UK consumers spend some GBP 315 million on sex products each year, according to retailer LoveHoney, but not all towns spend equally. Thanks to LoveHoney's new UK Sex Map, it's now plain for all to see which areas invest the most in their erotic lives.

In creating its map-based tool, LoveHoney began by taking an anonymous sample of more than 500,000 orders placed at its online store. It then aggregated that data into regions that match population statistics from the UK Census and added in data representing sales from other retailers and manufacturers. The result is the UK Sex Map, which shows annual per-capita spending on sex products for towns with populations of 10,000 people or more. The map is updated monthly, and all data are anonymised and aggregated, so no personally identifiable information can be seen. Instead, heat-map colours reveal a town's spending habits at a glance, with green representing areas that spend about the same as the national average, dark blue indicating those that spend a lot less, and red and white flagging hot points. Also visible, meanwhile, are the particular types of items the various towns are spending on—vibrators or condoms, for example—with links for quick purchase on LoveHoney's site. Users can scroll through the map for browsing purposes, or they can search by town name or postal code; included on the map, not surprisingly, are also sex-related establishments in each town. LoveHoney invites proprietors of such places to list their businesses for inclusion on the map, while users themselves can make their own recommendations.

Customer involvement appears to be an ongoing strategy at LoveHoney—it's also in the midst of a contest to design a new sex toy—but its sex map promises to directly increase sales as well, both its own and those of listed businesses. It's all thanks to today's sophisticated and cheap (if not free) online mapping tools and databases, which make it easier than ever to display information in map format. Time to see what maps could do for *your* bottom line! ;-) (Related: Nightlife mapping tool uses GPS to reveal hotspots — Crowds create heat maps of hot gigs at music fest.)

Website: www.lovehoney.co.uk/sexmap
Contact: www.lovehoney.co.uk/help/contact-us

Spotted by: Judy McRae

Prompted by a satisfied customer who claimed he'd be even happier if he didn't have to hold on to a piece of paper for five years to retain the warranty on his new espresso machine, Henrik Peter Reisby Nielsen saw a gap in the market: digital storage for all of the guarantees and warranties that consumers accumulate alongside their purchases.

Reisby Nielsen, a fourth-generation Danish retailer of cookware and home furnishings, launched the Garanti Hotel to help solve the common annoyance of product paperwork that piles up but can't be found when it's actually needed. Consumers who sign up with Garanti Hotel can upload their warranties and access them online whenever and wherever they're needed—at home or when bringing in a product for repair. While retailers don't have to participate in the scheme for consumers to save documents, Garanti Hotel is encouraging them to sign up in order to streamline the endeavour, ideally enabling stores to send documents straight to a consumer's Garanti Hotel account. The company doesn't sell warranties or get involved with the fine print; its sole purpose is to provide a consolidated storage space for buyer protection documents.

The firm's ultimate goal is to have a wide range of retailers offer Garanti Hotel as a valuable service to their customers, both in Denmark and internationally. Considering most stores have their own priorities when it comes to providing guarantees, it won't be easy to persuade them to add another step to their sales process. However, considering the potential gains for consumers, this notion is one to look into if you're in retail.

Website: www.garantihotel.com
Contact: info@garantihotel.com

Spotted by: Claus Schioldann von Eyben

A new store in Tokyo encourages sellers and buyers of secondhand objects to share 'personal culture' along with the goods that are changing hands. Pass the Baton, which opened in the Marunouchi district last month, lists previous owners as 'exhibitors', complete with their photo and a short bio. Their personal page on Pass the Baton's website shows the items they're selling, have sold and will sell in the future. Kazuko Okuma, for example, is selling a number of items from her travels abroad, including a golf trophy that she won in South America, and sold a bag bought for a dance in Monaco.

The store's web manager, Kelly Kikuchi, explains the reasoning behind Pass the Baton: "My generation facilitated both the evolution of simple resale into 'vintage', and the rise and plateau of internet auctions. Back then, it was about economy, discovery, curiosity. Now, it is about expanding, exploring the meaning and relevance of second-hand."

Pass the Baton is an attractive concept on various levels: the strong story element not only adds value for potential buyers, but might also make it easier for sellers to part with their possessions, knowing that an object's story is carried along with it. And while the items they're selling probably aren't those they value most, displaying a person's collection of things underscores the role of consumers as curators and gives buyers a peek into their life, as well as the opportunity to see whether their tastes align. It's a retail concept that should appeal to authenticity-seeking consumers everywhere—time to bring it to other parts of the world?

Website: www.pass-the-baton.com

Spotted by: Cecilia Biemann

According to the World Customs Organisation, counterfeit goods account for between five and seven percent of world trade. In an effort to counter the counterfeiters, Hong Kong's government is working to facilitate efficient product authentication. In June, the region's dominant duty-free retailer Nuance-Watson pilot-launched an authentication kiosk in its Hong Kong Airport Travelcare Express store. The kiosk allows customers to scan a product's label and follow its supply chain history to verify authenticity. Since fake medicines are of particularly acute concern to regulators, the pilot is focusing on pharmaceutical products.

The kiosk is part of a wider government initiative—BarcodePlus—which is supposed to become Hong Kong's portal for product quality and safety information. Due for official launch next month, BarcodePlus will enable users to not only verify the authenticity of a product, but also to find information about its shelf-life, origin, ingredients and packaging. Consumers will be able to access the service online or via SMS.

The 'product life story labels' we've covered in the past—from spinach to sheep—were mainly about sustainability and unearthing the softer sides of authenticity. With BarcodePlus, on the other hand, traceability is being put to work to protect consumers and profit margins. One to keep an eye on if you operate in markets flooded with knockoffs!

Website: www.barcodeplus.com.hk
Contact: info@barcodeplus.com.hk

Spotted by: Judy McRae

In the midst of an explosion of information and choice, are consumers missing out on surprise? The team behind Hipstery, a web store for mystery t-shirts, thinks they are. Which is why there are no t-shirt designs to choose from on Hipestry's site. Instead, customers select a size, pay EUR 17 (plus shipping) and answer a series of questions about themselves. The Hipstery's 'style scientists' run the responses to this quiz through their 'innovative style algorithm'—both concepts which the site's irreverent tone would lead us to interpret loosely—to select the right t-shirt from their exclusive range of designs, many of which are out-of-print shirts from small suppliers.

Leipzig-based Hipstery's openly opaque business model latches onto an anti-trend noted by our sister-site trendwatching in last month's briefing about transparency. While most companies are providing ever more choice and ever more information, a gap is opening for businesses who can relieve consumers of the burden of decision. Acknowledging that this is a big responsibility to hand over, Hipstery will replace any t-shirts that customers don't like, with the option of a refund if they're wrong the second time. Sometimes a lack of choice is a good thing, especially if used to surprise and delight consumers. It's a theme creative entrepreneurs should have fun exploring. (Related: Soft drinks for the undecided — Kashiwa Mystery Café.)

Website: www.hipstery.com
Contact: www.hipstery.com/contact

Spotted by: Andreas Milles