Christmas season is in full swing and all the major retailers have released their highly anticipated TV ads. While Christmas ads dominated the top five most-watched YouTube videos last year, only two brands in Gartner L2’s latest Digital IQ Index: Retail Europe secured spots. Animations from Germany’s MediaMarkt and the UK’s Marks & Spencer came first and third, respectively. …
Industry Insights Blog
We’re in the homestretch of the holiday shopping season. Three out of four holiday shopper types have been busy crossing off items on their gift list: early birds, evergreens, and deal seekers. Who does that leave? The last-minute shopper, of course. Research shows that only 18% of shoppers consolidate their shopping to the Black Friday-to-Cyber Monday period. Meanwhile, 70% of shoppers…
Ever since Salesforce.com CEO Marc Benioff declared that “Loyalty is dead,” in a November 2017 interview with Mad Money’s Jim Cramer, business leaders have been wringing their hands. But listen beyond the attention-getting soundbite, and you will learn that what Benioff is talking about is the way businesses define customer loyalty, i.e. as a program. That is not how customers…
Retailers see some tantalizing possibilities for using IoT technology in their businesses, but 2019 seems likely to feature more pilot programs and small-scale testing than widespread upheaval.
Bridging the gap between online and in-person shopping, increased automation, and new ways to engage with customers (mostly by showing them ads) are all concepts with major upside for retailers, but the technology has…
Big brands are opening big stores in big cities, but Nike is taking a decidedly digital approach with its New York City flagship: that is, the customer payment and shopping experience in the new space is powered by mobile technology.
The store’s concept, dubbed Nike NYC, is to blend the online and offline worlds with the help of smartphones. Nike Chief…
Global e-commerce has expanded at a high rate over the past decade, although it still constitutes a relatively low share of total turnover. Growth is expected to continue at a high rate.
Shopping habits differ between European countries, different age groups and areas. For example, Nordic consumers make more online purchases than consumers in Italy or Hungary. Eurostat statistics show that…
Privacy and data protection are fundamental rights. When respected they help improve trust and reduce power imbalances. Individuals should have rights over their personal data, regardless of who holds or processes it, and effective ways to enforce those rights, through independent bodies. While not an ideal solution, GDPR gives individuals more control over their personal data. Rather than burdening individuals…
Belgium has signed on to become a member of the Electronic World Trade Platform – the first country in Europe to do so.
Alibaba Group on Wednesday signed a memorandum of understanding with Belgium to bring the eWTP to the country of 11.4 million, with Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel and Deputy Prime Minister Kris Peeters as well as Alibaba Group…
French distributor Carrefour will be testing its own registerless store concept next year. Just like pioneer Amazon Go , Carrefour will rely on cameras and facial recognition to achieve a fully automated checkout system.
A first for Paris
According to French trade magazine Linéaires, the first experiment will be a small test store in Massy (near Paris). The store will measure 56 square…
A perception of a strong economy as well as robust household financials are the main drivers of holiday spending. Overall, consumers indicate their average holiday spend will increase from US$1,226 to US$1,536 per consumer. Most consumers (78 percent) report they plan to spend more or the same amount as they did last year (figure 2). For those planning to spend more,…
A new regulation proposed by the European Commission, which removes unjustified geo-blocking in the online environment across the European Union, came into force on 3 December 2018. This means that Europeans will no longer have to worry that a website will block access or redirect them just because they – or their credit cards – come from another country. Wherever they…
If the Internet is divided into “slow” and “fast” lanes, retailers — particularly SMBs — will be faced with a stark choice: pay more to stay in the express lane, or adjust their e-Commerce business to minimize the impact of slow load times and other performance issues. Key predictions for the post-net neutrality era include: Retailers, particularly small- and medium-sized…
Against a backdrop of changing regulation and rapid digitisation, financial organisations and fintechs must collaborate if they are to evolve, innovate and remain competitive, says leading payments and e-commerce expert Verifone. From chip and pin to mobile wallets, the payments industry has undergone a rapid transformation in recent years. The advent of the digital age has given rise to new services and…
By now you have probably heard of influencers, that group of internet-famous people who have more than a million social media followers and can make big money by plugging various brands. And you may have even heard of microinfluencers, who do the same thing for a still sizable but somewhat smaller social media audience — from the tens to low…
Earlier last month MEPs voted to support the final text on the free flow of non-personal data across the European Union (EU). A vast majority of the European Parliament voted in favour of this new regulation.
This is good news. The regulation removes obstacles to the free movement of non-personal data. It reduces the number and range of data localization restrictions,…
Consumers’ expectations of retailer performance and service continue to increase exponentially as more and more businesses undergo the digital transformation toward being completely connected with their customers. Almost all consumers today have access to a smartphone, a tablet device, or, at the very least, the Internet, and this gives them the capability to engage with the businesses they purchase from, on…
You know when you’re browsing a website, finally click on a product, and another part of the page then shows recommendations of other products you might also like? This is personalization in action. To be more specific, ecommerce personalization is all about delivering individualized content (discounts, offers or product recommendations) to website visitors based on their previous actions, demographics and…
63% of the U.S. population over the age of 15 have downloaded a retail app.† The average adult has two retail apps on their phone at any given time. Why people download apps
What are the driving forces causing customers to download retail apps? According to our study,† the top reason people downloaded an app was because they frequently shop at the…
Online shopping is on a tear, and marketplaces are reaping the rewards. Some sites are seeing more active buyers and higher gross merchandise sales (GMS) as consumers look to buy all sorts of items from merchants and creators. Etsy, for instance, recently noted that active buyers on the site grew by 17 percent to reach 37 million worldwide last quarter,…
On 8 November 2018, the European Commission published a “Roadmap” inviting manufacturers and other interested market participants to provide feedback on the Vertical Agreements Block Exemption Regulation (the “Block Exemption”). The Block Exemption is an important practical tool for brands, providing an automatic legal exemption for their agreements with distributors and resellers where certain conditions are met. Its purpose is to…