Following its none too successful first attempt to establish an electronic shopping center in the UK, Barclay Bank Plc is updating and relaunching its BarclaySquare shopping mall. Established in June 1995 (CI No 2,698) press reports suggested the mall received 500,000 hits in its first eight months of trading, but in that time only sold 27 items (CI No 3,035). Now Barclay has said it is reviewing the whole aspect of BarclaySquare, before it is relaunched next month. Andy Walden, senior manager of BarclaySquare described the company’s first attempt as more of a learning experience and said the new version will look beyond simply enabling retailers in the UK to take credit card transactions over the internet. Walden says the mall will make the proposition of online shopping propelling to consumers and says the company will take advantage of the skills it possesses in the banking arena. Retailers will also benefit from the changes. Walden commented: We are going to take the pain out of processing transactions. Walden denies that BarclaySquare was as unsuccessful as reports have indicated, and stated that sales around the Christmas period in 1996 increased by 500% from the previous year, and apparently since then have increased by the same amount month on month ever since.
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