A Sky shareholder has criticised James Murdoch's appointment as chairman, arguing that it flouts the corporate governance code and is a serious conflict of interest given he runs its biggest shareholder, Fox. Royal London Asset Management, which owns GBP50m of Sky shares, believes Murdoch's reappointment is "inappropriate". He was forced to stand down as chairman of Sky in 2012 in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal at News International, publisher of the "Sun," "Times" and now defunct "News of the World."

GfK's Consumer Confidence Index climbed two points to +4 in January. Four of the measures used to calculate the Index saw increases this month, while one remained unchanged. Consumer saving and spending for January show strong signs of growing confidence among British consumers. The major purchase index has increased nine points this month to +16, which is 11 points higher than this time last year. The savings index has increased five points to +5;, which s 10 points higher than January 2015.

O2 is hoping to own the mobile tech retail space with the introduction of two new concept stores, which it is confident will give the business a "competitive edge." The company opened the doors of its new stores in Manchester and London this month with the aim of "re-writing the rule book" of what a phone shop should be about with the emphasis on educating consumers about the possibilities of technology. Designed by design agency Dalziel & Pow the stores are three times the size of O2's typical stores.

Click and collect is beating mobile as the retail technology that has most impact on the way consumers shop. Almost one in five (18.93%) of shoppers said click and collect changed the way they shopped in 2015, according to data from Atomik research carried out on behalf of retail marketing agency Live & Breathe. In comparison, 11.79% of respondents said smartphones changed the way they shopped, while exactly the same percentage said the same about tablet computers.