Under Article 22a of the forthcoming EU Consumer Rights Directive, web-based independent traders could soon be obliged to sell their products to almost every country in Europe.

And under Article 17 of the Directive, businesses would be forced to pay the postage costs if a customer decides to return goods worth more than £35, within up to two weeks of a purchase being made.

During the last few years much of the UK marketing press has predicted a bleak future for telemarketing, suggesting that digital channels provide much cheaper and simpler solutions. However a survey conducted by B2B Marketing and sponsored by The Telemarketing Company has found that 70% of organisations feel telemarketing is going to be either 'critical' or 'very important' to their marketing success in 2011.

You'll never know exactly how much business you lose due to so-so customer service. But I guarantee that if your business is in trouble, a lack of customer service is one root cause of your situation. To turn your business around, try sharply redefining what acceptable customer service is for you.

Advocates of Twitter will say it’s essential for business. Other people will say it’s a time waster... So which is it? Read on for Heather Townsend’s guide, based on two month’s experiences of being a tweeter, of how to achieve more with your tweets.

In retail it pays to be an early bird so you’re not caught out by the rush from late October onwards. Here are some tips from Chris Barling, CEO of ecommerce software supplier, Actinic www.actinic.co.uk.

Handling extra customers

Having to refund money because you run out of stock or can’t deliver in time are problems that guarantee unhappy customers who won't be returning.

Though overall sales grew by 15% in the three months to June 2010, e-retailers have had to increase their order volumes substantially by 39% to achieve this growth as the average order value has dropped by 17%.