Thursday, March 28, 2024
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Bodega to form policies against instant delivery startups

instant delivery startups

One of the instant delivery startups, Gopuff, grew after moving to the lower east of Manhattan. They move it to the store across the street from Bodega. Gopuff held the value at $15 billion in July. And, it currently accounts for $40 billion after the last funding.

The experts’ cautions on the growth of the startup can push Bodega out of business. The startups have funds to back them up. The quick commerce service explosion featured half a dozen startups. All promise to deliver online grocery purchases in 10-20 minutes.

Critics warn that the bodegas and corner stores can go out of business. They use zoning rules to crack the venture capital. It tends to fuel these companies.

The way New York responds with these delivery groceries will impact the expansion. The expansion centers around the U.S.

Gopuff, Getir, Buyk, and Fridge are some of the major players in New York. Gorilla calls its competition to supermarkets. It doesn’t tend to compete with corner stores at any level. , Joke calls a retail giant like Amazon its competition.

The instant delivery startups feature their products via hyper-localized facilities. They are also called micro warehouses. They channel products via those sites. The delivery personnel is responsible for dropping off the products to customers immediately.

When it comes to zoning, the instant delivery startups appear in the grey areas. The Gopuff store makes use of categorized warehouses. The storefront on the Lower East Side features residential zoning districts.

Kramer Levin is a New York-based lawyer. He explained the situation, “It’s something that is not 100% clear because this type of use did not exist in 1961 when the use categories created in the Zoning Resolution.”

The New York City Department of Building is yet to cater to the zoning regulation. It will define the micro fulfillment centers. These instant delivery startup fulfillment centers are growing businesses in New York City.

The startups are growing. And, it is time for the cornerstone to gear up and practice reforms.

Amazon Prime prices to rise by 17%

Amazon Prime

Amazon prime annual subscription prices are going to climb to $139. The company made the announcement after its earning result. It increases the price last in 2018. The price went up to $119 from $99.

To establish the connection in price range, Amazon’s price rose to $99 from $79 four years ago. We can say the company is increasing its price after every four years.

With the price increase in prime membership, there was also a surge in the monthly price. It went up from $12.99 to $14.99. The new member can see the increase in price from February 18, 2022. The change in price will reflect on the current member’s bill from March 25.

The price went up high, taking the demand into consideration. The investment in Amazon prime increased over time. Prime today is not like what it was a year ago. Raising the prices now was necessary with increased investment.

Amazon’s eCommerce business is facing challenges. The supply chain is one of them. And, the audience focuses on video more now. Amazon is expecting increased revenue from the advertising business. Amazon stock has done very well, but there are still issue. And, the company is dealing with it. The stock prices went up to 14% on Thursday.

Amazon Prime launched in 2005. It gave its member free two-day shipping. It also featured all the exclusive shows and movies. With pandemic, the service grew up to 200 million subscribers worldwide.

Amazon’s retail business incorporated the membership program. And it became the biggest lever for it. Prime members spend and buy products from Amazon.

The increase in price centers towards its issues with labor constraints. The company raised money to attract labor. The market today is tight and causes disruption in functioning. It had to reroute the packages. It increased the cost of service.

We can say the increase in Amazon Prime subscriptions comes as no shock.

Amazon shares posted big earnings beat with the help of Rivian

Amazon shares

Amazon shares climb up to 9% in the fourth quarter. The company climbed up to a quarter of $12 billion with its investment in Rivian. Rivian deals in electric vehicle companies.

Amazon shares pop up by 14% in trading alone. It is one of the biggest gains for the company since 2012. The earnings per share struck up to $5.80, while the expectation was $3.57. The revenue generation was $137.4 billion. The expected revenue generation was $137.6. A definitive survey of analysis posted the figure.

Amazon’s operational profit in the first quarter may range between $3 to $6 billion. The fourth quarter sale tends to grow 9.4%. It also ended up recording single-digit growth in 2017. Amazon gave assurance to the investor about the recovery. The market suffered a lot from the dripping of Facebook’s shares.

The company came up with interesting figures in advertising. Amazon’s advertising services grew by 32% year. It accounted for $9.7 billion. The advertising was part of the “other” business segment. Brain Olsavsky called it a driven value.

With success in advertising, the company also attracted ad dollars. It now holds third place after Google and Facebook. Google records $61.2 in its fourth quarter. And, the Facebook ad dollars stand at $32.6 billion currently.

The biggest gain in Amazon shares came from electric vehicle makers’ IPO. It gained $27.75 for the quarter. The IPO priced at $78 per share and values the company at $66.5 billion. The stock climbs up to $172 at its peak. It fell down to $60. The Rivian share grew 3%, extended trading on Thursday.

Andy Jassy, Amazon CEO, states that “the pandemic continues to pose challenges. Facing a tight labor market, Amazon last year hiked wages to an average of $18 an hour to lure workers and has increased incentives, offering signing bonuses worth as much as $3,000 in some markets.”

The company’s cloud computing business accounted for 40%. It accounts for $17.78 billion currently.

Uber Eats collaborates with FastAF

Uber Eats

Uber Eats partners with delivery eTailer FastAF irrespective of warning signs. In the recent press release, Uber Eats confirms to launch 25-minute delivery. It will make use of the FastAF technology to promise a fast delivery. It will cater to the services in New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco.

FastAF calls this partnership an amazing opportunity for both companies. It aims to bring more customers. Also, the consumer’s ease of access while ordering food. They can select the product and will reach them in just 25 minutes.

Lee Hnetinka, CEO of FastAF, states, “More than 50% of our products are exclusive to FastAF, and partnering with Uber Eats gives their customers an unmatched assortment while expanding the reach of our selection.”

Ultrafast grocers are struggling in the United States market. According to a report, these service providers can lose $20 on average per order. One of the grocery delivery startups, Jokr, is looking for a buyer. It decided to sell its New York City business.

Uber also announced the addition of hundreds of grocery stores. It was especially for the location of California. The partnership with the FastAF comes as no shock. This aims to unleash the driving up of purchasing frequency. It will function for grocery items and restaurant meals.

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi calls this a huge opportunity. She is calling it a multi-billion/trillion business. The power of the Uber platform can make it possible. The penetration in the online grocery market is still low.

As per a study, out of 2000 U.S. consumers, only 18% purchase groceries online. 20 % of the consumers agreed that home-delivery of groceries might improve loyalty. The low demand is a warning for the business to even take a hit. And, the cost of fulfilling order delivery is high. The market is very uncertain to even survive. Therefore, we can say that Uber Eats took a lot of risks.

Interview with Charlie Casey from LoyaltyLion

Charlie Casey LoyaltyLion

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Charlie Casey from LoyaltyLion to get more insights on Loyalty programs and trends/predictions for 2022. Following is our interview with him:

2022 is approaching quickly, what ecommerce trend excites you the most?

This year, retailers were faced with privacy updates left, right, and center. As we approach
2022, I’m excited to see more and more retailers use their loyalty programs to empower
customers to share data on their own terms. In exchange for VIP experiences (like membership to community spaces), we’ve seen customers wanting to hand over their personal preferences and data. With this, retailers can serve up hyper-personalized experiences that keep shoppers loyal. I’m excited to see more of this continue next year.

I’m also excited about the rise of the conscious consumer and that sustainability continues to play an important role in business success. Customers are increasingly more likely to buy products and remain loyal to stores that prioritize sustainability or support charitable causes that align with their own personal passions.

As we move into an opt-out era, how can ecommerce brands still target and personalize their marketing?

As data privacy comes to the forefront of consumers’ minds, we find ourselves at a juncture where third-party data points aren’t enough to effectively target customers if they opt out. Brands should instead give customers reasons to want to share their own data. By telling customers they’ll get a more valuable experience if they share their preferences (like the opportunity to earn loyalty points on their favorite products), customers will be motivated to hand over more data points in exchange for a tailored experience with the brands they love.

With digital advertising costs rising, how can retailers bring in new customers more costeffectively?

Using your existing customers as an acquisition tool is the best way to go. Customers acquired through referrals have a 16% higher lifetime value than shoppers brought in other ways. This is because they’ve been recommended by someone they trust. Plus, this method is cost-effective as you’re working with shoppers you’ve already acquired without any additional spending.

Retailers should then seek to reward their existing customers for every successful referral they make with loyalty points they can spend on purchases down the line. Or, if a customer has left a positive review, retailers could reach out to these already happy shoppers, asking them to make a referral on their behalf.

With challenges like the pandemic and supply chain shortages testing brands, how can retailers use loyalty programs to maintain a positive relationship with their customers?

Loyalty programs that appeal to the aspirations of customers maintain a positive relationship with customers. With program tiers, retailers can give customers more exclusive perks the more they engage and spend with the brand (like free shipping or birthday gifts). This will build a positive relationship as they’ll know their loyalty is being valued and rewarded.

Retailers will also maintain positive relationships by rewarding shoppers loyalty points as an
apology if they have a problem with their order or make a complaint. This will show shoppers that the brand wants their experience to be as painless as possible and will maintain a positive relationship at a time where traditionally the relationship could be tainted.

What advice would you give a marketer in your industry right now?

My advice would be to bring customer loyalty and retention into the heart of all your marketing. This includes retargeting existing customers on social media, in emails, and SMS, as well as integrating a loyalty program with all existing marketing technologies. This will mean that every single channel and tool can be enriched with more data points for personalization and automation. By making loyalty and retention a focus, marketers will see business-wide growth (as they’ll grow the LTV of already acquired customers) all while saving time and money.

How can retailers better appeal to the conscious consumer of today?

Our latest research showed that shoppers in the US and UK favor brands that offer the
opportunity to contribute to a charity or initiative aligned with their values. To better appeal to conscious consumers, retailers should let shoppers trade in loyalty points for charitable
donations that align with their customers’ values. For example, the sustainable clothing brand, Zorali, lets their customers trade in loyalty points to plant a tree. This will show shoppers who are eco-conscious that these brands care about the same challenges they do. Overall, this will mean these shoppers will choose these thoughtful brands over others in the market that don’t go the extra mile.

About Charlie Casey

Charlie Casey is CEO and Co-Founder of LoyaltyLion, a data-driven loyalty and engagement
platform that powers ecommerce growth. Proven to increase retention and spend, LoyaltyLion is trusted by thousands of fast-growth ecommerce merchants worldwide. Prior to founding LoyaltyLion, Charlie joined the Foreign and Commonwealth Office as an Economics Advisor before becoming a consultant at Deloitte.

About LoyaltyLion

LoyaltyLion helps fast-growth ecommerce merchants turn unengaged customer bases into
active communities that power longer-lasting relationships and sustainable growth. Use loyalty data and insights to connect and accelerate your marketing efforts and drive more revenue from a subsection of highly engaged, highly valuable customers.

Interview with Mary Chen from Era Software

Mary Chen Era Software

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Mary Chen from Era Software to get more insights on the challenges e-commerce businesses face today as it relates to log management. Following is our interview with her:

What kind of company is Era Software? What sort of products does it offer?

Era Software  empowers e-commerce businesses to ingest, store and analyze log data at petabyte-scale. With the company’s observability and analytics platform, EraSearch, modern IT teams eliminate complexity and engineering toil while managing all their log data in real-time, at up to a 90% lower cost than alternatives.

The fact is, enterprises today are besieged by a tsunami of log data – coming from cloud environments including containerized applications and microservices. To help enterprises better manage this onslaught of data, the company delivered EraSearch, an observability and analytics platform optimized for real-time, low-cost log management. EraSearch collects, indexes, and analyzes log data from the cloud, Kubernetes, Content Delivery Networks (CDNs), the edge, as well as applications to provide real-time visibility into all log data.

Last month Era Software also introduced Era Cloud, a software as a service (SaaS)-based offering that includes EraSearch, giving customers flexible deployment options.

Why is log data so important to e-commerce businesses?

The retail industry has embraced digital transformation and the pandemic has accelerated this shift to support in-store, mobile, e-commerce operations and logistics management that tie into omni-channel strategies. This enables retailers to improve customer experiences and create competitive advantages that drive revenue growth.

There are many different touchpoints in a customer’s experience with a retailer, but it often starts or ends with a retailer’s digital channel during times like these when visits to physical stores are limited. Whether that customer is online to view a promotion, shop for ideas, place an order, or check the status of an order, high availability of these services is critical as this experience is a make-or-break moment. Customers expect digital interactions to just work. Any loss of digital service, downtime to a website, or outage directly translates to lost revenue, especially during the holiday seasons or promotional events.

All of these applications and digital services generate log data – in many cases, petabytes of it. The data in logs are indispensable. They help retail IT understand why and where problems are occurring and quickly remediate the issues.

Therefore, retailers need a way to collect and analyze log data that these applications and the underlying infrastructure generate in real-time. Modern log management platforms like Era Software, built on cloud-native constructs, are helping retail IT  store, analyze and query a massive amount of logs to gain both application and business insights in seconds.

How does Era Software’ log management platforms help e-commerce IT teams provide a smoother operation?

Customers experience a slow or unavailable website when an isolated service or a broad network disruption occurs. An e-commerce ecosystem is made up of a complex network of interconnected systems including the e-commerce website, e-commerce platform, payment gateway, inventory management system, shipping software, enterprise resource planning (ERP), and POS systems for those also selling in the brick-and-mortar environment. These applications and systems rely on many services such as DNS, CDN, network connectivity, databases and the infrastructure they run on.

To get full visibility and easy access to the right data at the right time to troubleshoot customer impacting issues or performance degradations, organizations need the ability to collect, store, and search logs from all these systems as well as the services they rely on.

EraSearch, Era Software’s observability and analytics platform was built from the ground up to enable modern IT to affordably store all their logs and easily query their data in a real-time fashion with minimal interruptions to their teams.

For example, EraSearch can help extract POS data that are being sent to a backend accounting system, making it available in real-time. EraSearch provides a simple query interface on top of that data so that users could start getting immediate value out of it and can ingest data as is – no matter the format.

On the digital store-front, EraSearch provides easy and cost-effective access to real-time data, such as CDN data, to improve a retailer’s security posture as well as the customer’s digital experience.

How can log management help e-commerce businesses with business insights?

In addition to monitoring application and  IT infrastructure health, data from logs and transaction information provide new opportunities for retailers to achieve unprecedented value and competitive advantage in an evolving industry. This data can be used to uncover trends such as a slow sales period — allowing marketing to take action such as running a sale or promotion to help drive traffic to the e-commerce site. Log data can help pinpoint global supply chain issues or offer a better understanding of the inventory trends to optimize omnichannel operations.

And for the retailers that  are deploying IoT devices to understand physical store traffic and to personalize the in-store experience with data, observability and analytics platforms, such as EraSearch, are critical to maintaining reliability and availability of these devices.

What are some of the challenges e-commerce businesses face today as it relates to log management?

Many retailers now run the majority of their operations through public cloud services like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and others. While public clouds simplify infrastructure for retailers, it can also complicate IT infrastructure management at scale. In complex microservices-based cloud environments, e-commerce businesses are challenged with collecting and analyzing logs huge volumes of logs in real time and correlating them with other relevant data to get deeper insights into the health of their services, request/response latency, application errors, and the end-to-end user experience of customers throughout their ecosystem.

Plus, more and more retailers are running their online and brick-and-mortar businesses as one business. That means inventory management systems are connected or consolidated. Retailers offering omnichannel experiences, such as Buy Online, Pick Up In Store (BOPIS), have deployed modern order management systems (OMS) to manage the complete supply chain. As the OMS becomes the central hub for omnichannel fulfillment, monitoring and end-to-end visibility of the OMS’ many different functionalities and integrations (including payment, shipping providers, POS, and more) are critical to ensure customers get what they want, when they want it.

As traditional log management solutions were built for the pre-cloud era, access to real-time data is often too slow, inflexible and costly to store. Due to the rising costs of storing and analyzing logs, organizations often need to choose which logs to analyze. For example, CDNs are used by retail organizations to improve their website load times, and reduce bandwidth costs. When configured correctly, a CDN may improve security by providing DDoS mitigation. Logs from CDNs are critical for optimizing user experience, offering more context around problems to enable faster troubleshooting – yet many retailers choose not to monitor CDN logs because they’re too costly to store and analyze – ignoring these logs leads to visibility gaps.

At Era Software, we approach log management differently. EraSearch processes log data in any format, eliminating the need for pre-processing data or building and managing pipeline stages while continuing to make data available in real time for searching. Also, by leveraging object storage, EraSearch is far more cost effective than traditional log management systems, resulting in 90% average cost savings for our customers.

What should e-commerce businesses look for in a log management solution?

Retail IT teams need to look for modern approaches to log management to effectively troubleshoot digital service performance issues. To support the growing amount of log data in a complex eCommerce ecosystem, a log management platform architecture should enable easy scaling, decouple storage from compute, and utilize low-cost object storage that allows data to be classified as “objects” and groups them according to identifiers like metadata. This makes it easier to search object storage for pertinent information when teams want to query logs to ascertain real-time insights.

As object storage is elastic, it’s scale is limitless and more cost-efficient as organizations pay based on consumption. Furthermore, object storage offers 11 nines reliability (99.999999999%), which is critical for e-commerce operations.

About Mary Chen

Mary is Senior Director of Product Marketing for Era Software. Over the course of her career, Mary has helped retail businesses understand the value of data to uncover business critical insights. Before joining Era, Mary held a number of product marketing roles at various tech companies, including Splunk and MapR Data Technologies (now part of HPE).

Mary is Senior Director of Product Marketing for Era Software. Over the course of her career, Mary has helped retail businesses understand the value of data to uncover business critical insights. Before joining Era, Mary held a number of product marketing roles at various tech companies, including Splunk and MapR Data Technologies (now part of HPE).

About Era Software

Era Software empowers enterprises to ingest, store and analyze massive amounts of log data to get actionable insights in seconds. With the company’s observability and analytics platform, EraSearch, modern IT teams eliminate complexity and manage all their log data in real-time at up to 90% lower cost than alternatives.

Interview with Blake Hutchison from Flippa

Blake Hutchison Flippa

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Blake Hutchison from Flippa to get more insights on best site to buy or sell an online business.Following is our interview with him:

Why is Flippa the best site to buy or sell an online business?

Flippa offers more choice and more reach. We do more deals with Flippa’s platform offering unparalleled access to businesses of all values. So far this year, the biggest sale was just over $30M and we have a very active deal hungry buying community.

Plus, it’s a market network and it’s much more than an online brokerage. Flippa is an intelligent valuations engine and deal management platform with due-diligence, legal services and integrated escrow and payments all in one easy to use environment.

Is digital entrepreneurship the next big thing in 2022? What is driving growth?

As reported by theUS Census Bureau, analyzed by the Economic Innovation Group, 2021 was a record year for business starts. To the end of Q3, there were 1.4M applications filed for the formation of new businesses – the most through the third quarter for any year on record and we would expect this trend to continue.

There’s three driving factors, one being necessity. Job recovery from the pandemic is inching forward but the unemployment rate is still higher than prior to the pandemic. Accordingly, this drives people to business ownership.

Other factors are ease of entry and access to capital. The platform economy – where platforms like Amazon and YouTube facilitate trade between buyer and business owner or creator – are simple to learn and there’s now major support systems in place to help people excel. Plus, there’s an entire ecosystem now set up to access capital for growth or in many cases for acquisition entrepreneurship – providers will actually give you money to buy businesses.

How do you use Flippa?

It’s a flexible solution. Sellers can sell direct or use Flippa’s agent and broker network. Buyers in turn, can work with a relationship manager or manage their own deal. It’s analogous to real estate. Think of Flippa as Zillow for buying and selling a startup or online business.

Overall, there is more deal value than ever before. In Q3, there was $155M in deal value listed and in Q4 this jumped to $204M. We expect more and more sellers to seek a pathway to exit as buyer demand hunts out deal makers.

Additionally, there’s an appetite among Ecommerce business owners to acquire content sites. Many are looking for diversified pathways to user acquisition and some are finding that Facebook and Google paid ads are becoming less effective and more expensive with increased competition. Buying a content site enables you to own a community and often can be a more efficient long term pathway to driving loyalty and brand engagement.

Can you share highlights about your recent announcement?

We launched a curated experts marketplace to help with the growth ambitions of our buyer and investor network. As a growing market network and a community of 3M aspiring entrepreneurs, we now want to help businesses to thrive. We’ve released the Partner Market and it’s much needed growth fuel for business owners. It’s a new marketplace arm of Flippa, providing a curated network of experts and agencies aimed at new business owners (buyers on Flippa) who need SEO, content marketing, graphic design, virtual assistant services and more.

The community asked for it. While business ownership is more accessible than ever before we shouldn’t ignore how hard it is to grow. We want to help in that regard.

What are some best practices for buying an online business?

My first time buyer tips are:

a) Buy to optimize. Look for online businesses where despite strong performance there’s clear room for improvement. Think about things like design and the user-experience, look at things like return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) and how this can be improved through better ad copy and creative, review the assets current life cycle marketing program etc. It differs by business model of course.

b) Know the metrics that matter. Each business model differs. In a SaaS context, I would keep a close eye on Lifetime Value and Churn, whereas in Ecommerce I like to look at refund rates.

c) Consistency is gold. When buying your first online business I wouldn’t worry about profitability so much as I would consistent performance. You can always drive profitability through a cost base review. Review the trailing 18 month performance and interrogate where there’s major dips. It’s often not a major concern but very worthwhile investigating.

Overall this is a good comprehensive guide for first time buyers.

What is the #1 mistake owners make when selling their online business?

Overestimating value. You are setting yourself up for a rude shock if you think Nasdaq valuations or venture valuations are indicative. They are not but the good news is that valuations are rising as more people start to appreciate online businesses and the scale of returns. Best thing to do is to start with a valuation here.

What can we expect to see from Flippa in the next year?  What are your plans?

Our vision is big and we will achieve it. It’s to democratise the exit and provide an accessible pathway to business ownership.  This year it’s all about matching high quality business owners to acquisition fit buyers. We already offer unparalleled reach to both buyers and sellers of startups and online businesses…so it’s about improving the efficiency of the service end-to-end.

About Blake Hutchison

Blake is the CEO of Flippa. the #1 marketplace to buy and sell sites, stores, social media accounts and online businesses. Blake has worked on leadership teams assisting in fast growth businesses including Xero and Luxury Escapes. Among his start up experience he also founded a company…he then used Flippa to sell the business.

About Flippa

Flippa is the #1 global online platform to buy and sell digital real estate, such as websites, eCommerce stores, apps, and online businesses. Flippa has more buyers than any other platform, with 600,000 monthly searches from investors seeking to acquire businesses, and connects business owners with a pathway to exit. To learn more visit Flippa.com

Interview with Vinod Varma from Creator.co

Vinod Varma Creator.co

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Vinod Varma from Creator.co to get more insights on Trends Shaping E-Commerce in 2022. Following is our interview with him:

How are social media and influencer marketing impacting eCommerce?

If the shutdown during 2020 taught us anything, it’s that social media impacts and connects us so strongly, especially when it comes to online shopping and the world of E-commerce. Ever heard of the phrase “TikTok made me buy it?” The explosion of E-commerce throughout the pandemic owes a lot to social media influencers and their influence. Individuals do not just want to purchase a product; they want to buy an experience, a story, from real people they trust.

That’s where influencer marketing comes into play. According to a recent study by Forbes, most millennial buyers are not influenced by advertising, and about 33% depend on blog reviews when making a purchase. This change has helped businesses in a massive way, not just in brand trust but also with ROI. 

How can influencer marketing improve a businesses’ profits?

A study by Tomoson found that influencer marketing is on average delivering $6.50 ROI for every dollar spent. More and more brands realize the importance of influencer marketing and how crucial it is to make a genuine connection. When individuals purchase an item recommended by an influencer, it doesn’t usually feel like simply a purchase but rather a way of being united with that influencer through a mutually shared product.

What are some of the differences in retail and eCommerce since the pandemic?

According to IBM, the pandemic has dramatically accelerated the transition to eCommerce. Two years ago, online purchases were responsible for about 14% of retail sales. Next year that number is expected to be about 20%, meaning almost a 50% increase in just a few years. As more companies pivot to meet customers’ growing needs and expectations, the impact of e-commerce will continue to grow.

Due to the pandemic, consumers are shopping online more now than ever, impacting almost all retail categories. It has pushed many retailers to rethink their business model. Convenience has taken the forefront as many large retailers have transitioned their layouts and utilized floor space to create fulfillment centers. For example, consumers can now place a product order online to pick up in just a few hours at larger retailers like Walmart, Target, and Best Buy. While people were staying safe in their homes during the pandemic, many spent more time online shopping and browsing social media. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram became increasingly prevalent in influencer marketing and led to more customers discovering and purchasing products online.

Social commerce and influencer marketing will continue to make massive strides in the new year. As social networking has only grown stronger since the pandemic, brands are spending more on social media marketing and finding ways to use relevant influencers as the key to their campaign. With the impressive ROI from influencer marketing, 2022 will see more campaigns featuring influencer marketing, specifically mico influencers.

How are NFT and crypto impacting E-commerce?

Non-fungible tokens, known as NFTs, are taking center stage as digital products. Many brands and influencers are taking a closer look at how they can best leverage this new form of digital currency. NFTs will soon replace QR codes, membership codes, and more, ultimately making it easy for creators to connect and invest in digital content and commerce, all in one platform.

eCommerce platforms enable customers to search for products online and purchase them from the convenience of their homes with just a single click. Accepting cryptocurrencies as a form of payment can give a brand a competitive advantage. In crypto, blockchain-based technologies will be influential in transitioning business applications and processes. Blockchain can be used to impact every form of e-commerce – B2C, B2B, B2G, and C2C.

With cryptocurrency, customers don’t have to use their credit cards, head to a bank, or withdraw money when spending at checkout. It can also transform the foundation of eCommerce by enabling business relations without a mediator. For example, instead of a brand or individual going through investors to get their projects or products funded, they can sell tokens directly to the public.

What are the benefits of social commerce?

Social commerce is the convergence of social media and eCommerce. Social commerce can positively impact a business’s overall sales volume, but surprisingly that’s not the only remarkable thing about it.

  • Enhanced customer engagement – Social media serves as two-way communication between businesses and consumers. This connection allows the promotion of products and enables easy communication and relationship with customers. Users are more likely to read reviews from previous customers on these platforms, and because of this, the business grows and ultimately assists customers in making informed and trusted decisions. 
  • Consistent audience growth – Any business’s social media platform aims to build an engaged and consistent audience. Because new customers are discovered through these channels, brands need to maintain the same relationship with each new customer who interacts with the business online to keep constant growth.
  • Increased average order value – Companies with a seamless and convenient eCommerce experience can easily convince more customers to shop online. Social media, on average, already influences users to spend more. Having a streamlined process of getting customers from social media post to checkout is a simple way to leverage this fact.
  • Stronger SEO – Social media boosts traffic to businesses, leading to direct transactions. How? More robust engagement helps companies drive relevant content according to the users’ interests, thus motivating them to make frequent purchases. Furthermore, social media allows businesses to build up reviews, comments, and other feedback to improve their digital footprint, ultimately raising their search engine ranking.
  • Improved customer analytics – Social commerce allows brands to assess their insights regularly. These analytics can be measured consistently since built-in metrics assess impressions, reach, and engagement. These insights assist businesses in learning more about their audiences and help them create and share the appropriate content with their customers.

There are a few ways influencers market NFTs and content similar to them. Some of it can be entertainment, while some of it is precisely for informative purposes. Blockchain content can be found across many platforms, including Youtube and Instagram, meaning it is no longer a trend contained to very niche websites or mediums. 

Influencers will be monumental in affecting the worth of crypto and NFT based on their recommendations. As discussed above, many consumers prefer to make their purchase based on the recommendations of an influencer they trust rather than an advertisement. As influencers begin to market this type of content to their followers, businesses will now ultimately be exposed to a much larger audience. This can attract investors and boost growth in funds and the number of consumers aware of the brand.

About Vinod Varma

Vinod is passionate about bringing brands and influencers together. In 2016 Vinod founded Creator.co, and currently serves as the CEO. He has years of experience in creator marketing and branding expertise, and focuses on driving results for brands and empowering his team to push the boundaries on what a creator network can be.

About Creator.co

Founded in 2016, Creator.co is the first automated collaboration platform for Brands and Influencers – built to inspire authentic branded content and increase social engagement for both Creators and Brands. Our marketplace’s success is built on the premise that 92% of consumers trust advice and opinions over any sponsored advertising. Most marketing teams don’t have the time or resources to scale their Influencer strategy, that’s where we come in.

Interview with Deborah Rossoni from Apex-Brasil

Deborah Rossoni Apex-Brasil

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Deborah Rossoni from Apex-Brasil to get more insights on the biggest challenges faced by businesses that try to break into Amazon’s marketplace. Following is our interview with her:

What are some of the biggest challenges faced by businesses that try to break into Amazon’s marketplace? Competition and pricing? Logistics? Marketing?

With more than 300 million active Amazon customers from around the world, it’s no surprise that businesses of all sizes and industries want to be on the platform – but being successful on Amazon is not guaranteed. Businesses often find it challenging to distinguish themselves from the millions of competing businesses on Amazon. Consider that only 10% of businesses on the platform generate over $100,000 annually, and only 1.5 million of the 6.4 million sellers registered with Amazon are currently active, underscoring that even if a business is registered with Amazon, that does not mean they will be on the platform long-term.

Sellers trying to break into the market must develop competitive pricing strategies – but even more importantly, they need to offer personalization (more than 80% of U.S. adults want personalization from retailers), which of course is challenging with consumers from all over the world doing their shopping on Amazon. That’s why Apex-Brasil has partnered with Amazon to help Brazilian small businesses not only start selling on Amazon – but also understand what it takes to thrive on the platform. Through the Amazon Global Selling Program, more than 60 Brazilian companies received trainings from Apex-Brasil and Amazon about how to best use the platform, advice from Amazon on product descriptions to ensure they resonate with American audiences specifically (given that is the main ecommerce market the companies are focused on expanding into), and more.

Logistics support is provided by FBA – Fulfillment by Amazon – and other service providers suggested by Amazon and Apex-Brasil’s North American team.

Do foreign retailers – like those from Brazil – have an even harder time making a name for themselves with American consumers on Amazon? What challenges do foreign startups face specifically?

Yes, it can be an additional challenge for foreign retailers to be recognized by American consumers and the U.S. ecommerce market, given there is so much competition. On the technical level, many foreign sellers are not familiar with the legal or logistical procedures needed to sell internationally and, therefore, really benefit from the support of initiatives like the Amazon Global Selling Program. Regarding regulations, although Brazilian companies comply with all global standards for cosmetics and processed food, to sell in United States they need FDA certification, which takes time and money to complete the whole process.

Yet, we do know that Americans are open to buying goods from other countries, with cross-border ecommerce sales increasing 82% year-on-year in 2020 alone. That is a very big opportunity when you consider that 77% of Americans buy goods via ecommerce, and ecommerce in the U.S. is expected to grow 9% per year until 2026, when it will reach USD $993 billion (source: Apex-Brasil). This is the reason why we are helping Brazilian companies through the Amazon Global Selling Program partnership – the opportunities are abundant, and we are dedicated to elevating Brazilian companies with innovative, hot products on the global ecommerce stage.

You recently partnered with Amazon to add 50 Brazilian startups to the Amazon Global Selling Program. What does this partnership entail?

Actually, we targeted 50 companies, but the success of the partnership was so fantastic that we ended 2021 with almost 70 involved in the program, and we will invite more companies to apply and participate in 2022. This partnership extends personalized support and coaching to Brazilian ecommerce retailers as they join the Amazon platform for the first time and begin selling to a global audience, notably U.S. consumers. After being chosen for the program, the retailers first attended live and pre-recorded training sessions as part of a “boot camp” to learn the basics of operating an Amazon store. Currently, the businesses are operating their Amazon stores and receiving assistance from Amazon representatives with a focus on marketing tactics and merchandising. Apex-Brasil is leveraging its experience with international trade and development to help the companies manage the logistics and regulations that are needed to fulfill U.S. orders as well.

How many startups applied to be part of the program and how were these 50 specific startups chosen? Did you think they would do better on Amazon than others?

A total of 240 companies submitted completed applications, which a team of Amazon and Apex-Brasil representatives analyzed based on the strength of each application, existing online presence, and business health. The review team looked at a variety of indicators to predict the retailers’ likelihood of success, with special interest paid to ensure that they had an English-language online presence as well as prior experience with domestic ecommerce and exporting goods. An initial 50 companies were chosen for the first round of the program, and additional qualified applicants were invited to join as more spots became available. Due to the success of the program so far, we know we will be continuing it and look forward to helping more Brazilian companies break into Amazon during the second round of the program in 2022.

Were these companies already on Amazon, or this was their entry into selling on the platform?

Some of the companies had prior experience selling on Amazon – but only in Brazil. They are now beginning to export online to the U.S. because of this project. As such, these companies are very excited about the opportunity to receive personalized support as they make their entry into Amazon USA.

What has the success rate been so far for the 50 startups? Do they have any results to share about increased ecommerce sales, new audiences reached, etc.?

The project is in its first round and we are still analyzing the results. What we have learned so far is that about 45% of the companies are in an advanced stage, meaning they have established their presence on Amazon’s U.S. site, and many have already listed products and are shipping their goods to be fulfilled in the U.S. Around 35% are still planning their sales tactics, adapting labels, or obtaining necessary certifications.

We have yet to measure sales results as the first round of this partnership is still in progress. At the moment, Amazon and Apex-Brasil are helping the companies optimize their digital presence and develop marketing campaigns to gain traffic, improve their ratings and establish a strong U.S. customer base.

Do you have plans to add more startups to the program in 2022?

Yes! We will launch another round of the program in February with additional companies. Apex-Brasil and Amazon look forward to continuing this partnership into the future.

How does a program like this offer foreign startups a head start to success on Amazon? How does Apex-Brasil’s partnership with the Global Selling Program differ from other business development programs?

By partnering with Amazon, these companies gain access to true insider information and utilize the wisdom of experts to help grow their business. This particular program stands out from others because it leverages the individual strengths of both Amazon and Apex-Brasil to focus in on ecommerce best practices while providing the support vital to engaging in cross-border trade.

Consider some of the success other companies have had with the Amazon Global Selling Program. For example, one company from Thailand that was involved with the Global Selling Program for only 10 months went from 0% of sales on Amazon to 85% of total sales coming from Amazon. Another company from South Korea achieved 107% YoY growth for 5 consecutive years after joining the Global Selling Program. The sky is the limit for these Brazilian startups.

We expect ecommerce to continue growing in the coming years, with projected 9% annual growth in the United States through 2026. People became even more reliant on online shopping during the COVID pandemic, and we expect this trend to continue well into the future.

A recent report from Shopify predicted trending product categories for 2022, which range from cosmetics and apparel to DIY tools and automotive parts. We are excited to see that trending products will include toys, shoes, and bras/lingerie – which many Brazilian startups currently participating in our partnership with Amazon sell. We anticipate exceptionally high growth for these businesses.

What is Apex-Brasil? How do you support startups in the Global Selling Program and beyond?

Apex-Brasil is the Brazilian Trade and Investment Attraction Agency. We are the institution responsible for export promotion, foreign investment attraction, and we also help internationalize Brazilian companies.

As part of our internationalization work, we partner with Brazilian businesses to help connect them with international markets and investors to grow their businesses. Our overarching goal is to underscore on a global stage the critical role the country of Brazil plays as a burgeoning innovation hub. Some of the programs we organize for these companies in addition to the Global Selling Program include:

  • e-Xport Program: Apex-Brasil has been supporting Brazilian ecommerce businesses that wish to grow their international reach via the e-Xport Program since 2017. Previous initiatives include a partnership with CPG product discovery platform RangeMe, which supported Brazilian suppliers as they first offered products internationally on the RangeMe ecommerce platform. We also work with Alibaba to promote Brazilian suppliers worldwide. Our annual event, the e-Xport Meeting, brings together global ecommerce specialists to discuss the trends and new technologies that will shape the future of ecommerce.
  • StartOut Brasil: Since the program’s launch in 2017 to introduce Brazilian startups to 11 international markets, including London, Shanghai, and Toronto. These immersion programs consist of trainings about the requirements of international investments, pitch training sessions with industry specialists, and even business assistance to coordinate meetings with local investors.
  • Web Summit: Apex-Brasil has been coordinating the Brazilian “pavilion” at Web Summit in Lisbon for many years to help introduce Brazil-based tech startups to the European market. We will have a presence at Web Summit again in 2022, with dozens of Brazilian startups.

About Deborah Rossoni

Deborah Rossoni, Competitiveness Manager at Apex-Brasil and manager of the Amazon Global Selling Program partnership in Brazil, has worked in the area of International Trade since 2007, having carried out several projects for the development of companies’ competitiveness, trade promotion and internationalization for several sectors, industry and services. She has a degree in business administration from Universidade Federal de Uberlândia, with postgraduate courses in Foreign Trade and Internationalization from FGV and Business Management from EAESP-SP.

About Apex-Brasil

Apex-Brasil is the Brazilian government’s trade and investment promotion agency. Apex-Brasil supports international investors as they analyze the opportunities to establish a plant in Brazil, start a partnership with a Brazilian company or commit capital in Brazil through funds and companies. Apex-Brasil’s goal is to satisfy investors’ needs and to generate results as they attract technology, innovation, new companies and generate jobs in Brazil.

Apex-Brasil is part of the Brazilian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Itamaraty), which has 120+ offices around the world. Apex-Brasil also works in close collaboration with other Ministries, regulatory Agencies, class entities, and more. To date, Apex-Brasil has already served 1300+ investors to announce 118 projects worth USD $23 billion in Brazil.

Interview with Ashley Crowder, co-founder and CEO from VNTANA

Ashley Crowder VNTANA

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Ashley Crowder, co-founder and CEO from VNTANA to get more insights on 3D eCommerce. Following is our interview with her:

What is VNTANA and what does it do?

VNTANA is a SaaS platform that makes 3D eCommerce fast and easy at scale, which has proven to double conversion rates and increase cart size by 60%. The patented optimization algorithms in VNTANA’s 3D CMS allow brands like Hugo Boss, Deckers Brands, and Diesel to use their existing 3D models to instantly create high-fidelity, fast-loading 3D assets that are automatically optimized for use across the web, social media, advertising, game-engines and more. If a brand does not have 3D files, VNTANA can create models for them and then upload to the platform. Just like Vimeo and YouTube made it easy to share and embed video, VNTANA makes it easy for brands across fashion, footwear, furniture, tools, and more to share and embed 3D and AR for sales and marketing use.

What has been the evolution of VNTANA and its products/solutions?

We started VNTANA 9 years ago to help brands better engage with consumers. Back then, the web didn’t support 3D and phones weren’t capable of augmented reality, so we built location-based mixed reality experiences for brands like Adidas, Nike, and others. We realized no one had the right 3D models for game-engines, web, and AR, so we wrote software to automate the optimization, management, and distribution of 3D models in order to build these early metaverse experiences faster. In 2019, we decided to launch our software as a platform to allow other companies to easily create 3D web and AR experiences at scale.

How can brands utilize VNTANA’s platform to enhance their current digital marketing efforts?

3D experiences give consumers a better understanding of a product and are proven to increase conversion rate, increase average cart size and reduce returns. Plus, if you have a 3D model of your product, you can create 2D image and video renders, so you no longer need a photoshoot. This saves costs and speeds up time to market. Outside of eCommerce, brands can also create 3D and AR experiences on social media platforms like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram to engage consumers and drive traffic to their websites.

Game engines are another place that requires 3D models. Every brand needs to be thinking about how they get their product into game-engines (Unity and Unreal) as this powers the Metaverse. Kids no longer go to the mall to hang out, they meet in virtual worlds like Roblox and Fortnite. They want their avatar to have the latest sneakers and 3D models make that happen. Nike recognized this trend and just launched “Nike World” within Roblox to engage game consumers. Others are selling 3D models of their products as NFTs for owners to use throughout the metaverse, cross platform. NFTs and virtual skins provide a whole new revenue stream for brands.

Today, web, social media platforms and game-engines all have different requirements for 3D models to be compatible within their system. VNTANA’s patented algorithms automatically optimize and convert files to meet these various standards so you don’t need manual 3D artist work, saving tons of time and money. Clients like Adidas were able to accomplish in 1 hour what used to take them 6 weeks.

What does VNTANA’s most recent partnership with JOOR entail? What void will this fill in the retail market?

Joor integrated VNTANA’s 3D and AR technology into the JOOR platform, allowing JOOR customers and their retail partners to view all assets in 3D and AR. Currently, the JOOR platform and other B2B sales tools only offer 2D imagery capabilities, which provide a less-than-ideal user experience and underrepresents the products being viewed. This new integration allows brands to upload their existing 3D designs from programs like Browzwear, Clo and others and instantly see them on the JOOR platform in 3D, automatically optimized to meet web and mobile standards, saving days of time for digital product creation teams.

3D technology and eCommerce are evolving quickly and often upgrading a retail experience to 3D is time-consuming and expensive. VNTANA’s headless architecture and robust API allow technology partners to quickly add 3D capabilities on the back-end of their existing offerings, enabling platforms like JOOR, PTC, and others to quickly deploy 3D offerings to their customers with limited development time and expense.

Have brands seen concrete results from shifting to AR tech and digital showrooms?

Creating physical samples is a huge cost and often takes longer than planned, leading to late deliveries to retailers amidst increased supply chain issues. Mamiye Brother’s proved this year that they can sell to retailers with 3D digital samples instead of physical, saving time and money.

“2D images just were not cutting it and our 3D design files were too big to share taking minutes to load. VNTANA’s platform allows us to instantly share a 3D line sheet on the web so our clients can see every detail in 3D as if they were at a physical showroom,” said Chuck Mamiye CEO of Mamiye Bothers.

About Ashley Crowder

Ashley Crowder is the co-Founder and CEO of VNTANA. She has worked in the 3D/AR/VR space for over 10 years, helping Fortune 1000 brands including Adidas, Hugo Boss, Deckers Brands and more launch 3D applications to increase sales. She has 14 patents on mixed reality technology and is a part of the Khronos Group to create standards in 3D technology. Ashley was featured as one of USC’s leading engineering CEOs of 2016 and has given talks on the future of mixed reality at prestigious venues including SXSW, Augmented World Expo, TEDx, World Economic Forum and more.

About VNTANA

VNTANA is a SaaS platform that makes 3D eCommerce fast and easy at scale which has proven to double conversion rates and increase cart size by 60%. The patented optimization algorithms in VNTANA’s 3D CMS allow brands like Hugo Boss, Deckers Brands, and Diesel to use their existing 3D models to instantly create high-fidelity, fast-loading 3D assets that are automatically optimized for use across the web, social media, advertising, game-engines and more. Just like Vimeo and YouTube made it easy to share and embed video, VNTANA makes it easy for brands across fashion, footwear, furniture, tools, and more to share and embed 3D and AR for sales and marketing use.

Interview with Keith Phillips from Voxware

Keith Phillips Voxware

Team eCommerce Next interviewed Keith Phillips from Voxware to get more insights on E-Commerce and Automation. Following is our interview with him:

What pressures are eCommerce companies experiencing today, and where are they hoping automation can help?

Based on what we hear from customers, it’s threefold – 1) throughput in the fulfillment center 2) optimizing the workforce and 3) meeting growing customer demand. Many companies we work with tell us that they understand voice picking and the benefits that come with it, so they are looking for other ways to increase productivity throughout their warehouse. Anywhere companies have human capital deployed, they need automation to increase productivity. This seems to be an ongoing cycle; years ago, it was about productivity then it became accuracy and now we’re back to productivity. But don’t lose sight of accuracy because one mistake can cost an organization a customer. Companies just can’t keep up with rising consumer demands and will need to deploy automation technology in order to remain competitive. Voice automation technology can greatly improve employee performance for all fulfillment center functions so we’re seeing many customers utilize voice beyond just picking/item selection.

Many organizations have been impacted by a shortage of skilled labor. How can automation technology help eCommerce companies meet customer demand when they barely have enough people to keep up?

This is something we hear quite often from customers and prospects alike. Labor continues to be a big story in our industry and it’s something automation technology addresses in a few ways. For starters, voice automation consistently helps fulfillment centers operate 30 percent more efficiently and provides picking accuracy exceeding 99.99 percent. Voice technology is also proven to optimize workflows and employee performance for all fulfillment center functions. We have customers that have increased order volume by 20 percent without the need to hire additional employees. Additionally, some voice automation systems enable training to be reduced to minutes. For companies who are fortunate to add full-time employees or working with agencies to staff temporary workers, training becomes paramount. It’s imperative to have the new workers onboarded and up-to-speed as quickly as possible. The other challenge organizations face related to labor is the fierce competition between each other as it relates to hourly rates. Deploying cutting-edge technology that helps improve how workers perform has become a factor in finding and retaining talent. The form-factor of today’s mobile devices being deployed in some fulfillment centers are similar to the devices that are used in everyday life. This helps workers become familiarized more quickly with the technology so they can be productive even faster.

With the rise in eCommerce, we’ve also seen an increase in micro-fulfillment centers. Is this a trend you expect to continue to see and is this a viable use case for automation technology?

I do expect micro-fulfillment centers to become more prominent. With supply chains strained under the increased demand from eCom shopping, retailers find themselves in an escalating arms race to fill orders quickly to accelerate deliveries. It’s proven to be a viable solution to expedite shipping times and will continue to grow in popularity. Automation technology is ideal for those working in a micro-fulfillment center. Additionally, as AI and the ability to manage massive amounts of data continues to evolve, micro-fulfillment will become even more streamlined. The capacity to process orders, make decisions on which distribution center is best positioned to fulfill them and then determine which store location will receive them is a massive undertaking and one that is best suited to AI oversight. The bottom line is as shopping behaviors continue to shift, retailers will need to do the same or face losing market share. With the help of flexible technology, micro-fulfillment centers can be optimized to meet the evolving needs of today’s consumers.

What is one area of concern you feel is being overlooked by eCommerce companies?

At a high level, I still don’t believe companies are doing enough to execute online shipments on time and accurately every time. But the one area that has been historically overlooked by all companies is returns. Obviously one way to avoid returns is to send the customers the right product the first time, and automation can help with that. However, consumer shopping habits have evolved and now we’re dealing with consumers who buy multiple sizes and colors of the same item with the intent of only keeping the items they like best. The returns process can’t be ignored any longer. To protect their brand, eCom companies must automate all processes to reduce mistakes, move product throughout the fulfillment center quickly and ensure a smooth returns process, particularly in the face of increased demand. Automation has become a necessity for success in today’s fast-paced world we live in.

Where does Voxware see the future of eCommerce going?

I can tell you it’s not going away! The most recent holiday numbers indicate another record year for online shopping with estimates from Mastercard and others reflecting an 11 percent increase in consumers shopping online versus record year ago levels. Consumers enjoy the ease and benefits that online shopping provides, and I expect that to continue to grow. However, with eCommerce continuing to grow, brands cannot afford any mistakes or the consumer will take their business elsewhere. Retailers need to advance their distribution systems to ensure a flawless customer experience. Companies can no longer run their fulfillment centers as they traditionally have. If mistakes continue to run rampant, between delayed and inaccurate deliveries, brands will be left with a negative lasting impact on customer loyalty, reputation and ultimately their bottom line. eCommerce isn’t going away and I believe automation will be critical for success. Companies that have not taken the initiative to optimize their fulfillment centers will struggle to deliver the flawless experience customers expect.

About Keith Phillips

Keith Phillips became the President and CEO of Voxware in September 2011 with a mission to transform the company into a strategic technology partner for companies with distribution operations. Through his guidance, Voxware has become the leading provider of cloud-based voice automation technology and supply chain analytics solutions, improving efficiency and accuracy across the supply chain.  Mr. Phillips has pushed for continuous innovation at Voxware to provide solutions that fit a wide array of customers with different supply chain challenges.

About Voxware

Voxware offers technology solutions that deliver essential supply chain information exactly when and where it’s needed, optimizing the speed, accuracy and efficiency of distribution operations. Its product suite includes both warehouse automation and analytics solutions uniquely focused on distribution functions. With these solutions, companies reach an unprecedented understanding of how best to manage their operations, improving profitability by reducing costs and exceeding customer expectations. For more information, please visit www.voxware.com.

Digital payments apps in Latin America pass the Grandma Test

digital payments

Latin America sees the rise of digital payments apps in the country. The tech-savvy adopters are the main reason for the rise. Aron Schwarzkopf, CEO of Khushki is calling it the “grandma test”.

It’s not only the young adopters; even the grandma generation is adopting the change. The older generation of people is accepting digital payments for transactions. The easier user interface invites the number of people to these apps. Banking and payment became more comfortable.

81% of Latin Americans didn’t use credit cards in 2022. And, almost 45% hold no bank accounts. With the pandemic, 40 million new customers enrolled in financial services. The encouragement comes from government-funded pandemic support.

Local payments account for 83% of digital payments. And, 60% of eCommerce transactions in the region depend on the installments. Digital shopping leads to increased revenue generation for eCommerce sites. And, expects a 30% growth of buyers in LatAm regions by 2024.

Schwarzkopf is calling these numbers just a start. It represents the unleashed potential for digital payment in Latin America. All the FinTechs, banks, and infrastructure will serve as tools in the development.

He also warns that it is not going to be smooth. Latin America is in year one of digital transformation. There will be obstacles around the way. Fragmentation is one of the reasons.

Latin America includes different underwriting, regulatory, and mandates. It aims to link the diverse players inside and outside. The public and Private sectors aim to jointly work to connect consumers.

Local banks will benefit from the digitization of the account. People will transact for the domestic market and others. They can use different ranges of payment.

In order to reduce fragmentation, the Khushki platform will act as a gateway. It will provide service to the local and cross-border payments. Most of the service providers are at the initiation stage. The digital payment app aims to bring the payment digitization revolution.

Payment digitization empowers restaurants against supply chain challenges

payment digitization

The End-to-End payment digitization will gear up the restaurant against labor issues. ResTech today is emerging. The point-of-sale (POS) requires more than it implies. The continuous struggle to cope with the changes. They are trying to leverage the payment process to suit the digital experience.

The payment digitization will automate the day-to-day routine of the restaurants. Lightspeed Commerce company’s origins from Canada. It announces the expansion of POS and order management tools. It will increase the outreach to new areas of the United States.

Peter Dougherty is the general manager of hospitality at Lightspeed. He explains that the supply and labor issues can make use of payment digitization.

He adds in by stating, “When you’re using your processing, and it’s deeply embedded into the back office of the commerce platform, you have … a better understanding of having your cash flow through from your processing all the way through to how you pay out your tips on your staff, and … “

Payment digitization gives the true value to the payment experience. Dougherty also explains the need to make use of digital technologies. It will not only help transform the business but also the customers.

Restaurant tech is growing demand for pay-at-table. It is actually adopting the digital payment system. It was prominent in Europe and Canada. The US consumer is getting hinge to it.

Managers tend to go bullish on the technology. It can serve great advantage to the business. It increases the valuable behavioral data. The restaurant can learn about customers’ habits more.

Another benefit, the restaurant can track the sales. The customers can see menu items and order them. They can gain customers from the value offering. It helps keep the customers. The restaurant aims to do well. The more data they collect, the better they can understand consumer behavior.

Grocery delivery records a loss of $20 per order

grocery delivery

The grocery delivery start-ups in New York are in crisis. Most of them promise to deliver the good in 10 or 20 minutes. The wall street Journal reports the vying nature of these start-ups.

Gorillas Technology is one of them. Others, including Jokr SARL Buyk Corp., are all fighting for the market share in the city. The tough competition to retain the shifting customers is becoming a great issue.

The grocery delivery companies want to facilitate speedy deliveries. They function to deliver the good within minutes. They facilitate the transfer of goods via dark stores. The dark store serves as the warehouse for goods. They don’t have a retail storefront. This lets the companies expedite the delivery process.

The start-ups don’t charge any additional cost to the items. The pricing scheme is quite familiar to the stores. Some of the start-ups offer great discounts on occasions. They don’t charge fees or minimum orders.

The discounts and offers raise the sale. Though, it doesn’t account for much of the profit for the start-up as a whole. It leads to heavy losses. The losses even went high upto $20 per order.

The loss is due to the advertising cost. And the money invested in the marketing of the start-up. This increases their sales but not the profit. The start-up to make a profit must reduce the discounts. And, they also need to additionally charge for the delivery.

Many experts also identify the loss will increase the need for investment. The company needs enough cash-inflows to keep running. Also, they may have to acquire it from external sources. Though, if the start-up grows, it holds the potential to make a profit. The numbers will turn more positive and big.

Nazim Salur is the founder of Istanbul’s Getir. He compares the grocery delivery business with plane take-off. The plane tends to consume more gas while taking off. And, similarly to that, this kind of start-up needs a big investment.

The company has the option to combat the losses. They can sell ads for brands or sell their own brands. Driving up the order sizes is another way.

Reinventing the experience of physical store with digital blueprint

digital blueprint

A few days back, digital and eCommerce showcased the in-store experience of people. But digital blueprint has changed it.

It is challenging for physical retailers to cope with the latest tech in the pandemic.

The physical spaces of Molly Murphy remained underutilized. It was because of the covid 19 pandemic. She said that the people invested in technology have the upper hand. Such people can form connections between their online experience and physical store.

In 2022, the transformation will be at its peak. Gensler used a strategy named “The experience index”. It rates and ranks the facts that bring shoppers out of their house. And they visit a store.

According to the survey, you need to look at the intention of the shopper before making designs.

Murphy said that they are thinking about customers and how they walk through a store. This will help them to design for customer experience.

What we need is a digital blueprint having physical connections. Connected ecosystems and platforms will bridge brick-and-mortar and e-commerce companies. These companies must become smart and need smart partners to get the most results.

According to Murphy, retails are not only spending on content, software, and hardware. But they are investing in the operations as well.

Gensler is following a digital-1st approach for designing new retail spaces. The team is creating plans for stores having an overlay of digital print. It will help them to understand the touchpoints for supporting the brand.

Gensler is currently working on a unique design and traffic overflow. In short, it will help them to remap the happenings in-store.

The pandemic is resulting in a design renaissance in retail which was already coming out. But now it is coming at a slow pace.

Several projects target a more digital-1st lifestyle audience. Online channels are responsible for connecting the people in the stores. According to Murphy, technology can be of great help in the future for retail stores.

Lewis Hamilton invests in grocery delivery app

grocery delivery

The rapid grocery delivery start-up app Zapp receives $200 million. Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One stat makes the big investment.

Zapp traces the origin from London. It raised fresh cash in Series B led by Lightspeed Venture Partners. 468 Capital and BroadLight Capital being the other. The grocery delivery app includes Atomico, Burda, and Vorwerk.

The grocery delivery app didn’t disclose the valuation. Hamilton received a start-up investment from F1 star. Lewis Hamilton won seven world championship titles. He holds a joint record with driver Michael Schumacher.

The app facilitates rapid food delivery. People can buy snacks, drinks, and other essentials. It features products from dark stores. These stores are specially designed to prepare online orders. The app promises to deliver orders in 20 minutes.

The grocery delivery app is like many other start-ups in Europe. It aims to achieve more customers with super-fast delivery. It gets high competition from Getir. Gorillas and Flink.

The app says to differentiate from others. It brings the digital alternative to the convenience store. It’s not just an online version. It is available in seven cities currently. London, Amsterdam, and Paris are three of them.

Joe Falter, the co-founder of Zapp, gives the statement, “With this new capital, we will focus on achieving profitability in our existing markets as well as bringing Zapp to new customers globally.”

The company will invest fresh capital in enhancing the customer experience. It will also focus on the supply chain. Zapp opened a distribution center in London. It was 25,000 square feet to keep the inflow of goods in the dark stores.

JPMorgan was the financial advisor for the deal. The grocery delivery app recorded extensive growth during the pandemic. The company didn’t disclose the figures.

The long-term sustainability of these apps is possible with differentiation. The tech investors and executives question the start-ups. There is room for every new start-up. There are no winners and losers. And, customers demonstrate the value choice.

12% customers utilize retail subscriptions for access to products

retail subscriptions

The aspects driving customers’ utilization of retail subscriptions assistance shifted over the matter of 2021. Presently, an outstanding share of customers utilizes retail subscriptions to get permits for high-quality items. The items that they are unable to get anywhere else.

This is as per the sticky.io collaboration, a PYMNTS, and the Subscription Commerce Conversion Index, depending on an analysis of 2,424 customers. This is a significant change from the main three areas of 2021, in which extra subscribers noted utilizing retail subscriptions mainly for convenience.

Presently, 12% of customers say their main cause for utilizing retail subscriptions is limited access. 10% of customers assert the reason is subscriptions are more useful than buying from a shop. Customers also utilize subscription assistance because they are a strategy to amplify fun and enjoyment.

They are the main way to get a permit for the item. They are also time-saving. The leading aspect differs by generation. The biggest share of millennials, bridge millennials, and Generation Xers utilize retail subscriptions for limited access.

However, units of Generation Z utilize them for saving time. Seniors and baby boomers utilize subscription assistance because it enables them to buy the items they want. And they can purchase the items without remembering to buy daily for them. Retail subscription assistance providers’ services have shifted over time, too.

The stake of dealers offering free delivery, refund, or guarantee policies expanded for 4 straight quarters. Presently, more dealers are offering 6 of the 15 main traits. These traits enhance the user experience of the subscribers.

Several dealers are still attempting to bear up with the remainder of the retail subscriptions, though. Traits enable the leading providers to distinguish themselves from the lowest performers. They include item reviews and ratings, plan options, quick add-to-cart features, refund or guarantee strategies, and password rules.

Contactless payment strategies keep transit agents operating smoothly

contactless payment

Contactless payment acceptance rose in early 2020. Customers converted to technology to deal with health concerns and in-person restrictions. Presently, almost 60% of international customers like contactless techniques over PIN, cash, chip-enabled cards, and magnetic-strip cards.

Students and workers return to fully on-premise or hybrid work categories. They want their payment choices to extend their regular commutes. Several transportation experts have responded accordingly.

They accept innovative and new payments technology to get riders back to general transit vessels. The MTA will launch a four-month pilot strategy of their new contactless payment technique. Riders of New York City will presently utilize the tap-and-pay OMNY strategy.

So that they can take benefit of discounted prices generally paid to riders. Riders can spend as they move, with prices limited to $33 per week. The upcoming policy shift is one portion of an initiative to get tourists back to common transit outlets.

Comparable trends are exploding the rails globally. Railway sites in the UK are increasing their contactless payment system for their safety and health-conscious passengers. Their combined railway strategy will facilitate travelers to utilize a touchless system.

The ultimate objective is to exclude fare offices and ticketing queues while facilitating fair pricing. Health concerns and remote work cause a huge decrease in ridership for general transit administrations across the U.S.

As workers back to jobs and pandemic concerns subside, vehicle experts are utilizing technology. However, they can urge tourists to return to the tracks. Nicole Fontayne-Bardowell noted commuters are starting to notice the advantages of contactless payment and mobile payment choices.

Commuters are utilizing them at an increased frequency to subsidize their rides. Transit administrations historically have depended on closed-loop fees to obtain tourists’ ride costs. The pandemic changed customers’ fee expectations.

But presently, an increasing volume of transit administrations are responding by facilitating “open-loop” potentials. 92% of vehicle companies intend to integrate ticketing options and contactless payment to get riders to return post-pandemic.

Ocado to provide Lighter robots to Grocery Giants like Kroger

grocery giants

Ocado introduces the new warehouse robot to assist grocery giants. It will serve great importance to take over competition like Amazon. Ocado is a tech company. It comes up with new products to help fast grocery delivery.

It can create a new wave for the growing start-ups. Ocado is best-known for its extensive online supermarket. The company deals with robotics and automation tools. It aims to ease the process of warehousing to pick and pack items.

Ocado sells its technology to grocery giants like Kroger. Britain’s Morrison and France’s casinos also make use of Ocado’s tech. The hype is all about the new robots. The first is the 600 series bot. It is lighter and more energy-efficient. Over half of the parts are 3D print.

The second robot features advanced robotic arms. It can pick items directly off the grid in the company warehouse. The tech company tried to soothe the picking process.

Ocado also came up with the virtual distribution center. It will be a combination of software smarts and small micro-fulfillment. It will increase the maximizing capacity of grocery giants in product deliveries.

The Ocado shares rose by 5%. The stock, though, had a sharp decline of 46% over the past year. The reason is the pandemic. The central banks tighten monetary policy.

The rapid delivery will enhance the overall performance of the grocery giants. Getir and Gorillas had a flash from venture capitalists. The rapid delivery race can increase revenue acquisition.

These companies depend on dark stores. They are the tiny warehouses that ship online orders. It tends to serve the customers in-store.

Tim Steiner, Ocado’s CEO, states, “There’s very little differentiation between all the players out there.”

Rapid delivery plays a great threat to companies like Amazon. The company plans to fund its technology products. Also, he adds that the firm intends to have enough cash on the balance sheet.

Walmart acquiring two fintech companies

fintech

A Walmart-backed fintech is set to acquire two companies. It intends to build an all-in-one app. It aims to facilitate a platform where customers can manage money. The combination of three will call itself “ONE”.

ONE is the name of the firm Walmart Fintech start-up will acquire. The other fintech company is Even. Walmart is the USA’s largest private employer. And also one of the biggest grocers across the country. They aim to develop unique, affordable financial products. They made this as an announcement last year.

Walmart also announced its team-up with Ribbit Capital. It is an investment firm behind Robinhood. They launch independent fintech start-ups.

Goldman Sachs bankers will lead the joint venture. They hired two of them. Omer Ismail will lead ONE.

Walmart is a major stakeholder in the fintech start-up. It called the start-up Hazel. Also, the board includes most of the top executives of Walmart. The fintech includes CFO Brett Biggs and U.S. CEO John Furner.

The start-up will try to strike 1.6 million U.S employees and 100 million shoppers. It will also focus on the untapped customers. The untapped sections include Walmart’s shoppers. The start-up will capitalize millions of Americans who have no access to a bank account.

This venture will serve as a one-stop platform to spend, borrow and spend. It already features an app for its employees. The app helps with budgeting and emergency savings. Walmarts, PayPal, Mattress Firm, and Humana, are some of its customers.

ONE will offer debit cards and savings accounts to customers. The Walmart-backed start-up will also help people keep track of their money. It will serve as an assistant to the budget.

The acquisition will have 200+ employees. The combined business will account for more than $250 million on the balance sheet. It will include fuel growth, Walmart, Ribbit Capital. The start-up expects the closing of the transaction in the first half of 2022.