Helsinki

Uniqul, a Finnish startup, has patented and tested a unique payment system that does away with many security worries about paying for items in a store. In Uniqul's system, your face is your PIN. The company is going to roll out terminals in the Helsinki area soon. The actual mechanism is as simple as it sounds: To confirm a transaction at point of sale, the user simply has to present their face to the camera, watch for their

After years thinking of online advertising as qualitatively different from regular advertising, could it be that it often works similarly to print advertising? Possibly, if the results of a new study are to be believed. Analytics firm RapidBlue has determined that Google AdWords campaigns tend to increase visits to retail stores. The company, which places sensors in shops to anonymously monitor customer behavior, studied about 4,800 shoppers in Helsinki. The study showed AdWords campaigns increase "both brick-and-mortar retail [visits] and visitor dwell times by double-digit figures," the firm says.

HELSINKI, Finland (BRAIN)Sales at Mavic rose 15 percent in the third quarter, with strong growth in wheels and cycling shoes, parent company Amer Sports stated in an earnings call Thursday. Cycling sales totaled 28.7 million euros ($40.8 million) in the quarter ended Sept. 30, compared with 25.2 million euros ($35.8 million) a year earlier. In the first nine months of the year, sales for the segment are up 12 percent, from 79.6 million euros ($113.1 million) to 91 million euros ($129.3 million). Amers winter and outdoor equipment group, which includes Mavic, reported a 24 percent increase in sales for

HELSINKI, Finland (BRAIN)—Mavic sales grew 17 percent in the second quarter of the year, driven equally by sales of wheels and cycling soft goods like footwear and apparel, Heikki Takala, president and CEO of Mavic’s owner Amer Sports said in a conference call on Thursday. The cycling segment reported sales of 27.9 million euros ($40.4 million) for the months of April through June, compared with 25.1 million euros ($36.4 million) for the same time period last year. For the first half of the year, Mavic’s sales were up 12 percent, from 54.4 million euros ($78.8 million) to 62.3 million

H&M has collaborated with design consultancy firm UXUS to create H&M Home stores, which now are open in select locations in Europe. Within the stores, items are presented in a showroom environment, with shoppers placing magnetic stickers — which represent products — on a board that they take to the cashier to collect the items from the storeroom.

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