tablets without Wi-Fi connection; cameras with depleted batteries; everything thrown around on the shelves seemingly at random, like cars being sold by some deranged salesman who decided to take out the wheels and engines and scatter them all around the showroom in the least convenient way possible. Read More >>

We live in a cyberland future where malls exist inside your computer and the presents you buy are magically delivered to you by, well, delivery men. With each Christmas that passes, online shopping becomes more and more the norm until eventually brick and mortar stores will be nothing but vacant museums of an age gone by. Read More >>

QR codes are a technology that desperately wants our attention. They appear everywhere from supermarket shelves and magazines to hiking trails and tombstones. Never heard of a QR code? You're looking at one right now. Scan the image at the top of this article, and it'll open a link to the mobile version...of this article. Very meta. Read More >>

It's the end of the line for retail park electronics chain Comet, which blinks out of existence today, its last day of trading. The administrators are "pulling a Woolworths" too, with shop fittings, shelving and more all up for grabs. Read More >>

Microsoft has launched a rather aggressive attack on Google, claiming its fierce internet rival serves up shopping results not based on relevancy, but on how much advertisers have paid to be right at the top of the page. Read More >>

If you've ever had the sneaking suspicion smooth-faced mannequins were secretly watching you while you shop, you're probably just paranoid. But you might also be right. According to reports by Bloomberg, some high-end retailers are already rolling out models that watch you shop with secret cameras. Read More >>