editor, Author at Mediastreet

In News

The future of marketing is IRL

July 11, 2022 No Comments

As we come out of the pandemic, digitally native brands should recognize that the next front in the battle for customer acquisition is in real life.

With Americans returning to bars and restaurants, vacationing like never before, and even (perhaps grudgingly) returning to the office, digital brands need to be out in front of their audiences—and those audiences are out and about.

Digitally native brands are finding that having a presence in physical space is increasingly crucial to their long-term strategy for three reasons:

Consumers are ready to engage with the real world. After two years on Zoom, doom scrolling, and streaming, consumers are ready to get outside. And when they are outside, they increasingly notice advertising and brand messaging. Moreover, they often will share those out-of-home ads on social media.
Most commerce still happens in stores. Even during the 2021 pandemic, more than 85% of retail sales happened offline. Marketers want to be close to decision points for commerce, and the vast majority of those decisions still happen outside the home.
Physical presence is part of the marketing mix. One of the smartest thinkers in media today, Benedict Evans, wrote an insightful piece this past March where he argued that marketers should consider their rent spending as part of customer acquisition. He points out that the best marketers are trading off rent and marketing spending to see which has a better ROI. Some brands might need more stores—others fewer—and some can stay purely virtual. The bigger point is that brands need to recognize that customer acquisition includes retail, marketing, distribution, and advertising—a more than $750 billion annual investment pool in the U.S.

The biggest tech brands like Apple and Amazon saw the importance of physical distribution and invested in retail store networks to secure additional consumer touchpoints. In addition, smart multi-channel retailers, like Warby Parker, also extended their digital brands into physical space.

But building a physical store network is expensive and a big bet for most digitally native businesses. It requires extensive amounts of capital, long lease commitments, and a fundamentally different skill set. Apple needed to bring on Target veteran Ron Johnson to get the Apple Store right, while Amazon spent $13 billion to buy Whole Foods.

In addition, brands that are purely content- or service-based really don’t have enough transactions or volume to support the rent required to have a store network.

The fastest way for a digitally native brand to get into physical space is by using out-of-home advertising. With Americans returning to the streets, it is no surprise that out-of-home advertising surged 37% in Q4 2021. Increasingly, it is digitally native brands driving much of that growth, with Apple, Amazon, and Google all in the top 10. Direct to consumer and tech brands now constitute 28 of the top 100 OOH advertisers, according to the OAAA.

Out-of-home ads are an easy entry point into the real world and are increasingly measurable on an apples-to-apples basis with other media. Smaller formats like street furniture, in particular, allow for more granular targeting close to retail locations and real-world competitive conquesting.

Public space advertising in places like transit hubs and multi-use real estate developments have the added benefit of providing opportunities for product sampling and pop-up shops, props and stunts that drive social media sharing, and content distribution on digital screens. These allow brands to take advantage of an existing large audience without having to make the long-term commitment of a retail lease.

The most innovative digital brands are setting up long-term physical presence to promote their content and advertising. Examples include Netflix on L.A.’s Sunset Strip and DraftKings in Chicago’s Addison Station (outside Wrigley Field). These investments are a cost-effective alternative to building retail locations.

Whether it be through retail stores or out-of-home advertising, brands that can effectively compete in real life will have a massive advantage over those that remain exclusively on online platforms.

Feature Image Credit: [San4ezz007; Alex / AdobeStock]

By Chris Grosso

Sourced from FastCompany

In Sales

22 apps designers can’t live without

July 8, 2022 No Comments

By Gabe Boyd

And why.

There’s no doubt that technology has transformed the design world. While much of the design process used to involve hands-on work with X-Acto blades, Cow Gum, and French curves, it’s now evolved into a largely digital-driven industry. Apps of all kinds have digitized the functional elements of a creative studio: Dropbox in place of a filing cabinet, Slack in place of a quick call.

While it may seem that the litany of apps could potentially overwhelm a project or even stifle creativity, a handful of them have risen to the top of the design world’s list—for productivity, inspiration, and communication. We asked designers, illustrators, and creatives from around the world to share their go-to apps. Here are 22 they told us they can’t live without.

The responses have been edited for length and clarity.

Things and RightFont

The first is Things, a task management and productivity app. I find it super useful to manage my days, weeks, and months as far as organizing projects both professionally and personally. It’s native to iOS and macOS and keeps my mind clear and my desk clean.

The second is RightFont, which is a professional font manager for macOS. It’s intuitive and easy to use and has the ability to auto-activate with Adobe software such as Illustrator or InDesign. The dynamic font preview tool is also useful for comparing various typefaces with one another. It makes managing and installing fonts a smooth and enjoyable process.

—Dan Elliott, designer and art director

Dropbox

My most useful work app would be Dropbox. I keep all my work files and photos saved there, and it keeps multiple older versions of every file saved so I can go back if I overwrote something by mistake.

—Lucia Calfapietra, illustrator

Insight Timer and Todoist

Insight Timer is my go-to meditation app for goal setting, affirmation, and staying optimistic. I don’t consider myself a spiritual person but I believe in the power of the mind and visualizing success—just like athletes do. I’m happy to report that great things keep happening to my career as a designer and an artist.

I don’t know how to work or live without Todoist! [With] all my work and personal to-dos in one place and also connected to my calendar, my mind is at rest and I can focus on designing. I have “Work This Week” for priority jobs and “Work Bucket” for jobs that need doing but have no deadline (e.g., PR, website update, find art residency).

—Mamimu (June Mineyama-Smithson), designer/artist

Spotify

It sounds funny but my go-to app is really just Spotify currently. I can work from anywhere at this point, and I can work both digitally or even with raw essentials—paper and pencil are easily accessible anywhere. The only thing I can’t work without is my music library!

—Steven Harrington, artist and designer

Tumblr

One of my favourite apps for inspiration is, in fact, Tumblr. I’ve remained loyal since 2010, and while the app has seen its ups and downs, from a design inspiration standpoint the sheer quantity of content, images, posters, archival documents, colours, textures, and text helps to keep my creative juices flowing.

—Andy Johnson, writer, editor, and designer

Lightroom Mobile, Retouch, and InShot

My photo editing is done through Lightroom. I also use Do You Travel pre-sets to give my pics a little added punch. I use Retouch for quick photo edits like removing stray lines or random objects from pics, and I use InShot for any simple video editing like splicing clips and speeding up footage.

—Joanna Muñoz, lettering artist and illustrator

Behance

My go-to app would be Behance! It’s a great source of inspiration because not only can you see a range of amazing work from various artists covering multiple disciplines, but you are able to watch in-depth livestreams which show a creative’s design process and methodologies. You really get a sense of the individual behind the work. Streams on Behance like Adobe Live are a perfect example of this! As well as being a freelance designer, I also have the privilege of being a host on Adobe Live. This gives me the opportunity to speak with creatives from different backgrounds and upbringings. This can certainly provide inspiration and influence within my own practice.

—Kieron Lewis, freelance graphic designer

VSCO + Photos

VSCO and my photos app go hand in hand. As a designer and illustrator, I often get inspired by the colours, scenes, and composition of the world around me. I capture photos often and edit them in VSCO, which allows me to really bring photos to life with their filters and editing options, like bumping up the saturation and adding some grain.

—Sophia Yeshi, illustrator and designer, Yeshi Designs

Adobe Illustrator

I use Adobe Illustrator as a daily tool for poster and logo creation. It’s a very versatile tool that helps me achieve very complex designs and have fun in the process. It helps me as a designer/human in the way I can play around with shapes and generate striking pieces and patterns that can be used in lots of formats.

—Nubia Navarro (Nubikini), art director and lettering artist

Notion

I use Notion to order and control the flow of existing tasks or tasks without a start date or deadline.

—Jonathan Yoc, creative director, Brutal & Co.

TikTok

Amongst my notes and camera apps, TikTok (and its “For You Page”) is a constant scroll of new, unexpected, and richly authentic perspectives, sandwiched between current world events, tear-inducing stories, and, of course, the occasional meme. Yes, it can turn into procrastination (we’ve all been there), but I truly believe many of the next top creatives are utilizing the platform and pushing it to be something far beyond the initial intention. Personally, I’m not there for “design inspo,” but instead open the app with a creative project top of mind and leave with a fresh outlook that I believe feeds back into the work and keeps it culturally relevant.

—Alby Furfaro, head of design at 303 MullenLowe

Procreate

My current go-to app is Procreate for the iPad Pro. Seeing as I mix traditional and digital mediums, pen and ink has always been my preferred medium. I’m from the old-school era of designers who used light boxes, tracing paper, and scanners to create illustrations. Since switching to Procreate about four years ago, it has helped a great deal in bridging the gap in the process I was used to for executing my artwork. I find that I produce at a much faster rate now as I directly sketch/ink in the app, replacing the process of sketching, inking, and touching up on a light box or tracing paper; scanning; then transferring to either Photoshop or Illustrator, which I had been accustomed to for so many years.

—Sindiso Nyoni, graphic artist/illustrator

Notes

I admit I’m not the most app-centric type, but I will say that I love my Notes app. I have notes for basically every avenue of my life ,from meeting notes to TV shows I want to start to Wordle guesses I’m sitting on. It’s chaotic, but it’s all there.

—Katrina Ricks Peterson, art director, Actual Source

Are.na

There are only a few primary apps I use (other than the ubiquitous design software) worth noting. The main one would be Are.na. I use this as a research tool for projects—mostly as private channels, but a few that are public. It allows you to gather not only images but documents, text, links, sounds, etc. There’s also a bit of community involved that you can tailor and isn’t based on an algorithm.

—Daniel Kent, creative director, Ikhoor Studio

Apple Calendar and Pinterest

Apple Calendar is synchronized with my Google account, my phone, and my computer, so I have my schedule very organized. I think this is a very important point in my day as a freelance designer in order to focus on work, complete my tasks, and have a life-work balance.

I use Pinterest for quick inspiration every day. What I like best about Pinterest is the strong visual associations, but I’ll say my fave for this are some websites like Savee (they should make an app!), The Brand Identity, or Fonts in Use.

—Pia Alive, independent creative director

Instagram

Instagram is a great source because it has been used by designers to showcase their portfolio/works. I follow a lot of creative individuals, and they all have different design approaches, so the pieces shown on my feed have a range and have mixed styles, from mild to wild ideas! Looking at the best works isn’t just to gather inspiration for my next work, but it has become a motivation that I can also do more great things that other creative individuals would be able to take inspiration from.

—AJ Trinidad, art director and creative design specialist

InDesign

My go-to app would have to be InDesign. As much as I would love to work exclusively on an iPad (I love the idea and simplicity of it), it’s InDesign that keeps me attached to my MacBook. Besides being the only full-featured app to lay out books and magazines on, it’s the perfect blank canvas to throw ideas onto and organize however you like, with very few restrictions. But then again, it’s one of the first applications I was trained on, so you learn to basically do everything on it. . . . I’m sure the same could be said with Excel?

—Giuseppe Santamaria, photographer and designer

Feature Image Credit: aqabiz/iStock/Getty Images Plus

By Gabe Boyd

Sourced from Fast Company

In News

How to Grow a Business: 15 Strategies to Start Using Now

July 8, 2022 No Comments

By Joe Martin

Starting a business is hard, but learning how to grow a business that’s already up and running is a challenge all of its own. So what’s the secret to success? Just like when you were first starting out, the secret to scaling is having a solid business plan and strong fundamentals.

What are the First Steps for Your New Business?

Beginning from scratch can be daunting, especially when you’re not sure about the first steps that must be taken. That’s why we created this guide to demystify the process of scaling and growing your business.

1. Research the Market

Scaling your business demands that you know the current market conditions inside and out. You need to know:

Whether there are enough potential customers
Who your ideal customers are
Where they’re located
How much they are willing to pay for your product or service

Start by establishing clear goals for the project, and then figure out which research methods will work best in helping you achieve those goals. Of course, your marketing will vary differently based on who you are as a business. For example, law firm marketing is very different than HVAC marketing, but they all start with researching your audience and knowing how to connect them to your business.

2. Analyse Your Product

To scale your business, you need to know what makes your product stand out from the crowd. If you can’t think of anything, you have some work to do before you scale.

Think about:

What does your product do?
How does it help your customers?
How does it compare with competitors?
Why should someone choose yours over theirs?

That last question is critical. Your unique selling point (USP) isn’t in your product itself but in how you market it or how it’s delivered.

3. Perform a Competitor Analysis

Competitor analysis is one of the most important things you can do to grow your business. To scale effectively, you need to know how others in your industry — your competitors, in particular — are faring.

A competitor analysis can help you gauge what’s working and what’s not in your market. It can help you spot opportunities and challenges before they arise or, even better, provide you with an advantage over others who don’t know as much as you do. Those who do it well can avoid blind spots and make wiser long-term decisions that benefit their business.

4. Build a Customized Sales Funnel

You likely already have some kind of sales funnel, but is it customized to your business’s needs? Developing a detailed customer journey helps you do just that. It’s a map of each customer’s steps before purchasing from your e-commerce store. The more information you have about where customers are coming from, what they’re doing on your site, and what ultimately persuades them to convert, the better prepared you’ll be for growth.

This can also help with your marketing and how you understand where your customers are coming from.

5. Employ a CRM System

Having an effective customer relationship management (CRM) system in place can help you keep all your data and relationships organized and accessible at any time, from anywhere — an essential tool when scaling.

CRM systems are extremely useful for managing contacts because they allow you to organize and analyse your customer data. This makes it easier to understand a customer’s history with your business. It also allows you to take advantage of automation to personalize how you do business with them. Most CRM systems offer automation features that let you set up rules and triggers based on specific events or actions, such as immediately after the customer makes a purchase.

6. Grow Your List

Your list is the core of your business, whether you know it or not. The people are most interested in what you do and are likely to buy from you. The more people on your list, the more money you can make. Scale your list to scale your business.

How? There are quite a few strategies you could apply to grow your business:

Offer a freebie, something so good that people will be willing to give up their email address for it.
Write a guest post to get in front of new audiences and gain authority by being featured on other blogs.
Write articles for high-traffic sites like ReadWrite, Medium, and LinkedIn Pulse — ending with a link back to your sign-up page, of course.

7. Establish a Customer Loyalty System

A customer loyalty system is a marketing strategy designed to encourage customers to continue to shop at or use the services of a business associated with the program. Customers typically receive points, which can be redeemed for rewards. Loyalty programs are used by small and large businesses alike, including both brick-and-mortar and online retailers.

8. Look for Partners

You should always be on the lookout for partnerships with companies that can help your business grow. If you’re new to e-commerce, that means looking for ways to get more people to hear about your products.

It’s important to choose partners who can play a role in growing your business. Pick partners with a broader distribution channel than your own, for example. Also, consider what kind of brand awareness a partnership would bring you.

9. License Related Products or Services

If partnering with another business isn’t on the table, you can nevertheless either license your products out or license someone else’s products. The point here is to increase awareness of your brand. Licensing helps you get the word out about your business while even making a little money in the process.

The economic benefits of licensing can result in significant revenue and profit growth. The cost of sales, marketing, and distribution can be shared with your partner while you also gain access to new markets and consumer bases. Whether you are a well-established business or a startup, licensing is an intelligent way to grow your business.

10. Diversify Your Product Offerings

Adding new product lines is an effective way to grow your business. It allows you to reach new customers, expand into new markets, and increase your brand awareness. Diversifying your product line is good for your business and good for your profit margins, and the customer experience you offer.

Businesses that rely on a single product or service are susceptible to market changes or unexpected events. By having multiple revenue streams in different markets and industries, your business becomes less vulnerable to such events and more capable of withstanding unforeseen challenges in the future.

11. Automate Everything That Makes Sense

It’s challenging to handle the entire scope of your business effectively. That’s why automation is so popular in the current business environment. It’s one of the best ways to take care of many tasks at once, letting you focus on more pressing issues.

The key is to automate everything that makes sense to grow your business while ensuring you don’t sacrifice quality. The easiest way to get started with automation is by using a scheduling tool to manage your social media accounts. For example, you can use the tool to schedule a week’s worth of posts in 10 minutes. Another easy task to automate is email marketing.

12. Hire New, Specialized People to Help You

When you’re just starting out, you do it all. You build a product or service, market it, sell it, and support it. But as your business grows, you need to focus on your main strengths and hire new people to help you scale.

This doesn’t always mean hiring someone full-time. Instead, you can bring on board specialized personnel, or teams, who can help you complete specific tasks. Scorpion, for instance, often helps new and emerging businesses scale up their presence on various social media platforms, improve their SEO, or get a grip on multiple other mission-critical tasks.

13. Improve Your Customer Service Offerings

Customer service is the backbone of any business. It’s a crucial element for increasing sales and gaining customer loyalty. As your business grows, so must your customer service capabilities.

Handling customer service takes time, effort, and dedication. The best customer service takes advantage of the internet and social networking platforms already part of your business. Your customers are likely to be online and will have access to the same tools you do. Ensure that your customers have an easy way to reach you when they need help.

14. Develop Passive Income Sources

As a business owner, you need to make the most of your time — and there are only so many hours in the day. So while it’s probably impossible to generate 100% passive income, it is possible to develop a strategy to generate additional revenue streams that require less effort from you.

There are a variety of ways you can generate passive income as an entrepreneur, but all of them tie into one thing: selling products or services that require little upkeep after the sale, such as:

Expanding into new products or services
Creating and selling informational products
Selling physical products online

15. Become a Thought Leader in Your Field

Thought leadership is a marketing strategy that focuses on creating and sharing content that shows that you are knowledgeable, credible, and trustworthy. It aims to inform and educate audiences to win their trust, and it can be a great way to grow your business.

Specifically, you can use thought leadership to differentiate yourself from your competitors and build your own authority. This can be done through social media, blogging (including guest blog posts), speaking at events, and even writing books to attract new customers.

Growing Your Business Is Exciting

These strategies won’t transform your business overnight, but even implementing a few of them can yield impressive results. And the sooner you do that, the sooner you’ll watch your business become what you’ve always dreamed it would be.

Inner Image Credit: Provided by the Author; Thank you!

Top Image Credit: by fauxels; Pexels; Thank you!

By Joe Martin

VP of Marketing

Joe Martin is currently the VP of marketing at Scorpion, a leading provider of technology and marketing to help small businesses grow. Formerly he was CloudApp’s GM and CMO and a Head of Marketing at Adobe. With over 15 years of experience in the industry and tech that makes it run, he provides strategic guidance on how to build and use the right stack and marketing for businesses to grow. Joe believes marketers need smart training and leadership to scale company growth. Connect with Joe on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @joeDmarti.

Sourced from readwrite

In News

Influencer Shows Both ‘Perfect’ And Unedited Photos On Instagram So People Know The Whole Truth

July 8, 2022 No Comments

By Rokas Laurinavicius and Kotryna Brasiskyte

Blogger Georgie Clarke has been working on a series to remind her 690K followers not to trust everything they see on social media, and she’s doing one heck of a good job if you ask me.

Each post consists of two side-by-side pictures snapped just a minute apart. The same outfits, same makeup (or the lack of it), same everything. The only difference is the approach; the first one is taken consciously trying to make Clarke look as great as possible while the second looks like a casual shot someone would take to simply remember the moment.

Scrolling through, it becomes clear that all the flawless people we see on our feed that we are constantly measuring ourselves against aren’t that perfect after all. They just remember to flex their muscles and suck in their stomach when they’re in front of the lens while the one who is behind it knows how to find the best light and the most flattering angle.

Meet Georgie Clarke, a blogger from the UK who had been struggling with body image problems but has learned to accept and appreciate herself

Image credits: georgie.clarke

“It’s no secret that in the past my mental health has affected my physical appearance and how I felt about myself,” the blogger said in one of her posts. “When I used to mentally struggle, my body would be punished as a result. I didn’t take care of myself and I was so critical of myself and how I looked.”

“This was a vicious cycle I dealt with for years without ever getting help or addressing the root of the problems which were happening in my head.”

One of the things that allowed her to do it was honesty, with herself and others

Image credits: georgie.clarke

“A few years later and some serious time dedicated to therapy, self-love, and lots of compassion towards myself, I am proud to say I am the happiest and healthiest I’ve ever felt and my relationship with my body is just as important as my relationship with my brain. And wow can you see the difference,” she continued.

“When my mental health struggles now, I have [the] tools to take care of myself. It’s taken so long to learn these tools but with compassion and love for myself during these difficult times, I am able to recognize still how important it is to take care of myself or ask for help.”

Clarke has been posting-side-by-side pictures to show that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to social media

“This is a reminder that just because someone appears to be smiling in a picture does not mean they’re not battling their own issues”

Image credits: georgie.clarke

Interestingly, Georgie’s series can make a bigger difference than one might originally believe. In 2019, Marika Tiggemann and Isabella Anderberg released a study called ‘Social media is not real: The effect of ‘Instagram vs reality’ images on women’s social comparison and body image.’ The research revealed found that such pictures have the power to limit the negative impact social media has on our mental health.

As part of the study, a group of women were randomly assigned to view one of three sets of posts: the “Instagram vs reality” images, the ‘ideal’ side alone, or just the ‘real’ side. When women viewed either the real or comparison posts, researchers noticed that the identification or complete avoidance of the ‘perfect’ images prevented them from comparing themselves against impossible beauty standards, thus decreasing their dissatisfaction with their own bodies.

Image credits: georgie.clarke

“It’s always the highlights we see from others when we end up comparing ourselves”

Image credits: georgie.clarke

“But the truth behind those images is never revealed”

Image credits: georgie.clarke

“We are all human and learning self-love is a hard yet rewarding journey”

Image credits: georgie.clarke

But sometimes it would be better to turn off Instagram altogether. Turns out, the more we use social media, the sadder we seem to be.

One study found that Facebook use was linked to both less moment-to-moment happiness and less life satisfaction—the more people used Facebook in a day, the more these two variables dropped off.

The authors suggested this might be because Facebook conjures up a perception of social isolation, in a way that other solitary activities don’t. “On the surface, Facebook provides an invaluable resource for fulfilling such needs by allowing people to instantly connect. Rather than enhancing well-being, as frequent interactions with supportive ‘offline’ social networks powerfully do, the current findings demonstrate that interacting with Facebook may predict the opposite result for young adults—it may undermine it,” the researchers wrote.

Another study supports this thought. It discovered that social media use is, in fact, linked to greater feelings of social isolation. The team looked at how much people used 11 social media sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Vine, Snapchat, and Reddit, and correlated this with their “perceived social isolation.” Unsurprisingly, it turned out that the more time people spent on these sites, the lonelier they felt.

Clarke’s 690K followers have been loving the series

Feature Image credits: georgie.clarke

By Rokas Laurinavicius and Kotryna Brasiskyte

Rokas is a writer at Bored Panda with a BA in Communication. After working for a sculptor, he fell in love with visual storytelling and enjoys covering everything from TV shows (any Sopranos fans out there?) to photography. Throughout his years in Bored Panda, over 235 million people have read the posts he’s written, which is probably more than he could count to. Read more »

Kotryna is a Photo Editor at Bored Panda with a BA in Graphic Design. Before Bored Panda, she worked as a freelance graphic designer and illustrator. When not editing, she enjoys working with clay, drawing, playing board games and drinking good tea. Read more »

Sourced from boredpanda

In News

Why Investors Are Backing Away From The Grocery Delivery Market

July 7, 2022 No Comments

By Lauren Rothman

During the height of the pandemic, how likely were you to log on to Instacart or Amazon Fresh instead of venturing out to the grocery store? If you’re like many Americans, your answer might be “pretty likely”: According to the United States Census Bureau, retail e-commerce boomed during the COVID-19 pandemic, with online sales rising a whopping 43% in 2020 — from $571 billion in 2019 to more than $815 billion that following year.

With online retailers seeing a bonanza, investors of course took notice, pouring billions of dollars into what are referred to as “quick commerce” grocery companies (such as the U.S.’s Gopuff and Germany’s Delivery Hero) which promise to deliver goods in as little as 15 minutes. But according to Reuters, with lockdowns easing and consumers returning to in-person shopping, some of these companies are tumbling, and fast — and, as a result, investors are fleeing the scene.

The return of in-store shopping isn’t the only issue

Denys Kurbatov/Shutterstock

Last month The Sydney Morning Herald reported Australia’s Send — whose founder Rob Adams told the outlet that capital had been easy to come by last year — went into administration (a legal process similar to bankruptcy). The U.S.’s Gopuff is also facing financial troubles: As recently as January, per the New York Post, the company was eyeing an initial public offering and a valuation of $40 billion, but by March investors were selling stakes for as little as $15 billion.

But according to Reuters, a return to in-person shopping isn’t the only reason quick commerce (or q-commerce) companies are flailing: It’s also consumers’ more precarious economic circumstances brought on by record inflation. This is naturally leading shoppers to cut spending, seeking out better deals on their groceries (via Morning Consult). “The current macroeconomic climate has become incredibly challenging, with very little visibility of when things will improve,” Britain-based q-commerce company Zapp told the outlet.

We’re likely to see a consolidation of q-commerce brands

Ralf Liebhold/Shutterstock

Though the q-commerce industry is in trouble, experts estimate some are likely to survive, considering the convenience they offer. The companies that weather the storm will have to adapt, Larry Illg, chief executive of online food businesses at technology investor Prosus NV, explained to Reuters. “We are seeing slower rollouts of new dark stores, lower levels of marketing investment, and diminished discounting from competition. So aggregate growth is slowing down, but economics for the space are healthier.”

Investors seem to think the current shakeup will eventually be a good thing for those q-commerce companies that are able to forge ahead: While many will end up biting the dust, those that remain will be in a stronger financial position. “Every country will have multiple players, but do they need six? Probably not,” Sajal Srivastava, co-founder of the Silicon Valley-based investment firm TriplePoint Capital, told Reuters. “Do they need two or three? Yes, and I think that’s where it will come out.”

By Lauren Rothman

Sourced from TastingTable

In News

TikTok staff in London are leaving in droves over the ‘toxic’ Chinese work culture

July 7, 2022 No Comments

By James Farrell

There has been an exodus of TikTok staff at its office in London since it opened late in 2021, with reports saying overwork and comments made by a senior executive sparked the discontent.

According to a report in the Financial Times today, Joshua Ma, who’s a senior executive at TikTok’s Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd. and head of the company’s e-commerce division across Europe, said at one point that since the firm was “capitalist,” women shouldn’t get maternity leave. That was a straw that broke an already overburdened camel’s back.

It was apparently just one issue among many when the English e-commerce staff didn’t feel comfortable in what is a culturally Chinese company. Half the staff has now left, which amounts to 20 people. One employee told FT, “There are people leaving every week, it is like a game every Monday we ask who has been fired, who has quit.”

Ma was just visiting the store in London when he made the comment, trying to launch a QVC-style live shopping product similar to that of TikTok’s sister app, Douyin. The product has become very popular in Asian markets, but it has yet to gather momentum in the European market.

TikTok’s rapid rise might in part be a result of the so-called Chinese work ethic, although it seems that this may not have gone down too well in London. According to staff, it wasn’t just Ma’s maternity leave comment that led to half the staff leaving in just eight months, but the fact that they are being pushed so hard. So far, two British employees have settled in court with TikTok over working conditions in London.

That has led to Ma being put on the sidelines to “take some time off” and step back from his role in London. “We are investigating alleged statements and actions to determine whether there has been a breach of company policies,” TikTok told FT. Staff said they were doing 12-hour workdays at the store, starting very early to take calls in China.

Photographs were taken of the staff who went to the store early in the morning, with TikTok extolling their “commitment” to work. They were also applauded when they worked through their holidays.

A working culture like this is quite ordinary in China, but in London, it seems it is a bridge too far. Some staff had to go off sick with stress, and others either lost their clients or were demoted for not pushing hard enough.

“The culture is really toxic,” one former team leader told FT. “Relationships there are built on fear, not cooperation. They don’t care about burnout because it is such a big company, they can just replace you. They coast on the TikTok brand.”

Photo: Solen Feyissa/Unsplash

By James Farrell

Sourced from siliconANGLE

In News

Apple Launches Own Buy Now, Pay Later Service

July 7, 2022 No Comments

By Aaron Drapkin

The announcement is the latest curveball to be slung into the industry, one that’s already rife with uncertainty.

Apple has announced its plans to muscle its way into the Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market with a new service that will be available when iOS 16 is rolled out.

Since the pandemic, BNPL services like Klarna have become an ever-present fixture of ecommerce websites – which itself enjoyed a boom in lockdown – but calls for regulation and worsening economic conditions

The question of whether Apple’s financial and technological might will be too much for smaller BNPL businesses to take is an open one,

Apple’s Pay Later Plans

Apple’s Buy Now Pay Later offering – unveiled at the tech giant’s developer conference – will let users in the US pay for single purchases in four instalments over a six-week period.

The feature is built-in to Apple pay and will be able to be used anywhere the company’s payment service is accepted (roughly 85% of US businesses), and will be supported by Mastercard’s Network.

In a press release, Apple described the new service as a “seamless and secure way to split the cost of an Apple Pay purchase” and confirmed that no interest or fees would be applied to purchases. A “soft credit check” will be carried out, however.

The announcement comes just a couple of months after Apple acquired UK startup Credit Kudos, which creates alternative credit scores using machine learning capabilities – it may be a sign the company is exploring new ways to determine people’s capacity to pay up.

Competitive Now, Monopoly Later

The BNPL market, to put it lightly, is controversial for a number of reasons. Financial regulators in a number of countries – including the UK and US – have started to take notice and regulation seems to be around the corner.

It couldn’t come at a worse time for companies like Affirm and Klarna – the latter of which just laid off a significant portion of its workforce – as worsening global economic conditions coupled with a plateau in ecommerce interest inject uncertainty into the industry.

Economic and regulatory factors – plus Apple’s sheer size – have led some analysts have projected Apple to swallow up the already fragile market space.

“It’s not that it obliterates the existing businesses, but . . . buy now, pay later is most powerful when you have a whole ecosystem around it,” Gwera Kiwana, product manager at fintech consultancy 11:FS, told the Financial Times.

The move feels eerily similar to Apple’s decision to create a Tap-to-Pay feature for iPhone – which will launch this month – effectively turning your iPhone into a working payment terminal without the need for external hardware.

The move sent ripples through the POS industry, with the potential effect on existing market leaders like Block (formerly Square) similarly unclear.

How does Apple Benefit From its New Service?

Two words: money and data. First and foremost, Apple can charge both ecommerce websites and brick-and-mortar stores that offer Apple Pay merchant fees, and having BNPL services available will, in theory, mean more people opt to use Apple pay over other methods of payment.

On top of this, the longer that Apple can keep a user inside the Apple ecosystem, the more purchase data it can obtain for free. The more people using Apple to pay for things (or indeed, to take payment) the easier it’ll be for the tech behemoth to make predictions about consumer spending.

With both a Tap-to-Pay and Buy Now, Pay Later Service, Apple has a stake in the game on both sides of the transaction – and that will make all the competitors operating in those spaces uneasy.

By Aaron Drapkin

Sourced from tech.co

In News

Amazon’s Newest Ads Team Is Facebook’s Worst Nightmare

July 6, 2022 No Comments

By Shoshana Wodinsky

The ecommerce giant is starting a new Local Ads division that could be a boon to small business and a blow to competitors

Amazon’s burgeoning ad business is already raking in tens of billions of dollars for the company annually, and it looks like that number’s about to get bigger. The e-commerce giant has begun quietly hiring for roles in a newly created Local Ads team, a move that will likely rankle some of its biggest competitors (read: Facebook and Google), Insider reported Wednesday.

Like the name implies, Amazon is tasking this team with working alongside smaller, city-specific ad companies—the kind that run ads for local mom-and-pop shops or smaller local chains, the kind of ads you would see in a local newspaper. Insider’s report is largely based on a handful of job openings across cities like New York and Chicago for a new “Local Ads” team as well as interviews with Amazon employees. In postings like this one, Amazon calls the effort “a rare opportunity to join a start-up business” within the Amazon Ads team, and will help “create a brand new business and revenue stream for Amazon Advertising.”

Amazon’s ad biz makes up a tiny slice of the company’s mammoth revenues, but that slice is getting bigger by the day. Just over a year ago, the company told investors that its “Other” unit—of which ads is a major part—was pulling in roughly $7 billion per quarter. Then in 2022, Amazon announced in its first-ever report on its ad numbers that it pulled in more than $31 billion in ads alone over 2021.

Just to put that in perspective, Amazon’s 2021 ad profits alone were worth more than six times what Twitter’s entire platform pulled in that year. You could pay off the medical bills of close to 2.5 million Americans with that much cash. Amazon’s ad business is big enough that analysts in the ad space have mostly nixed talking about the Google-Meta ad duopoly in favour of talking about the Google-Meta-Amazon triopoly, since Amazon’s figures are quickly reaching those other giants’ calibre.

This Local Ads team seems to be a new gambit to eat more of those two companies’ lunches. Right now, the primary marketing on the platform—much to the chagrin of the average Amazon shopper—are sponsored search results. Those slots are becoming more and more expensive to buy, which means when you’re looking up something like “toothpaste,” you’re probably getting sponsored results from Crest and Colgate instead of a smaller brand.

So instead, those smaller brands go to other platforms—often Meta’s properties like Facebook or Instagram—to do that advertising instead. Meta is fully aware that these small businesses depend heavily on its platforms, and is fond of using that fact as a cudgel against competitors, or calls for regulation from lawmakers. At one point early last year, the company even rolled out a full ad campaign of its own (starring Grace Frickin’ Jones) just to remind people that small businesses rely on Facebook ads to reach customers.

So when Amazon says it’s going to target smaller, local advertisers with this new department, it’s not just a bid to start a new business wing for Amazon, and it’s not just a sign that Amazon’s looking to court the millions of small businesses that are still standing on shaky ground in our new post-pandemic hellscape. It’s a shot across the bow to its competitors, too.

We’ve reached out to Amazon about the listings and will update this story when we hear back.

Feature Image Credit: Ina Fassbender (Getty Images)

By Shoshana Wodinsky

Sourced from GIZMODO

In News

From Web 2.0 to Web 3.0: How These Entrepreneurs Made the Switch

July 6, 2022 No Comments

By Kurt Ivy

Even established players are joining the blockchain revolution. You should as well.

We are currently witnessing a migration from Web 2.0 to Web 3.0. While most people have no idea what that even means, a number of entrepreneurs are already busy capitalizing on the transition.

The hallmark of Web 2.0 was technological service providers, such as Microsoft, Google, Facebook and other firms. A company offered a service to customers and stored their information in a database.

Decisions were voted on by company executives who had to inform the shareholders and comply with regulations. Customer service representatives were employed to make sure the customers had a good experience, so they would keep subscribing.

With Web 3.0, none of the above applies. There are no shareholders, no customers, no personally identifying information and no centralized profits. Decision-making is done by community governance and voting, through DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations) and staking. It’s a completely new paradigm.

Some entrepreneurs have understood what was happening a long time ago and moved to position themselves for the inevitable future, built on distributed ledgers. They are currently converting their Web 2.0 wisdom into Web 3.0 gold.

From Deloitte to crypto-enhanced online shopping

Luxury goods are not for everybody, but Web 3.0 shopping is definitely made to be. Cyrus Taghehchian is a Deloitte alumni with a focus on using distributed ledgers to make a better planet rather than better profits. His CV is extensive, having worked with Intel, Deloitte, Bank of America, PayPal, Charles Schwab and Cisco.

Apart from this, he founded Flyt Technology, Cartrev, Krypton Ventures and SHOPX. These experiences have given him insights into multiple levels of the e-commerce industry, particularly PayPal and Cartrev.

SHOPX is his latest brainchild, where he is translating his prior expertise with Web 2.0 firms into a platform that will democratize and decentralize the e-commerce experience. (Disclaimer: As shown in my bio, I work at SHOPX on the core team.)

SHOPX acts as a bridge between blockchain and e-commerce. Everything that can be done through existing e-commerce platforms can be streamlined when goods are converted to NFT assets. It allows for increased ownership, tracking and control for merchants, as opposed to paying third parties for this functionality.

Decentralizing e-commerce is vital to the development of our society. The ability to buy and sell online has become a necessary utility. Just like the internet became a sort of utility for communication and connectivity. For a small handful of companies to gatekeep what humanity requires to survive is a key factor in our struggling economy.

From private equity to token launchpads

Entrepreneurs and investors are often more interested in getting in early on projects as opposed to setting them up. Web 3.0 offers incredible potential for those who spot trends when the project is just beginning. It is in many ways a dream come true for ambitious entrepreneurs.

Scott H. Weissman is a serial entrepreneur with experience in a wide range of industries. He began building his first NFT platform, CoinCopyright, in late 2016 as a free dapp (decentralized application). It was meant to protect creative work on the CoinFilms platform, which was also developed for the purpose of funding films in foreign markets using blockchain and cryptocurrency.

In 2021, he founded TokenSociety.io, an NFT project launchpad for entertainment and metaverse projects. This is a transformation of his original CoinCopyright concept, which was meant to protect the ownership rights of creators. The new platform takes a step further to help finance entertainment projects through NFT sales. The concept has already proven to be successful through “Men of the House,” a TV show financed with NFTs they call Snippetz. “Gay Aliens in the Metaverse,” a second TV show, is coming soon.

This is a clear and organic evolution of the ownership and distribution of content away from studios and investors, and towards individuals and creatives. By controlling the flow and facilitation of funds, centralized entities can maintain power over a large group of people. Gig-type platforms owned by a small handful of individuals like Spotify and YouTube make the rules and force millions to obey. Simply because they are on that side of the computer. But it’s a creator-economy now; the power needs to be in the creators’ hands.

From Microsoft to luxury NFTs

Individuals from premier Web 2.0 firms like Microsoft are taking their experience with them into modern markets. Damon Nam has over 23 years as a technology executive and entrepreneur, including 17 years at Microsoft (he is also a Microsoft alumnus). After this, he spent six years engaged in the emerging blockchain industry with a focus on DeFi.

He then became the founder of Privé, a community-owned DAO for luxury lifestyle goods and services. He is using his previous network connections, combined with blockchain technology, to build an ecosystem combining the best of both worlds.

Privé NFT owners will receive a bottle of specialty champagne annually as well as invitations to VIP events, among other benefits. Special edition bottles of Privé Réserve from Avize, France will feature art that is sourced directly from the community. It will be the first spirit in the world that is powered by a global community of members.

DAOs are particularly interesting to me because of their power to break up established powers. When centralized agencies gatekeep services, including luxury services like this, they create a narrative and charge extremely high prices to keep up the façade. Often, the products and services they sell are the same or worse than you could find for a fraction of the price. Creating a DAO for luxury services will de-emphasize the profit motive and focus on the quality of the experience. I hope this leads to a less wasteful consumer mindset.

There can be no more doubts about Web 3.0

The clear trend is that the most experienced and qualified professionals are rapidly moving to Web 3.0 in droves. Unlike the early days of blockchain, it is now relatively easy to take part in the rapidly expanding ecosystem of projects created on distributed ledgers.

Key executives from Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Facebook are leaving to create Web 3.0 projects. These are more lucrative and allow more creative freedom, compared to the Web 2.0 environment, which can be somewhat stale and stifling.

It’s obvious from the numbers of talented entrepreneurs moving to Web 3.0 that the industry provides superior outcomes across practically every conceivable category.

And the ecosystem needs these individuals in order to move forward.

By Kurt Ivy

Sourced from Entrepreneur

In News

Pinterest Just Made a Major Acquisition in A.I., With Tantalizing E-Commerce Opportunities

July 6, 2022 No Comments

By Xintian Tina Wang

It’s just the tip of what’s in store for artificial intelligence-powered shopping.

If it’s been a while since you’ve checked out Pinterest, you might want to reconsider unpinning it.

The San Francisco-based image-sharing platform has been making inroads into social commerce that might deserve your attention. To wit, Pinterest last Thursday announced its acquisition of The Yes, the San Francisco-based A.I.-powered shopping platform for fashion brands. The tie-up is expected to bring more interactive sales opportunities to retailers using Pinterest. And that could lead to more customers flocking to the app shopping for cool trends.

A.I.-powered shopping is not new. However, with the pandemic-fuelled e-commerce boom, the competition is growing ever more fierce–which makes standing out all the more necessary. As a result, consumers may be looking for ways to make the shopping experience more streamlined. Enter A.I.-powered shopping, with the promise of fully automated self-service and highly personalized shopping experiences.

“Using intelligent, real-time learning, the recommendation algorithms get smarter over time as they learn more about the individual–similar to how music apps like Pandora or Spotify understand your tastes and preferences depending on the feedback they receive,” Julie Bornstein, the co-founder and CEO of THE YES tells Inc.

Bornstein adds that A.I.-powered shopping is poised to become the future of commerce five to 10 years from now. “Over the next few years, we will see more and more retailers and brands invest in A.I. as they can all benefit from high-signal data from their customers,” she says.

Here’s what you need to know now to stay ahead of the curve:

1. Get familiar with these A.I. tools

To get started, explore these online resources and platforms to get a sense of how A.I. can help your business grow in the long term.

If you want to develop a customer-centric experience through advanced image and video recognition, the New York City-based tech startup Clarifai helps businesses use machine learning and deep neural networks to identify and analyse images and videos. The tools can be useful for improving ranking search results, increasing conversions with similar product recommendations, and personalizing product recommendations.

If you are looking for a platform to analyse your customers’ interaction data, like email newsletter subscription and online chatbot conversations, NYC-based marketing technology company Zeta Global may be for you. The company says it can support brands by suggesting audience segmentations that leverage the service’s more than 235 million consumer identities–including demographic, location, behavioural, and transactional signals.

2. Expect a warm welcome

Your customers are likely already using A.I.-powered online shopping. According to 5WPR’s 2022 Consumer Culture Report, which looks into consumers’ consumption trends, more than half of consumers between the ages of 16 and 44 report using A.I. when online shopping. While half of consumers polled said they use interactive chats, 43 percent indulge in voice search, and 37 percent turn to reverse image search. The last tool allows for a consumer to search for a product using a photo instead of typing in keywords in the search bar.

“For years, consumer industries have been saying that artificial intelligence is the future, and now we’re seeing younger consumers seeking out and utilizing these offerings at an increasingly fast pace,” says 5WPR co-CEO Dara A. Busch. So, expect open minds.

3. Consider offline applications

A.I.-powered shopping is not only for online stores. A 2021 report that looks into the future of shopping, by Santa Clara-based A.I.-powered retail solutions company AiFi, shows that brands can use A.I. to collect data on a shopper’s path through a physical store, logging which items they pick up, replace, move, or add to a cart, the overall time they spend inside, and which checkout and payment options they choose. In this way, A.I. can improve customer service and offer more personalized guidance.

“Seamless integration into e-commerce is only the beginning of how consumer-facing companies will be utilizing emerging A.I. technologies. We can also expect to see brick-and-mortar shops incorporating A.I. in their stores as a way to draw consumers away from the online experience and in through their physical doors,” says Busch.

Feature Image Credit: Getty Images

By Xintian Tina Wang

Sourced from Inc.