News roundup--Redcats, Style Passport, more

Catalogue and online retail group Redcats is too expensive for potential bidders to buy in one go, so parent company PPR is now planning to sell it piece by piece, reports Bloomberg. According to the article, PPR will divide the apparel and homewares division along “geographic lines”, selling the US, Scandinavian and other European business separately. At least one part may be sold by the end of this year, it is understood.

As part of its international growth plans, footwear brand Fitflop is relaunching its 10 transactional websites for the UK, European and US markets. It will also unveil mobile websites to support the sites. Fitflop is working with eCommera, Demandware and Quova on the new websites. More sites are expected to follow at a later date.

According to the latest estimates, £34.9 billion was spent online in the first six months of the year, with £6 billion in June alone. Figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index show that Brits spent £3.9 billion more in the first half of 2012 compared to the same period last year. The reason? IMRG believes the weather had a big part to play, especially for sales of foreign holidays and home entertainment products. The gift sector also reported a 43 percent increase from June last year.

Style Passport, the online retailer specialising in holiday wear and accessories, has launched a weight calculator on its site to help shoppers avoid excess baggage charges at airports. Founder Sarah Walter told the Daily Mail, “Far too often we are all caught out at the airport with extra fees because of excess charges and we are trying to make sure this is a thing of the past… It seems that these are avoidable charges and we are trying to make sure they remain avoidable by doing the homework for our customers.”

Pop star Robbie Williams is moving into social selling with a series of co-buys allowing his community of 3 million Facebook fans to purchase exclusive merchandise at more affordable prices. Through a partnership with social commerce agency Buyapowa this month, the co-buys will be promoted via RobbieWilliams.com, the Robbie Williams app, more than 3 million fans on Facebook page and nearly 1 million followers on Twitter. Buyapowa allows consumers to join together online, via Facebook, to gain access to bulk-buy discounts.

PayPal has acquired Card.io, a provider of technology to capture credit card information by using the camera on a smartphone. Paypal had already been working with Card.io to integrate its technology into the PayPal Here mobile app.