ForeSee ranked online customer satisfaction on four criteria: price competitiveness, merchandise appeal, site content and site features.
While British Gas has pledged to use this benefit to maintain its price competitiveness, there has been no such pledge from other suppliers.
Primark - who has just reported a 25% jump in sales - does very little of its trade online, and has instead focused on price competitiveness and keeping up with fashion trends.
Centrica said that "recognising the economic pressures facing many of our customers, the board has determined that any benefit arising from the exceptionally cold weather will be used to maintain our price competitiveness".
What really matters for jobs and competitiveness is not consumer price inflation, but the rate of change of unit labor costs. (Unit labor costs are wage rates adjusted for changes in productivity.) A recent study from the Boston Consulting Group suggests that Chinese unit labor costs will grow at about 8.5 percent per year over the next five years.
By removing the option of devaluing to boost competitiveness, it may deter wage claims that price workers out of jobs.
The stronger euro will temper the rise in the dollar price of oil, but it will also blunt the competitiveness of Germany's exports.
It floated only a small portion of its stock, making it more vulnerable to price volatility, but questions linger about Groupon's competitiveness in the crowded market for discounting online.
He welcomed the decision to exempt NI from the carbon price floor - a tax measure that would have undermined the competitiveness of energy generators within the all-island market, he said.
For instance, raising the price of steel harms the auto industry, both raising prices and reducing competitiveness.
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All peripheral countries have made significant progress toward regaining competitiveness in terms of unit labor costs, albeit at a high price in unemployment.
Others would accept more of it as the price for (in their view) more effective action to reduce unemployment, promote competitiveness or what have you.
The price is still being paid with wages and costs being slashed in an attempt for these mainly southern countries to regain competitiveness within a monetary union.
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