Telstra to increase mobile charges: New range of “Every Day
Connect” plans incorporate a 10% increase in call rates to $.99 per minute, a
$.05 increase to flag fall rates to $.40, and lower data allowances, which are
500 meg a month lower. Cheapest
smartphone plans increased from $49 per month to $60 per month. Telstra says
traffic on wireless network is doubling every 12 months. Telstra signed up
958,000 new mobile customers pushing market share to 44%. Telstra’s annual
capital budget at 14% of sales at $3.5 billion, $1 billion of which goes into
mobile network infrastructure. Telstra’s
4G network covers 40% of the population, Optus expected to activate 4G in capital
cities in coming weeks and Vodafone committed to launching services next year. (John
McDuling)
Commonwealth Bank Facebook banking: CBA plans Facebook
banking by end of the year to enable payments to Facebook friends, mobile
numbers, and email addresses. Customers will be able to make BPAY payments and
transfer funds or check account balances and transactional histories. Android
and iPhone Kaching app has been downloaded more than 365,000 times, used to
transfer more than $1 billion. [CR: Puts new emphasis on someone “hacking your
Facebook”] . (Brian Corrigan, Paul Smith)
Wheat price increase: Drought across US midwest cropping belt
drives prices up 31% in past fortnight to 10 month high. Wheat is at $US8 per bushel, was at $US9 per
bushel in 2010 during the Russian drought and below $US13 per bushel of the
soft commodities boom four years ago. Expected to continue to increase and
affect food prices globally unless weather conditions change. Farmers resistant
to forward sell due to threat of El Nino associated with drought in Australia.
Last year was a record Australian wheat crop harvest of 29.5 million tonnes,
this year is expected to be 24.1 million tonnes. [CR: Wonder if the price
increases will be blamed on the carbon tax?] (Sophie Morris)
Salvos Stores increase 8% in sales over 64 stores in NSW and
ACT over the past year. Those shopping for fashion reasons account for 15% of
the increase. Australian Bureau of Statistics said retail sales rose 0.5% in
May, the biggest rise since 2010. Total retail sales rose 3.3% over the year. Influenced
by satorialist-style blogs capturing people wearing street style. [CR: Social
media influencing retail, although I suspect the government carbon tax payment may
have an impact on certain socio-economic areas, as noticed a few days ago.] (Lisa Carapiet)
Flight Centre increase: Boost in corporate and leisure sales
contributed to profit before tax upgrade of 18% on prior year. Focus for the
year will be on growing business organically by opening more stores and
recruiting additional sale staff.
Expected to employ 1000 new sales consultants and open it’s 2500th
shop and business. [CR: Good to see an
article about employment numbers going the other way for once.] (Michael Hobbs)
US retailers respond to online: Competing against “showrooming”,
where shoppers check out products in stores then buy online. Best Buy responds by replacing standard bar
codes with Best Buy-only bar codes on big ticket items so they cannot be
scanned and compared online. Walmart,
Macy’s Best Buy, Sears, and the Contain store now add web return centres,
pick-up locations, free shipping outlets, payment booths, and drive-through
customer service centres for online sales. Over 50% of sales through
Walmart.com are picked up at Walmart stores. In April, Walmart started offering
cash sales online, accessed a new type of customer. 40% of customers who paid
with cash online used non-cash methods to pay such as check or debit card when
picking up in store. The service accounts for 2% of online sales. Sears offers
drive through for same day pickup of web purchases. Container Store VP of stores John Thrailkill:
Online orders tend to be larger than in-store purchases, customers who picked
up orders in store visited 50% more often than customers who only shopped in
store. (Stephanie Clifford)
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