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Let the Games begin!

It’s music to the British economy’s ears that TheLondon Olympic Games are predicted to boost it by £750m, with the longer term impact rising to £5.1bn by 2015 (Source: Visa). And whilst London will be the primary beneficiary, established tourist destinations are also forecast to see an uplift following the 2012 Games.

There are however nerves about such bullish predictions, based on the historical losses of previous Games, even though Sydney 2000 generated £3bn, a quarter of which came from national retail sales. However, watching Triathletes ‘swim the Harbour, ride the Bridge and run the city’ in the sunshine, possibly has a more immediate touristic appeal than err… Stratford in the drizzle.

London Olympic hospitality packages have already been discounted and many people are saying they will stay away from the city, or are working from home just to avoid the potential transport delays that Mayor Boris has been warning us all about, (his transport recordings heard as far away as Leamington Spa apparently!) And so by default, people as far flung as Warwickshire will be avoiding London’s high streets too.

(For anyone who would like to see a quick and rather disturbing guide to Olympic budgets, go**[here](http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18585209“ target= “BBC video guide to Olympic budgets”)**).

So how will the games affect the online retail world?

Well based on all that avoidance of all things brick and mortar, it’s looking positive.

Online retailers are slated to directly benefit as 27% of all spending is expected to be online, increasing online sales by £285 million from June to August. This period folds in the Queen’s Jubilee too and the majority (£140 million or 63%) of this spend will be on souvenirs, almost a third (32% or £128 million) on celebrations and £17 million will be spent by tourists primarily through hotel broadband and smart phones. (Soure: Centre for Retail Research, commissioned for Kelkoo).

On a more sobering note, there is a Olympic lesson for online merchants to be learned from the recent fiasco of the security firm G4S who have now admitted that their company’s reputation is “in tatters” after problems with its contract to provide staff for the Games. The lesson being: take your {data} security seriously!

If you are using cart recovery and remarketing solutions to address shopping cart abandonment, make sure that you use a reputable company which practices responsible business where data compliance and security are concerned. [Ve’s](http://www.veinteractive.com/? target= “Ve Interactive homepage“) data centres have been specified to the UK Data Centre Uptime Institute and EU Code on Conduct specifications for Tier 4 resiliency, (Government Level), with 24/7 Tech Support. We work with the ICO and specialist media lawyers Lee & Thompson to ensure best practice for our e-commerce clients and we have an in-house dedicatedData Compliance Manager to ensure that all our technologies and processes adhere to the correct and best practice guidelines for both compliance and legal standards.

So online retailers out there, when the starting pistol goes on the 27th July, make sure it is the right kind of Games that begin!

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Kathy Heslop .