Why retail marketers should sideline AR and VR technology, at least for a while

Marketers are always on the hunt for the latest in innovative tech in a quest to snare prospective customers with the wow-factor.

Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are two such technologies touted as the next to revolutionise the retail landscape, however, a new study by Censuswide and payments provider Klarna suggests customers don’t share the same enthusiasm.

Interviewing 2,000 shoppers, the study revealed that four in five had no interest in these...

11 October 2018 | Advertising

The rise of the commuter-shopper: Driving digital commerce in surprising environments

Thanks to the hyper-connected, ‘always on’ world in which we now live, the opportunity for brands to drive commerce is literally everywhere. As with other areas of our lives, connected mobile devices have changed the way we think about buying things; when it comes to shopping, we’re no longer bound by ‘restrictions’ such as location and time of day.

Last week, Instagram announced that it will be making some updates to its shopping capabilities,...

27 September 2018 | Advertising

Forget AR: Visual search will be the hottest eCommerce tech among millennials

It’s been a big week for visual search.

In a partnership with Amazon, Snapchat announced it was testing a new tool allowing users to take a photo of a product or barcode and, if recognised, launch an Amazon product page to learn more and (hopefully) make a purchase.

On 20th birthday week, meanwhile, Google announced the integration of its AI-driven Lens into searches, the goal of which is to help users find information visually and improve specific image-oriented...

27 September 2018 | Advertising Technology

How luxury retailers are delivering personalisation at scale

Luxury retailers invest heavily in creating a premium in-store experience, and for a long time, this has played a major role in their success and growth. However, as more and more consumers demand the convenience of online shopping there is a clear shift towards digital.

In luxury, we have observed that 25% of sales come from online with the rest in-store. In fact, McKinsey expects online luxury sales to triple by 2025, with 80% of those sales digitally influenced. As a result,...

13 September 2018 | Advertising

Mobile marketing mystics: Unlocking the potential of in-app advertising

Imagine it’s the 1980s for a second. You, a crystal-gazing marketeer, explain to your CMO that the future of marketing lays in mobile telephones.

‘Mobile phones! Pfft. They’re a yuppie fad, we don’t advertise to bricks,’ might come the scowling response of this 80s stereotype.

The derision wouldn’t be misplaced. For the first four decades that mobile phones existed, they were just that: mobile (as in, portable); phones (as in, well, a...

6 September 2018 | Advertising

The $70bn WhatsApp business story nobody’s talking about

 When WhatsApp unveiled its new Business API last week, most tech reporters determined Facebook was getting serious about monetising the chat app it purchased for $19bn in 2014.

They’re probably right about the money, but wrong about where it’s most likely to come from.

The business model question 

4 September 2018 | Advertising Technology

Are retailers losing control of the customer journey to pervasive social platforms?

The capabilities that social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest etc.) provide to retail brands today has far extended likes, comments or shares. Through these platforms online visitors can discover more of a retailer’s product catalogue through a curated feed of suggestions based on the user’s browsing and intent behaviour. But with that comes its own challenges for overstretched e-commerce managers and brands, not...

29 August 2018 | E-Commerce

The growth of mCommerce: How to adapt your content

mCommerce - the digital trend that retailers cannot afford to ignore with over 25% of the world’s population (1.6 billion) using their mobile devices to make purchases. It’s certainly not replacing ecommerce, but a larger proportion of online sales are now coming from mobile devices with recent trends show that online shopping via a desktop and laptop has decreased by 15% in 2018, compared to smartphone transactions, which have doubled.

Mobile commerce is an advancement of...

9 May 2018 | Commerce

Mobile gaming: There’s a new entertainment player in town

A switch to the smaller screen

It’s no secret that games consoles dating as far back as the Sega Mega Drive and Nintendo SNES have enjoyed pride of place in living rooms around the world, providing a welcome dose of entertainment and a brief escape from reality.

But, thanks to incredible advances in mobile technology – just look at the iPhone X and Google Pixel 2 – gaming on the small screen in your pocket is giving the latest consoles a run for their money. And that...

12 March 2018 | M-Commerce

Consumers less likely to complete purchases on mobile

New research shows that shoppers are less likely to go through with an online purchase if they are using a phone or tablet.

The findings come from a study conducted by the University of East Angelia and published in the Journal of Business Research which looked at why cart abandonment is much higher on mobile apps then desktop-based online shopping.

According to data from research Criteo, 46% of global ecommerce traffic come from mobile devices in Q2 2016. However, only...

5 January 2018 | E-Commerce