Cyber Week and Black Friday shopping figures are in, and show how businesses that embrace technology are thriving in the digital age.

In the run-up to Cyber Week, experts were already predicting a huge holiday season for e-commerce, but with Black Friday and Cyber Monday now behind us and Christmas just over two weeks away, it is safe to say that 2017 is shaping up to be a record-breaking year, especially for mobile.

In the run-up to Cyber Week experts were predicting a huge holiday season for e-commerce
Share on X

The National Retail Federation reported that 81 million U.S. residents shopped online on Cyber Monday, compared with 66 million on Black Friday. According to Bigcommerce, an e-commerce platform which serves thousands of merchants worldwide, during Cyber Five, the five-day shopping period spanning Thanksgiving through Cyber Monday, brands using their services experienced an average sales increase of 21%, which is 4% above the industry average.

2017 is shaping up to be a record-breaking year, especially for mobile
Share on X

Cyber Monday was the biggest sales day for online and for mobile ever in the US
Share on X

This was also the first year in which mobile orders surpassed desktop sales volume during Cyber Five. In 2016, 54% of orders were on desktop devices, and 46% originated from mobile devices. In 2017, mobile orders accounted for 54% of all orders, surpassing desktop on all Cyber Week days. The data also revealed that iPhone users spent 7.1% more during Cyber Five than Android users.

Cyber Monday was in fact the biggest sales day for online and for mobile ever in the US. While online sales amounted to a total of $6.59 billion mobile broke a new record by reaching $2 billion. The Verge reported that mobile also dominated over desktop for the first time for Shopify merchants, which include brands as varied as Tesla Motors and Kylie Cosmetics, according to the company.

This was also the first year in which mobile orders surpassed desktop sales volume during Cyber Five
Share on X

People now have different expectations of how technology should enable shopping experiences
Share on X

These numbers tell an interesting story, because they illustrate how far consumer behaviour has shifted in recent years. People now have different expectations of how technology should enable shopping experiences, and businesses that don’t meet those expectations will inevitably lose sales.

These numbers illustrate how far consumer behaviour has shifted in recent years
Share on X

None of this happened overnight, of course. Brands have long been investing in ways to leverage data to build customer profiles, inform their marketing strategy and outreach, and refine their sales funnels. But the capacity to extract actionable insights from large datasets was traditionally reserved for bigger companies such as Amazon, who had the vast resources required to dedicate to this. Advances in AI and machine learning have, however, democratized access to such insights and tools, and started to level out the playing field.

Advances in AI have democratized access to insights and tools, and started to level out the playing field
Share on X

And this, according to Jimmy Duvall, BigCommerce’s Chief Product Officer, is a key part of the value that platforms such as his can offer to smaller merchants, equipping them with the tools and insights that allow them to offer experiences on par with the likes of Amazon.

“BigCommerce looks at same-store sales to determine the real increase in revenue and orders data year over year for ecommerce brands on the platform with insights into category-specific insights, device trends and purchase activity by region,” he explained. “The significant increase in same-store sales this year further highlights that small and mid-sized retailers continue to thrive, even as Amazon and other industry heavyweights expand into new markets and categories. We fully expect this to be the biggest and most successful online selling season in history.”

This doesn’t mean that smaller merchants are only in competition with larger platforms such as Amazon, Google Shopping or Ebay, however. We live in an age where consumers demand omnichannel experiences, and e-commerce platforms need to provide an open architecture that can be seamlessly connected to other business applications, reducing complexity and operational costs for merchants wherever possible. In practice, that means that merchants can use a single product catalogue to sell their wares across a variety of channels in a frictionless way.

Merchants can use a single product catalogue to sell their wares across a variety of channels in a frictionless way
Share on X

BigCommerce supports services such as PayPal One Touch, which boasts an enviable conversion rate of 87.5%
Share on X

Steve Fusco, vice president and general manager of global distribution at PayPal, says they thrive on this collaborative approach, which means, for example, that BigCommerce supports services such as PayPal One Touch, which boasts an enviable conversion rate of 87.5%.

This year, however, merchants also gained access to data from PayPal Marketing Solutions, which provides insight into customers’ buying behaviours and lets merchants add customized banners to their online stores.

“BigCommerce and PayPal have much in common at the core of our businesses,” said Fusco in a statement, “and through our expanded relationship we are delivering access to fully integrated products and services that help merchants increase sales and average order value.”

Offering customers an array of choices not only in terms of product, but financing, has been one of the key factors in this explosive sales growth. “Since offering PayPal Credit, we’ve seen a significant increase in orders and conversion with lower cart abandonment rates,” said Abe Issa, CEO of Florida-based online retailer DealBeds.com.

Data creates opportunities to improve in-store experiences
Share on X

E-commerce is being driven by insight, and brands both great and small are embracing data to reflect their customer needs and by giving their customers what they want, reap the financial rewards of site experience enhancement, optimised checkout and platform modernisation.

Data creates opportunities to improve in-store experiences and make customer service provision more agile and efficient. As platforms continue to integrate big data into their offering, we will continue to see the consumer journey improve across all sectors. The adoption of the developing mobile and AI technologies will increasingly enable retailers to deliver experiences that are perfectly tailored to each customer and market.

E-commerce is being driven by insight, and brands are embracing data to reflect their customer needs
Share on X

The future of retail is doubtless going to be immersive, experiential, and personalised, and that paints a bright picture for businesses that embrace technology and innovation.

This article was originally published in the Huffington Post

Why E-commerce Needs to Look Beyond the Shopping Cart https://t.co/125ti2BlB2

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) December 10, 2017

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Holiday Shopping is Getting Techy appeared first on Tech Trends.

Research shows that the UK’s retail market could be boosted by as much as £1bn a year if consumers could preview products in a virtual setting before committing to costly purchases.

The independent report commissioned by Manchester-based company DigitalBridge found that while over 56% of UK homeowners plan on upgrading their home in some way this year (allocating average budgets of £500-£3,000 per project) over a third of those consumers have walked away from making such purchases in the last 12 months because of the so-called “imagination gap.” In other words, they simply couldn’t picture how products such as wallpaper, flooring and furniture would look in their homes.

Virtual and augmented reality platforms are tipped to be the standout technologies of 2018
Share on X

Virtual and augmented reality platforms are tipped to be the standout technologies of 2017, and new research has shown that the UK’s retail market alone could be boosted by as much as £1bn a year if consumers could preview products in a virtual setting before committing to costly purchases.

The independent report commissioned by Manchester-based company DigitalBridge found that while over 56% of UK homeowners plan on upgrading their home in some way this year (allocating average budgets of £500-£3,000 per project) over a third of those consumers have walked away from making such purchases in the last 12 months because of the so-called “imagination gap.” In other words, they simply couldn’t picture how products such as wallpaper, flooring and furniture would look in their homes.

With as much as £1bn of revenue up for grabs in the home décor market alone, retailers can no longer overlook the value of virtual and augmented reality as a commercial tool
Share on X

Some major retailers such as John Lewis have already grasped the potential of this technology, investing in smaller start-ups that can help them bring augmented reality platforms to market.

“Customers want to see how a product will look in their own home – both for style and to understand scale. There is a gap at this point in the customer journey at the moment and it is one that visualisation tools will fill in the near future, helping a considered purchase to feel less complex,” says Christine Kasoulis, buying director for home in John Lewis

The French company raised $4.5 Million so far from investors such as Salesforce Ventures and has worked with B2B clients such as Coca-Cola and Colgate over the past years. While most of their operation is still based in Paris, Jordan is now heading a team based in Orlando, Florida to build relationships with US retailers such as The Home Depot.

The latest generation of Augmented and Mixed Reality technology hardware such as the Microsoft HoloLens is also tapping into these use cases, including an application which plugs into the Lowe’s catalog and allows customers to design and customize their kitchen using 3D holograms. Jordan says those experiences are impressive, but currently difficult to scale as they need to be monitored by someone on site.

Being agnostic means the technology is able to plug seamlessly into whatever platform consumers happen to be using, and that will accelerate its mass adoption amongst consumers
Share on X

Their Augment platform currently focuses on mobile as is the technology most widely used by consumers, but their ambition is to become the software backbone for all future AR hardware. “We’re already working on Windows 10 so the application will integrate with the HoloLens,” he says.

Being agnostic means the technology is able to plug seamlessly into whatever platform consumers happen to be using, and that will accelerate its mass adoption amongst consumers. Jordan believes the tipping point, however, will come when the next generation of smartphones and tablets include depth sensors. Currently only the Lenovo Phab2 Pro and the Asus ZenFone AR have this functionality, but it probably won’t be too long before we see Apple and Samsung incorporating it into one of their flagship phones as well. “This means that when you point your smartphone at this table, for example, it will automatically detect the table and place the lamp on the table itself. It will also allow us to make space-based recommendations, to suggest products that fit into the actual space you have.”

Customers want to see how a product will look in their own home – both for style and to understand scale
Share on X

The final piece of the puzzle, according to Jordan, is to make 3D scanning techniques more cost-effective. “At the moment, it’s still cheaper to get a designer to do 3D modeling from scratch, but we’re getting to the point where Artificial Intelligence engines will be able to generate 3D objects based on 2D images, and when that comes along, generating those 3-Dimensional objects will become part of the workflow for retailers just as taking pictures of the inventory for their online catalogue is nowadays.”

“With as much as £1bn of revenue up for grabs in the home décor market alone, retailers can no longer overlook the value of virtual and augmented reality as a commercial tool,” adds DigitalBridge CEO David Levine. More than half of the consumers who took part in this survey said they would be more likely to make a purchase after using this technology, but its impact is not limited to the home interior market, it has potential to completely revolutionise all kinds of sectors from fashion, to architecture to real estate,” he concludes.

These are extremely challenging times for retailers, and businesses will need to leverage technology to engage customers and keep them spending. AR, it seems, is set to become a key tool in achieving this
Share on X

This article was originally published on The Next Web

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post How Augmented Reality Will Transform Shopping appeared first on Tech Trends.

How these Lebanese start-ups want to change the way we shop

In the last few years the ICT sector in Lebanon has experienced something of a boom, worth an estimated $381 million in 2014 and growing at a rate of 7.9 per cent. Traditionally, Lebanese talent tended to make its biggest impact abroad, with global diaspora estimated at around 14 million. However, this trend has recently started to shift, and we’re experiencing a “youth bulge,” with a new generation of entrepreneurs looking to start companies in their own country.

The global Lebanese diaspora is estimated at around 14 million
Share on X

One of the initiatives fostering this movement is the recently launched UK-Lebanon Tech Hub, a 6-month accelerator designed to help some of the country’s best start-ups to expand their reach and break into new markets. This cohort of promising entrepreneurs recently landed in London to work with institutions such as Cambridge and UCL to take their ambitious ideas to a global stage.

These ideas include several disruptions in the e-commerce space, ranging from social shopping to innovative uses of Big Data and a compelling new crowd-subsidising marketplace that gamifies the online shopping experience.

Slidr is an intriguing application of behavioural psychology to gamify the online shopping experience
Share on X

Slidr works by getting users to reveal a hidden price on their chosen item by using pre-purchased credits. Once the price is shown, users have 10 seconds to decide on whether or not to go ahead with the purchase before the price is hidden again. As more people click on the item, its price continues to plummet down, subsidised by the crowd’s collective credits.

In the last few years the ICT sector in Lebanon has experienced something of a boom, worth an estimated $381 million in 2014 and growing at a rate of 7.9 per cent
Share on X

“The user gets a great price from the start,” explains Slidr Co-Founder Fouad Assaf, a serial entrepreneur who founded and sold his first start-up in 1999. “We guarantee the starting price is lower than the RRP, but HOW much lower depends on how many people slide for it. It’s a fun way to shop that allows users to get fantastic value for exclusive items, and is basically a gamble that you can’t lose.”

It’s a mash-up of shopping and gambling, but it’s a gamble you can’t lose
Share on X

This unique mash-up of shopping and gaming creates a much more rewarding — and addictive — shopping experience: “We’re an entirely new e-commerce proposition focusing on aspirational products and experiences, powered by our algorithm which analyses consumer behavior patterns and decides on the price drop accordingly,” says Marwan Salem, Slidr’s Co-Founder. “This is a place where users will be able to acquire the latest trendy, innovative lifestyle items at guaranteed reduced prices, but also have a lot of fun in the process.”

Over the next months, they will be seeking partnerships with exclusive UK brands and designers to make their products and experiences available on Slidr. They plan to keep a presence in London and run dual operations between the UK and Beirut.

Another startup that’s using the UK’s thriving online e-commerce ecosystem as a springboard to global expansion is thatsoyoo, which brings the missing social layer into online shopping by providing a platform where users share that experience with their network in real time. It connects people and brands seamlessly so that users offer and receive instant feedback on their fashion choices, crowdsourcing opinions from people they actually trust — their friends.

This unique mash-up of shopping and gaming creates a much more rewarding — and addictive — shopping experience
Share on X

“We all know how convenient it is to shop online, but half the fun of shopping, specially when it comes to fashion, is in the social interactions that happen around it,” explains thatsoyoo Founder and CTO James Burbridge. “That’s a big problem with online retail, it can actually leave people feeling really isolated. So we built a platform where you can browse thousands of items from your favourite shops like TopShop, ASOS and Selfridges and get feedback from your friends in real time.”

The site’s chat panel allows shoppers to hold multiple conversations, video chat and watch live as friends view their favourite products. Users can build personalized shopping experiences, browsing hundreds of thousands of products from a wide range of brands, all in one place. “There’s also a huge opportunity for retailers here,” says Burbridge. “Nearly 70% of online shopping carts are abandoned, and we know that friends, family and social influences have a huge impact in those purchasing decisions. Making the entire process more fun and social directly translates into more sales and fewer returns, as the shopper is much likelier to feel confident and happy with their purchases.”

70% of shopping carts are abandoned, but we know that our social circles have real impact on whether we proceed with those purchases

There are also sizable opportunities for retailers in leveraging Big Data, andMarkelligent, another startup from the UKLTH delegation, creates smart solutions implementing and integrating software, hardware and data analytics in its Software as a Service (SaaS) offering. Brate, on the other hand, uses this type of insight to create a compelling consumer offering, by connecting the offline and online shopping experiences. Consumers can discover the hottest places to eat, drink, shop or visit based on what online users are searching for in over 120 cities.

The company uses big data analytics to identify the hottest trends and respond to customer’s needs and wants in real time, allowing retailers to offer consumers exactly what they want, where and when they want it.

“Brate brings together the best aspects of online and offline shopping in one platform. It transforms the retail experience by giving consumers much more choice, and brings a welcome boost to the high street by connecting outlets with impulse buyers.” said Managing Partner Shadi Tabbara

Connecting the real and virtual shopping worlds is a powerful proposition
Share on X

The service, which is available on web, iOS and Android, launched in San Francisco last August, followed by London in October, and has seen traffic triple in a year to 1.3 million.

“After launching in London last year, we’re excited to unlock the full potential of the UK market to help us expand the service,” said Tabbara.

According to recent figures from the IMRG, by 2021 UK consumers will spend more online than in the high street, but innovations such as these brought by the UKLTH start-ups shows how much room there still is for improving the shopping experience for both consumers and retailers.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Big Data and Big Ideas appeared first on Tech Trends.