Breakfast briefing: Retail news on Tesco, Carphone Warehouse and ecommerce sales

Former Tesco boss Lord MacLaurin urges shareholders to give more time to Philip Clarke

Former boss Lord MacLaurin has told Tesco investors to give struggling chief executive Philip Clarke more time to reverse the supermarket’s fortunes, The Independent reported. His comments come three days before Clarke is slated to face hostile questions from shareholders at the annual general meeting on June 27. MacLaurin admitted Clarke was struggling now more than ever and laid the blame for the current failures squarely at Sir Terry Leahy’s feet.

UK retail ecommerce sales to rise 16% in 2014

According to eMarketer predictions, retail ecommerce sales in Britain will increase 16% this year, while m-commerce will surge by 64.8%. Tablet sales are increasing faster than smartphone sales in the UK, even though smartphone usage is far more common than tablet usage, and is expected to account for two-thirds of total UK m-commerce sales in 2014. The company expects tablet-based retail m-commerce sales to more than double to £20.96bn by 2018 from £9.28bn this year, The Drum reported.

Carphone Warehouse officially links to 3 Ireland network

Mobile phone retail chain Carphone Warehouse has said that it will launch a mobile phone network service in Ireland, the Irish Independent reported. A spokesman for the company declined to say when the network would launch or what range of services it would offer. However, it is understood that the new service will leverage the network of 3 Ireland.