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FedEx Express has teamed-up with the Great British Entrepreneur Awards as a sponsor for a third year in 2016.
Hailed as the benchmark for entrepreneurial success in Great Britain, the Great British Entrepreneur Awards enters its fourth year in 2016. Previous winners include Julie Deane OBE, the founder of the Cambridge Satchel Co, who recently wrote a report on self-employment for the government, and co-founder of craft beer giant, BrewDog.
One of the largest courier companies in the world, FedEx helps businesses to realise their potential by exploring international opportunities and ensuring logistics efficiency throughout their supply chain.FedEx provides a range of delivery and logistics services to companies across all sectors, offering tailored solutions to meet specific needs and helping businesses go global.
Nick James, co-founder of the Great British Entrepreneur Awards, said: "We are thrilled to have the continued support of FedEx in celebrating the stories behind the UK's brightest up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Exploring international markets is a crucial step towards business growth, and so it's incredibly comforting to have a world leader in international deliveries and logistics on board."
David Poole, a Great British Entrepreneur Awards judge and managing director of sales, UK South at FedEx Express, said: "The UK possesses a wealth of entrepreneurial talent, with small and medium sized businesses making vital contributions to our economy. This is why we are proud to be supporting the GBEA awards once again. As we have seen with the award’s past winners, with the right support, access to finance and services, Britain’s entrepreneurs can seize opportunities and achieve success at home and abroad. FedEx Express is keen to support them, however we can, every step of the way.”


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Tobacco Sales Compliance Improves Overall, With One Exception
Oregon retailers have done better this year in refusing to sell tobacco to minors. But state inspections found one product with a very high rate of illegal sales.
The state uses underage buyers as decoys to see if stores peddling tobacco will sell it to minors without checking IDs. In just over 1,000 inspections, about 16 percent of retailers failed the test…that’s down slightly from the year before.
But the failure rate for so-called “little cigars” more than doubled. These are smaller than standard cigars and often sell for under a dollar. Their price, and the fact that they come in sweet flavors, makes them appealing to youth. The Oregon Health Authority found that just over a quarter of their inspections resulted in a sale to an underage decoy buyer.
As of last year, tobacco sales are only legal to people age 21 and over in Oregon.

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Players have discovered an exploit in Forza Horizon 5 which has resulted in the dramatic rise in Jeep popularity—outside of its real-world "cult-like" status, that is.
Another Forza Horizon 5 exploit has been making headlines this week—particularly due to its out of game consequences and impact on the title's economy. Players have discovered a way to use a particular Jeep to their advantage and, through clever investment of skill points and credits, use it to farm Super Wheelspins and earn nearly triple of what they put into it. While the circumstances surrounding what brought the "Willys Jeep Exploit" to light are unclear, it has already made itself known through gifts and an aggressive influx in the auction house.
Here's what you need to know.
Forza Horizon 5 Willys Jeep Exploit Explained
The exploit is centered on the MB JEEP 1945—also known as the "Willys" Jeep. It is exceptionally cheap with a price tag of 40,000 credits but doesn't have the best stat table when it comes to actually racing in Forza. Unsurprisingly, however, racing with the Willys Jeep isn't the reason behind purchasing one.
Like other vehicles, investing skill points and credits into a Willys Jeep will unlock perks specific to that car. The last perk is a free Super Wheelspin which has the potential to award players with a credit total leagues above what they put into the Jeep and rarer, more valuable cars essentially for free.
At face value, this doesn't sound like an exploit. It sounds like a just reward for divulging hard earned credits into a rusty open-top car. Well, the exploit, itself, isn't so much what the car can do for players as opposed to what players can do with the car after they get their wheelspin.
Several Forza Horizon 5 players have discovered that they can ditch their Willys Jeep, get their initial skill points refunded, and then go on to purchase another Willys Jeep just to repeat the process. This means the total cost of the exploit is a mere 40k credits which, when compared to the prize pool of a Super Wheelspin, is notedly well worth it—according to fans, anyway.
This has led to an influx of fully upgraded Jeeps in the auction house or being gifted to new players. It has had a noticeable impact on the Forza Horizon 5 economy, as well, either replacing most legitimate transactions or making it impossible to reach those transactions due to needing to scroll through pages of Willys Jeeps.
It is currently unclear whether Playground Games or Xbox Game Studios is planning on patching this exploit out.
Forza Horizon 5 is available for PC and Xbox One/Series S|X.


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By Paul Davis, VP Sales, Scandit
Question: what do the following websites have in common?
Answer: they all covered the same story this week. This one…
App provider Jisp, along with Scandit and the Federation of Independent Retailers (NFRN), came together to introduce mobile self-scanning to UK convenience stores.
The launch store was Hightown Convenience Store, located in Congleton, Cheshire, in the north-west of England. A typical English town, located south of Manchester with a 26,000 population, Congleton is also known for having the third-oldest rugby union club in England.
The above three publications are not the only ones who spotted a good story. In addition, the launch was covered by a range of UK retail sites and titles including Scottish Local Retailer, Talking Retail, and Retail Tech Innovation Hub.
This was followed up by plenty of activity on social media. And all of this coverage is understandable.
Keeping up with the big boys – convenience stores offer mobile self-scanning
Hightown Convenience Store is typical of over 45,000 convenience stores spread across the UK. They are a crucial part of the community and essential for many people, not just those who are unable to visit an out-of-town supermarket.
Their UK coverage is immense. Everyone uses them, and this has only become more true during lockdown.
It is not just a UK phenomenon. Stores like the one in Congleton are fulfilling a similar community role in other countries too. And some have adopted digital tools using Scandit’s barcode scanning software for smart devices.
Last month, PAC2000A, the largest cooperative in the Conad grocery group operating in Umbria, Lazio, Campania, Calabria and Sicily, worked with Scandit to simplify order picking for its home shopping service.
The solution, based on Scandit’s mobile scanning engine, helps staff and volunteers avoid wasting precious time passing items through the scanner once they have arrived at the checkout.
Instead, items are scanned during the order-picking phase. The app then generates a QR code that is read by the checkout scanner to produce a receipt quickly and easily.
Giving small retailers access to the latest digital expertise
Large supermarket chains are investing time and money investing in the latest retail technology, from self-checkout to providing product information with augmented reality (AR). With digital expectations high from e-commerce, customers are coming to like and expect this blend of digital and physical shopping.
Smaller retailers have always understood the need to digitise, especially in today’s digital-first environment. But it is hard for independent stores to access the digital skills and resources of the large chains.
So mobile apps like the one built by Jisp and powered by Scandit barcode scanning software, can help redress the balance.
Hightown Convenience Stores owner Steve Archer said: “Purely and simply, this technology levels the playing field. My store will be offering something that has previously only been available at the big supermarkets.”
“So now we can show people we are positively enhancing our offering and it allows my little shop to compete with the big boys.”
Contactless Shopping in a COVID-19 world
Mobile self-scanning shopping had been growing in importance as a way to make shopping more convenient – after Amazon Go showed the possibilities. But the advent of COVID-19 has taken this to another level and retailers are now accelerating and expanding customer Self-Scanning and Click-and-Collect services.
Now it is about minimising contact in-store – making shopping safer for customers and employees alike. Some things will remain after the pandemic has gone – we think contactless shopping will be one of them.
Retail is evolving quicker than ever. Today self-checkout is taken for granted. The first self-service tills were actually inspired by self-serve canteens, and it was revolutionary to have customers, rather than the shopkeeper, picking products off the shelves.
So with that in mind, here are a few grocery milestones:
From Memphis to Cheshire
- 1888 – Coca-Cola creates the first coupon.
- 1917 – first self-service tills open in Memphis, Tennessee.
- 1967 – first automated till is invented in London (although growth only accelerated in the 80s).
- 1974 – an Ohio supermarket scans the first UPC barcoded product, a pack of Wrigley’s Chewing Gum.
- 2016 – first Amazon Go store opens, complete with cameras and sensors – so shoppers walk in, shop, and walk out.
These innovations are now part of daily life. So, you can see why people as far away as the US and China, might be interested in what has just launched in England’s north-west.
In the future, Congleton, Cheshire might be included in a similar sort of list. When self-scanning became accessible to everyone.
Call or message us if you’d like to learn more about mobile self-scanning and how Scandit can position your enterprise for scanning success.


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Food Lion is celebrating nearly 300 associates who have more than 30 years of service with the retailer, including an associate in Rocky Mount.
“Our associates serve their neighbors with passion, dedication and care each day,” Food Lion President Meg Ham said in a news release. “It’s important to us at Food Lion to take time and thank these dedicated associates for everything they do to nourish our customers, communities and each other. These associates have given their careers so that we can be where we are today, and the entire Food Lion organization is incredibly grateful for their commitment to Food Lion and the towns and cities we serve.”
Included in the list of longtime employees is Henry McLauchlin of Rocky Mount. He’s been with the grocery chain for 35 years.
There are 274 associates with long tenures of service who are celebrating a milestone year in 2020. And Food Lion recognizes these associates celebrating 30, 35, 40 and 45 years of service with the Years of Service Award. Each year, the retailer honors holds a ceremony where each associate’s name, position and location are read aloud.


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In an unusually early announcement, Buena Vista Home Entertainment has set a DVD release date of Aug. 5 for its comedy “Bringing Down the House,” which has amassed a box office in the U.S. of $118 million after less than six weeks in theaters.
Although Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment last week announced DVD release plans for “Tears of the Sun,” which opened on the same weekend as “House,” the early DVD announcement for the latter is particularly unusual since the movie is still performing well in theaters, grossing an estimated $4.6 million over the past weekend.
Still, the window from release to DVD for “Bringing Down the House” will be a fairly typical five months. BVHE has been revealing its late-summer schedule, which will include “Gangs of New York” on July 1 after more than six months in theaters, and “Chicago” on Aug. 19 after seven months in theaters.
“Tears of the Sun,” from Revolution Studios, will come to DVD on June 10, just 13½ weeks from theatrical release, where it generated about $43 million in its first five weeks. Similarly, Columbia released Revolution’s “Maid in Manhattan” on DVD March 25 after 14½ weeks in theaters, where it grossed $94 million.


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As the global printing industry heads to Dusseldorf from May 31-June 10, ink makers will be showing their newest concepts.
Companies form unique partnership, developing new markets and a company along the way.
Siegwerk is expanding its portfolio of low migration UV printing inks by launching the SICURA Nutriflex LEDTec ink series.
2014 was a busy year, headlined by two major acquisitions, new facilities and growth in packaging, UV and inkjet.
Printers see new opportunities, and are optimistic about the future of the industry.
Two Sides North America shows why 165 companies globally have removed Go Paperless campaigns.
Strong growth in the Asia-Pacific region and increased activity in developed regions will continue to drive demand.
Amir to become Landa Corporation CEO, as Benny Landa to continue as active chairman.
Premiere at drupa as a five-color press with coater and LED-UV curing.
Highlights will include presentation of Ink Person of the Year, Ink Supplier of the Year awards.
Ink industry purchasing executives keep watch on cost, availability of crude oil and key feedstocks
Sign up now to receive the free weekly newsletter, and more!


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The enthusiasm to find paying customers for artificial intelligence continues in China. AInnovation, a Chinese computer vision and machine learning startup backed by Kai-Fu Lee’s Sinovation Ventures and SoftBank, is trying to automate China’s massive manufacturing industry. Merely four years old, the startup has filed to go public in Hong Kong, and its prospectus is offering a rare glimpse into the commercial viability of smart manufacturing, which is a key part of China’s industrial blueprint for the next few years.
Throughout the 2010s, computer vision companies like SenseTime and Megvii struck gold by powering China’s public security infrastructure with facial recognition technology. As competition pushes down prices and pressure from U.S. sanctions over surveillance tech rises, China’s early AI upstarts have sought diversification. SenseTime has gone into education. Megvii, also backed by Sinovation Ventures, added warehousing to its offerings.
AInnovation is among a rank of young players in the AI application arena. Co-founded by CEO Xu Hui, who’s a veteran of IBM, SAP and Microsoft in China, the startup derived half of its revenues from manufacturing customers for the nine months ended September 2021, according to its prospectus. Its computer vision modules and customized services are used in scenarios like transporting molten iron, detecting abnormalities on automotive production lines and spotting defects during semiconductor manufacturing.
A third of the firm’s revenues were derived from financial services, with the rest coming from retail, telecommunications and other industries.
A business like AInnovation can’t just hire a team of PhDs to run machine learning models in the lab. It needs to, literally, get its hands dirty, visit customers’ plants and learn what type of automation generates the best return for steelmakers and clothing manufacturers. As such, the startup has established two joint ventures respectively with its key partners — major steelmaking group CISDI and state-owned construction giant China Railway No. 4.
AInnovation isn’t generating nearly as much income as its smart city predecesosrs, yet. In 2020, the startup raked in 462 million yuan ($73 million) in revenue; SenseTime pocketed 3.4 billion yuan in that year. But AInnovation is growing rapidly. In the nine months ended September 2021, its revenue reached 553 million yuan, exceeding the sum of 2020.
There are challenges though. For one, the startup relies heavily on a few key accounts. Revenue generated from its five largest customers in 2019 and 2020 accounted for around 26% and 31%, respectively.
China’s early AI contestants gathered around facial recognition for a reason — it’s lucrative because it’s mostly a software business. SenseTime’s profit margin, for example, rose from about 57% in 2018 to over 70% in 2020.
AInnovation was once a software-first business as well. Its gross margin stood at 63% in 2018 but plummeted to 31% in 2019 and further to 29% in 2020, because it pivoted from selling mostly software to integrated solutions involving more hardware components, which generally incur more material costs, its prospectus notes. Profitability decreased also because the company “offered competitive pricing” to expand its customer base. In the AI business, data is the fuel.
Both are still unprofitable businesses. AInnovation posted an adjusted net loss of about 160 million yuan ($25 million) in 2019 and 144 million yuan in 2020. SenseTime, in comparison, recorded an adjusted net loss of 1 billion yuan and 878 million yuan during the same periods.
Every vertical within China’s manufacturing industry is easily a multi-billion market opportunity; the question is whether AInnovation can find its way to sustained growth and a healthy business model.
AInnovation has priced its shares at HK$26.30 ($3.38) apiece, the bottom of its marketed range, Bloomberg reported earlier. At this price, the company would raise about $151 million from its IPO in Hong Kong.


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Sony is removing PlayStation Communities on PS4, the company has announced - with the axe dropping next month.
The social feature, which will no longer be available in April, allowed players to form parties, send each other messages, share screenshots and other activities.
Sony axing PlayStation Communities on PS4
Although the app was removed in March last year, players were still able to make parties by sorting their friends into groups.
A further blow to PlayStation Communities was dealt when the PS5 was released - as the new console does not support the feature.
There are also no plans that it'll be coming any time soon. It follows Sony removing the ability to buy PS3, PSP, and PS Vita content via a computer or phone.
Elsewhere, grabbing a PS5 is still not as easy as many would have hoped - although there are rumours a massive PS5 stock drop could be expected this week.
Currys, Amazon, Smyths and Argos are thought to be expecting an influx of the sought-after console, which will be music to Sony's ears - as the company confirmed that the "PS5 is being sold at a loss".


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Barry Callebaut has signed an agreement to acquire the ingredients division of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates. This acquisition will strategically expand Barry Callebaut’s Specialties & Decorations business, in particular in North America.
Gertrude Hawk Ingredients has grown to become the largest division of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, a family-owned US company. By creating new and innovative technology and processes to make ice cream and baking inclusions, Gertrude Hawk Ingredients has become a leader in the ingredients market with specialized capabilities and has created lasting partnerships with customers.
Many of its ingredients and contract manufacturing products can be found in US brands and stores across the country. With the acquisition of Gertrude Hawk Ingredients, Barry Callebaut will further extend its leading role in decoration and inclusion products for Food Manufacturers, particularly in the North American market. It will allow Barry Callebaut to expand its portfolio with new technologies for shell molding, panning, and enrobing, and also with solutions for shaped inclusions and peanut butter chips, a very popular product in North America. Together with the recently announced acquisition of D’Orsogna Dolciaria in Europe, this acquisition underlines Barry Callebaut’s strategic efforts to grow in the value-added Specialties & Decorations business, which serves both Food Manufacturers and Gourmet customers seeking differentiation, premiumization and personalization.
The sales volume of Gertrude Hawk Ingredients in 2016/17 was around 13,000 tonnes, with sales revenues of approx. €70 million (US$83 million). Gertrude Hawk Chocolates was founded by Gertrude Hawk in 1936 in Scranton, Pennsylvania. The Ingredients division has a state-of-the-art facility in Scranton, Pennsylvania and employs around 370 people.
Antoine de Saint-Affrique, CEO of Barry Callebaut, said: “We continue to consistently execute our “smart growth” strategy by growing our value-added Specialties & Decorations business. Gertrude Hawk Ingredients adds new capabilities, technologies and skilled employees who we are happy to welcome to the Barry Callebaut family. The acquisition allows us to expand our product portfolio into new markets, and offer an even wider range of products and services than before. Gertrude Hawk Ingredients will play a cornerstone role in our Specialty & Decorations business and we intend to further build on their team and their capabilities.”
Dave Hawk, Chairman of Gertrude Hawk Chocolates, said: “Barry Callebaut has at its fingertips everything needed to continue the growth of the business, including a seasoned, highly respected sales force that calls on virtually every baker and ice cream maker of any size around the world. Also from a community perspective, this is a dream come true. We have the opportunity to bring a world renowned, state-of-the-art chocolate manufacturer to the Scranton area. How often does that happen?”
The transaction is subject to regulatory approval. The closing of the transaction is expected to occur in October 2017.
The parties have agreed not to disclose any financial details of the transaction.
Earlier this week the company launched the fourth category in chocolate: Ruby chocolate, you can read the full story here.
Source: Food Ingredients First
Schumacher will replace Alan Jope, who announced his decision to retire last September, less than a year after a failed attempt by Unilever to buy GlaxoSmithKline’s consumer healthcare business and just months after activist investor Nelson Peltz joined the company’s board.
Globally, plant-based ice creams have doubled their share of the market over the last five years, according to Tetra Pack. Pea protein and coconut milk are leading the way, but Tetra Pak cites data showing that oat-based ice cream launches have doubled in the previous year.
A myriad of so-called eco-labels are being rolled out across various F&B products, but with no gold standard or strict rules governing precisely what the logos mean and what methodology is behind them, concerns are growing that they will confuse consumers and ultimately be counterproductive.


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📰 Introducing ‘The AI Monitor’ Newsletter: Dive into the Latest AI Innovations and Breakthroughs! 🚀🔬
Welcome to the first edition of ‘The AI Monitor’ newsletter by LangLabs! In this exciting newsletter, we’ll keep you up-to-date with the latest happenings in the AI industry, from cutting-edge research to trending product launches. Get ready to explore the fascinating world of artificial intelligence and automation!
🐦 Parrot Streaming Platform: A New Opportunity? 🦜
Did you know that parrots are not only intelligent enough to understand video user interfaces but also prefer watching videos of other parrots? This intriguing discovery suggests a unique opportunity for a “parrot streaming” platform. Imagine a platform where parrots can enjoy their own curated content! If you’re as excited about this idea as we are, LangLabs is looking for a passionate team to explore this innovative concept.
🧑🍳 LangChain Update: Better Batch Error Handling 🧑🍳
LangChain, the popular JS/TS expression language, has released version 0.0.147 with an exciting new feature – better batch error handling. Now, you can set your Expression Language `batch` requests to return thrown errors instead of canceling the entire batch. This allows you to obtain results even if not all calls succeed. Check out the LangChainAI blog for more details!
💡 Breakthrough in Inductive Reasoning with Language Models
Exciting news in the realm of language models! Researchers, including Bo Wang and Anshul Kundaje, are making a remarkable breakthrough in inductive reasoning, pushing the boundaries of what language models can achieve. This opens up new possibilities for improved understanding and problem-solving capabilities. Stay tuned for further updates on this fascinating work!
🔬 GPT-4 vs. Humans: AI Struggles with ARC Task
While language models like GPT-4 have achieved remarkable feats, there are still tasks in which they struggle to outperform humans. The ARC task, which requires participants to infer and apply rules based on input-output grids, is a challenge for GPT-4. However, with Hypothesis Search, the score of GPT-4 has doubled, showing promising potential for future advancements.
🌐 Pinecone Webinar: Making Retrieval Augmented Generation Better ⚡
Join over 350 participants in Pinecone’s upcoming webinar, where James Calam will discuss making retrieval augmented generation better. Explore the fascinating world of retrieval augmented generation and discover how it can enhance your AI applications. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to learn from the experts!
📦 Supabase: Major Update to Cache Helpers 🔄
Supabase, the powerful database backend as a service, has just released its largest update to date. The cache helpers feature has been significantly improved with the core package consolidated into a single product. Additionally, long-standing bugs with updating aliased joins have been fixed. The code has also been reorganized for better accessibility. Check out the Supabase blog for more details!
💰 Co:Helm Emerges from Stealth with $3.2 Million Seed Round 💼
Exciting news from Co:Helm, which has emerged from stealth with a $3.2 million seed round led by Sequoia Capital and angel investors. Co:Helm aims to revolutionize the way businesses are sold, helping owners to sell their companies to employees and the community. Stay tuned for more updates on Co:Helm’s innovative approach to business acquisitions!
🤝 Common Trust: Empowering Business Owners to Sell to Employees 👨💼👩💼
Common Trust, an innovative startup, is on a mission to empower business owners to sell their companies to employees and the local community. Backed by renowned investor Yohei Nakajima, Common Trust aims to provide a seamless platform facilitating these sales. Stay tuned for more updates on this exciting venture!
💬 OpenAI Playground: Your Go-To Tool for AI Development 🎮
Get ready to take your AI development to the next level with the OpenAI Playground. Replace ChatGPT with this powerful tool that offers users more control and flexibility in developing AI applications. Discover how to set up your OpenAI Playground for day-to-day use in our featured blog post!
🚀 Weights & Biases: Mastering the Art of Prompt Engineering 🎨
In the world of language models, prompt engineering plays a crucial role in optimizing results. Discover the best practices and strategies for prompt engineering in our featured blog post by DK21. Learn how researchers test and refine prompts based on academic papers, and unleash the full potential of language models!
🔧 LangChain and GitLab Update: Exciting New Feature 🛠
LangChain, the go-to platform for building, deploying, and managing LLM agents, has introduced a new feature in collaboration with GitLab. This exciting addition streamlines the process of using LangChain in JS, allowing easier logging of eval metrics to LangSmith from your testing suite. Stay tuned for more updates on this powerful technology!
🎵 AI-Generated Music: Prepare to be Amazed! 🎹
Attention music enthusiasts! Prepare to be amazed by the extraordinary Multitrack Midi Generator powered by Gradio. This groundbreaking innovation enables you to create AI-generated music like never before. Unlock your creative potential and explore the forefront of AI music innovation!
🎮 Roblox AI Chatbot: Bringing Creativity to Virtual Worlds 🌐
Roblox, the popular virtual world platform, is all set to onboard over 200 million people to AI with its latest AI chatbot called Roblox Assistant. This innovative feature allows creators to build virtual worlds simply by typing prompts. The fact that over 43% of Roblox users are under the age of 13 opens up exciting possibilities for the next generation of creators.
That’s all for this edition of ‘The AI Monitor’! Stay tuned for more exciting updates in the next newsletter. Remember to follow us on social media and subscribe to our blog for the latest news and developments in AI and automation. Until next time, keep exploring the world of artificial intelligence!
🔍 Read the complete newsletter with images and interactive content on our website.


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Chris Heille and Chad Koehle of ZIVIX sit town with TechCrunch to talk about their MIDI guitar. This guitar is surprisingly light and very fun. By plucking the strings, the guitar plays music using synthesized sounds and it can also recognize chords, notes, and nuances including bends and hammers. The guitar connects to a PC or tablet and can be played just like a regular guitar.
Watch more startup news and interviews from CES 2013: http://goo.gl/1u1yr
Subscribe to TechCrunch TV: http://goo.gl/eg167
TechCrunch, the leading technology media property dedicated to startups, reviews, and breaking tech news, brings you the latest from CES 2013. TechCrunch TV is streaming live from the show floor all week covering 'must see' gadgets and startup news. Tune in for exclusive interviews from top tech executives stopping by our outdoor studio.


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Whether you need a smartphone, smart TV, smart home assistant, or smart charger that turns your smartphone into a smart home assistant that can control your suddenly smart TV, Google's Black Friday specials might have what you're looking for.
Though this might sound complicated, once you get the hang of Apple's Shortcuts app, setting up this sequence is relatively simple. But now, thanks to a new feature in the latest iOS version, users can create a Siri shortcut that will help them launch Google Assistant using their voice ... from Siri. It's also an incredible platform for media, whether you want music, streaming video or an integrated TV experience. It suggests "Ok Google", but you can use whatever here. It will then open the app, and the Google Assistant will be listening for a command.
Google's hack is a brilliant as it is ponderous: Those who wish to use the best digital personal assistant on their iPhones had been forced to manually run the Google Assistant app because Apple locks down the default assistant app on its platforms.
Ex-49ers RB Jarryd Hayne Arrested for Sexual Assault, Faces 20 Years
But the 30-year-old cut it fine, arriving at Sydney's Castle Hill Police Station just 30 minutes before his 8pm deadline. Hayne was placed in police custody on Monday afternoon before being granted bail at 2am on Tuesday morning.
Google is making use of Siri Shortcuts to bring an nearly handsfree and native Assistant experience to iPhone, something which it has been offering on Android devices for years now. Now, if you are driving down the parkway, you can just say "Hey Siri, Okay Google" and ask it what you want to know.
Google apps have always taken a backseat behind Apples own offerings for Maps, Music, and even with Siri. When you open the app, you should be prompted to add "OK Google" to Siri. If you've already closed that bad boy and realize you hate saying "OK Google", you can still change it after the fact.
Certainly, it's not quite as elegant as just talking to Google's AI directly.


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The VR social movie theater experience just got a lot more realistic.
VRFocus talked with Unity's Director of Development about reaching out to new platforms.
It's not just Magic Leap support that was announced at GDC 2018.
Cross-platform connectivity is coming with Gear VR first up and more mobile VR headsets after that.
When standalone frees us all of wires and the PC - what's keeping the PC hardware makers interested in VR, exactly?
Looks like it could be a launch title.
Oculus will be attending this year's Game Developer Conference and bringing with it plenty of developments from the world of virtual reality.
Kevin Williams wanders the vast halls of the International Casino Expo to see the VR developments
The company synonymous with modern VR has faced some hurdles, but continues to be the trend setter.
Colum Slevin believes mainstream adoption will happen eventually.


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Fry-up fans can tuck into what's believed to be the biggest supermarket full English in the UK from this week.
Morrisons has launched the Big Daddy Breakfast, the largest cooked breakfast available in the nation's supermarket cafés.
And it comes with a bargain price of just £6.
But you'll need to be quick to tuck in - the offer is limited and runs until June 24.
The 19-piece breakfast includes...
- three rashers of 100% British bacon
- three 100% British pork sausages
- three hash browns
- two half slices of fried bread
- two fried eggs
- two half tomatoes
- two black puddings
- 110g of baked beans
- 60g of sliced mushrooms
The fry-up has eight items more than Morrisons’ standard big breakfast - and is double the size of some other supermarket café offerings says the store.
By comparison, Asda offers a 12-item meal, Tesco's Big Breakfast offer has 12 items, and Sainbury's comes with nine.
Helen Tordoff, head of cafés at Morrisons, said: "Our standard cooked breakfast is one of our most popular meals on the menu, but customers have asked for one that’s even bigger.
"The ‘Big Daddy Breakfast’ is an excellent choice for customers with a big appetite."
To find your nearest in-store cafe visit my.morrisons.com/storefinder.


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Mazda to Begin Shipping Cars to Russia Via Trans-Siberian Railroad
With most of Russia's rapidly growing auto market situated in the western portion of the country, Japanese automakers like Mazda have had to work out the logistics of shipping their cars to the other end of the Eurasian continent. Where boats sufficed in the past, Mazda is foraging a new path, this time using the famous Trans-Siberian Railroad.
Until now, Mazda got cars to Western Russia by shipping them by boat to Germany, then again by boat to Finland, then over land to Russia. This seems convoluted, given that Japan isn't far from Russia's eastern borders, but until now, there hasn't been a good way of getting large numbers of cars thousands of miles across the largest country on Earth.
For this reason, Mazda began testing the possibility of shipping via the Trans-Siberian Railroad last September. After hundreds of tests and construction of some new terminals along the way, Mazda has announced they're ready to begin shipping via the railway. They will be the first manufacturer ever to regularly use the 5,791-mile rail line.
Mazda hopes to ship 9,000 vehicles via the Trans-Siberian Railroad next year to meet the huge demand for Mazdas in Russia, which is up 83% from 2007 during the first eight months of this year. The company will continue to ship cars by sea to Eastern Europe as well to meet the full demand, but utilizing the railroad should take 30 days off the delivery time for Russian customers. The rail service will only take 10 days to move cars from Eastern Russia to Moscow. 30 special railroad cars will move Mazda3s at first, and possibly CX-7s and CX-9s later.
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Only about 27 per cent of Africans regularly use the internet but this is growing fast, according to US-based Alphabet, the holding company for brands such as Google and YouTube.
Mobile internet penetration accounts for about a quarter of all internet activity, but will continue to grow to 41 per cent in 2020 with 720 million people, says the global mobile communications body GSMA. Many of these new users will be connecting to the Web via smartphones.
Almost half of all Africans now subscribe to a mobile service with Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa accounting for the bulk of the users, GSMA says.
So big has mobile become that it now contributes about 7 per cent of the continent’s GDP, and will exceed US$200 billion by the end of this decade.
A study by the mobile technology firm Ericsson is even more optimistic – it says more than 1 billion Africans will be connected within five years, mostly using smart devices. Personal computers will play an almost negligible role in Web access, it says.
Social media is one of the biggest drivers of internet use. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp are commonly used. So much so, in fact, that some governments restrict their use for fear they will be used for political activism. Last year, the BBC reported that Ethiopia blocked social media services during a state of emergency to contain protests.
Political activists of all stripes have taken to social media with alacrity. In South Africa critics of the president Jacob Zuma have used these platforms to organise protests and attack his supporters. Mr Zuma’s backers, meanwhile, have carried out their own campaign in his defence.
Internet companies have had to adapt to the often poor bandwidth in many African countries. The South African provider Telkom has still to live down a 2009 test during which a carrier pigeon with a flashdrive with four gigabytes of data delivered the information to a destination 60 kilometres away, faster than the same amount of data could be downloaded.
In 2015, Facebook unboxed Facebook Lite, an app for parts of the world where internet speeds are slow. The Lite is less than one megabyte compared with standard apps in excess of 100 megabytes.
Still, getting unconnected Africans online has some way to go. One of the issues yet to be overcome is that 15 countries out of 54 are landlocked. Coastal countries are increasingly being connected via undersea cables, but for landlocked neighbours this option does not exist.
The World Bank says these countries pay an average US$232 more per internet user a month for fixed broadband access than those living in coastal areas. The disparity is so great that Somalia has better connectivity than Zambia and Lesotho, in spite of being a failed state.
While the citizens of Ghana on the west coast pay as little as $7 a month for internet, those of Chad in the north and which is surrounded by its neighbours, must pay $3,000, the World Bank says. One attempt to overcome this was made by Facebook when it decided to place a satellite in orbit to provide connectivity. Unfortunately, the SpaceX rocket that was supposed to deliver it blew up shortly after launch late last year. It is unclear when a replacement will be available.
In the meantime, Facebook and Google are also working on other methods, including drones and balloons. Given the potential size of the market for advertising these efforts are likely to gather momentum.
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Viking. Cruises will launch a new ocean cruise itinerary that will allow guests the rare opportunity to explore the far north in Norway’s winter, during a peak period for aurora borealis sightings.
Holiday Cottages In Forest Of Dean Royal Caribbean Cruises 2019 4√ê¬º Add Royal Caribbean to the list of cruise lines raising prices for drinks packages. Effective Jan. 1, the cost of the line’s main drinks package, the Deluxe Beverage Package, will range from $63 to. MIAMI, Feb. 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. (RCL) has been recognized by the
Going here in November. cruises you only see them at the Captains party, or just eating. The food supervisors also assisted in the buffet area. The crew took great care of the passengers. Overall a.
"If we need to evacuate everyone, it will take a long time," a spokesman said. The ship, built in 2017, belongs to Viking Ocean Cruises, part of the Viking Cruises group founded by Norwegian.
TRAPANI, Sicily — Eager for a glimpse of Viking Sky, the new ship from Viking Ocean Cruises? Scroll through. Another sister ship, Viking Sun, arrives in November. Two more Viking ships are coming.
Viking Ocean Cruises is one of 21 cruise lines that will stop at Cruiseport Boston during the 2016 cruise season — which runs from late April through mid-November. “We have always had a vision to.
Backpacker Accommodation Melbourne Nov 1, 2017. Discovery Melbourne offer cheap weekly hostel rates in Melbourne without being a budget accommodation provider. Situated in the heart of. Melbourne – Australia best hostels, online booking, booking in Melbourne, Melbourne – Australia hostels, Melbourne travel guide. Apr 3, 2018. Hostel review of Space Hotel in Melbourne, Australia – an up-market backpacker
Spend Christmas 2019 watching. Viking River Cruises, Avalon Waterways and AmaWaterways. Explore Seychelles, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. Navin Sawhney, CEO of Ponant, highlights a cruise to these.
Members Of The Travelling Wilburys Traveling Wilburys Read more about this and other GRAMMYs news at GRAMMY.com. He was also a member of the impromptu supergroup the Traveling Wilburys, which included Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Roy Orbison and Jeff Lynne. To read the full article, click here. What’s your. Pooling the considerable talents of George Harrison, Roy Orbison, Jeff Lynne,
Not only would we recommend to other people to consider Viking Ocean cruises but we have booked a second cruise for November 2019. That one is in the Caribbean and hits several islands we have not.
The Sussex’s touching tribute to Princess Diana in Pride Month post The shipping news February 2019: Viking Jupiter, Viking Ocean Cruises February 2019: Viking Jupiter, Viking Ocean Cruises February.
WASHINGTON, Nov. 13, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — U.S. News. the Mediterranean and the Best Luxury Cruise Line. Celebrity Cruises is the No. 1 Best Cruise Line for the Money, while Viking Ocean Cruises.
Viking Ocean Cruises offers the 244-night round-trip odyssey from. From £9,215pp (including flights and transfers), departing November 28, 2019 (destinology.co.uk). The growing demand for luxury.
Viking Cruises has announced the delivery of its forth ocean ship, Viking Sun. This October, Viking Sun will set sail from Venice, making its way across the Adriatic and Ionian Seas on its inaugural.
Disney, Seabourn, Celebrity and Viking Earn Top Honors; Tech and Wellness Trending This Year – WASHINGTON, Nov. 13. Celebrity Cruises is the No. 1 Best Cruise Line for the Money, while Viking Ocean.
KOBLENZ, Germany — At the confluence of the Rhine and Mosel rivers in Germany, near the French border, Viking River Cruises on. arrives in November. Two more ocean-going ships are on order and will.
(12:35 p.m. EST) — Viking Ocean Cruises floated out Viking Sun today from a shipyard. and the second to come out in 2017. It will debut in November; sister ship Viking Sky sails its inaugural.
Viking Ocean Cruises’ newest ship. It will feature a stunning Scandinavian design as well as a variety of "Local Life," "Working World," and "Privileged Access" experiences. MSC’s second ship of 2019,
We liked the experience so much that we signed up on board for another cruise on the ORION in Nov. 2019 -this time to Southeast Asia. The cabin was lovely and well appointed. Because we were the last.
The Norwegian government is currently deciding whether to build a giant ocean tunnel through a nearby mountain to improve safety. The Viking Sky, built in 2017, belongs to Viking Ocean Cruises. 24.


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4C Foods Recalls Cheese Products due to Salmonella Scare
4C Foods Corporation is issuing a nationwide recall for certain cheese products due to possible Salmonella contamination. The recall affects 4C Grated Cheese, Homestyle Grated Cheese, and Cento Grated Cheese Brands. “Other 4C Foods products, including any other cheese products, are not impacted by this recall.” The company said in its Nov. 15 recall alert posted on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website.
Parker Waichman LLP is closely monitoring food recalls involving salmonella contamination, listeria contamination and other food safety issues. The firm is offering free legal consultations to individuals with questions about filing a food poisoning lawsuit.
Eating food contaminated with Salmonella can lead to infections. In some individuals, especially the elderly, children, and people with weak immune systems, Salmonella poisoning can be fatal. Symptoms of Salmonella poisoning include fever, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In rare cases, Salmonella can affect the bloodstream and lead to more severe illness.
The recalled cheese products were packed in 6 ounce vacuum-sealed glass jars with BEST BY dates between November 12, 2016 and November 12, 2018. Cases contained either 6 or 12 jars. The recall alert lists the following products as being affected by the recall:
• 4C All Natural Parmesan Grated Cheese (UPC 41387-33126)
• 4C All Natural Parmesan/Romano Grated Cheese (UPC 41387-37126)
• 4C All Natural 100% Imported Italian Pecorino Romano Cheese (UPC 41387-77126)
• 4C HomeStyle All Natural Parmesan Grated Cheese (UPC 41387-32790)
• 4C HomeStyle All Natural Parmesan/Romano Grated Cheese (UPC 41387-11627)
• 4C HomeStyle All Natural 100% Imported Italian Pecorino Romano Cheese (UPC 41387-12302)
• Cento Parmesan Grated Cheese (UPC 70796-90502)
• Cento Romano Grated Cheese (UPC 70796-90501)
No illnesses were associated with the recall, the company said. “Although no illnesses have been reported, we are voluntarily recalling these products out of an abundance of caution after FDA testing revealed the issue.”
Last year, a Salmonella poona outbreak affected 35 states; at least four people died and over 700 became ill. The outbreak stemmed from “slicer” or “American” cucumbers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said over half of the people who became ill were children. Two California produce distributors recalled cucumbers grown in Mexico. Andrew & Williamson Fresh Produce of San Diego, California recalled cucumbers sold under the label “Limited Edition.” They were grown and packed by Rancho Don Juanito in Mexico. Custom Produce Sales of Parlier, California recalled cucumbers sold under the “Fat Boy” label. They were grown in Baja, California and distributed in California, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas.
Last year, Aspen Foods issued two recalls due to possible Salmonella contamination. In June, the company recalled nearly 2 million pounds of frozen, raw, stuffed and breaded chicken products. Another recall was issued in October 2015, affecting 561,000 pounds of frozen, raw stuffed and breaded chicken products. Both recalls were associated with the same strain of Salmonella Enteritidis.
Recently, many ice cream products were recalled due to contamination with Listeria monocytogenes, another bacterium that can cause foodborne illness. Recalls were issued for products containing Aspen Hill cookie dough pieces. Ice cream products manufactured by Dr. Bob’s of Upland were also implicated in a series of recent recalls. Parker Waichman keeps up-to-date with food safety news and will continue to monitor food poisoning recalls.
Salmonella Poisoning Background
According to the CDC, Salmonella poisoning leads to one million foodborne illnesses each year in the United States, resulting 19,000 hospitalizations and 380 deaths. Symptoms of Salmonella poisoning, which usually include diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps, occur 12 to 72 hours after being exposed. Most people are ill for 4 to 7 days and recover without treatment. In some cases, however, severe diarrhea leads to hospitalization.
Children have the highest risk of being infected with Salmonella. The CDC says children under the age of 5 have the highest rates of Salmonella infection compared to all other age groups.
According to Mayo Clinic, Salmonella infection is most often caused by eating raw or undercooked meat, poultry, egg or egg products. Salmonella can be spread when people who prepare foods don’t wash their hands after using the toilet or changing a diaper. Salmonella infection can also occur if individuals touch something that is contaminated, such as pets (especially birds), and put their fingers in their mouth.
Legal Help for Food Poisoning Victims
If you or someone you know became exposed to salmonella through food contamination, you may have valuable legal rights. The food safety attorneys at Parker Waichman LLP offer free, no-obligation case evaluations. For more information, fill out our online form or call 1-800-YOURLAWYER (1-800-968-7529).


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Safely back in their office cubicles, Americans let their fingers do the shopping Monday, racking up $6.59 billion in online sales by the end of the day.
Amazon goes into the holiday season with a newly magnified brick-and-mortar presence, giving it more opportunities to sell its Kindle e-readers, Fire tablets and other gadgets.
Amazon is making a play for low-income shoppers.
According to a forthcoming study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science online display ads can increase both online and offline retail sales, providing valuable insight for future marketing decisions.
Buying things online could get pricier after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected a case Monday that could ultimately lead to states collecting billions of dollars in sales taxes lost to increasingly popular internet retailers.
Shoppers put in a strong showing on Thanksgiving Day and Black Friday.
Americans are turning to their mobile devices for deals to kick off the holiday shopping season, with retail trends increasingly upended by ever-present smartphones.
Millions of Americans paused during the Monday after Thanksgiving to check out online deals and check off people on their holiday gift list. But so-called Cyber Monday may be in danger of losing its online sales title.
Cyber Monday is starting earlier and earlier.
After a tumultuous presidential election, will Americans be ready to shop for the holidays? Research firms are predicting robust growth for online shopping, at least.


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For most of the last decade, we’ve been talking about the same old, same old.
Mobile payments will be how we pay. Online retailers will be where we shop. Technology — not traditional payments companies — will be who leads the way.
And until recently, it was met with the same old, same old response: Yeah, maybe next year.
Well, it sure feels like next year — 2017 — could be that year.
We’ve hit the inflection point this year that pundits have been predicting each year for the last 10.
With inflection points, it’s hard to know that you’ve hit one until you are on the other side of it. That’s because inflection points are often the result of small, incremental steps that individually don’t look like much but collectively all add up to one big, honking change in how things are now done.
Which brings us to where we are today.
Guess what? We’re on the other side.
The future will look nothing like the past — in fact, the future of payments and commerce may not at all be like that which many have envisioned and perhaps even planned for. Looking at the data, how players in payments and commerce more broadly are using technology and the shopping habits of consumers all make that fact indisputable.
I believe that this inflection point will accelerate the four big shifts that have been taking place right before our very eyes over the last decade — shifts that will now set the course for how every single player in payments and commerce and retail should be planning their 2017 and beyond.
That is, of course, if they want to survive what’s next.
Yeah, big deal, you say. We’ve been watching online sales now grow — even double — year over year, for many years now, but it’s still tiny, overall. Census tells us that more than 90 percent of sales still happen in the physical store. That means our focus in payments should be about swapping out mobile phones for plastic cards at the point of sale inside the store — right?
If it were only that straightforward.
As I wrote in January, based on the work of my colleagues at MPD, we discovered that Census has been underreporting online sales data now for at least a decade. Not on purpose, of course, but because the shifts in how people are using shopping channels and payments are moving faster than their methods of tracking these shifts allow.
That means that, if you are looking at that data and thinking that it will take something like 20 years for that 90 percent number to drop to a level that might cause you to hit the panic button, then it’s probably you who should be reaching for one — STAT.
Thinking that way misses a much bigger point: That is, looking at an “average” percent of sales done in a physical store is about as accurate as following the Farmer’s Almanac‘s prediction of the average amount of snowfall in Boston each winter by examining how furry the caterpillars are.
Take books, for example.
Physical booksellers don’t take a whole lot of comfort when they read Census data that says 90 percent of all retail sales happen in a physical store, since, for them, actually only about 30 percent of sales happen that way. In fact, in less than 20 years, books have shifted from being a product that used to be bought only in a physical store to one bought online 70 percent of the time and from one retailer in particular (you-know-who, in Seattle). Every single one of the chain bookstores in the U.S. is dead except for one, Barnes & Noble, and it is just barely hanging on.
Our data shows that it’s not just books that are feeling that shift — or even that same shift to Amazon.
Who in the world ever thought that there’d come a day when groceries would be bought online? Grocery shopping — that once-a-week ritual to inspect food and stock up in a physical store, usually with the kids in tow — is a ritual that’s now increasingly shifting online.
Not all groceries, of course, but definitely the stuff that’s bulky and otherwise a pain-in-the-neck to haul home: paper towels, laundry detergent, canned goods, cleaning supplies. These are all staples that don’t have to be inspected before a purchase, so consumers are just as happy to outsource the heavy lifting to someone else who picks and packs for them and then just ships their order to their front door.
Those are also the same things that most people couldn’t care less about being a name brand, meaning it’s not just the grocery stores that are singing the blues. The shift from buying grocery products in a store where consumers can be enticed by end caps and colorful product packaging to online squeezes the big brands, too: They’re not moving stock on the shelves as quickly as they once did.
Now, it’s not as though people won’t ever step foot inside a grocery store again. But when they do, their visits will likely take on a different personality. They’ll probably spend less time and money there and will buy only the things that they need and want to inspect — produce, meats, maybe even prepared foods — provided that can’t be outsourced to online, too.
Let’s talk about pet food.
We all laughed when Pets.com had the totally ridiculous idea in 1998 to sell and ship pet supplies, including dog food, online. How in the world could anyone stay in business when it was shipping umpteen bags of kibble weighing 22 pounds each? The answer then was that it didn’t: It went belly-up in two years for that very reason.
Right idea — wrong time.
Fast forward to today, and say hello to players like PetFlow — and Amazon, of course — who have that piece of the puzzle down to a science. PetFlow not only sells pet food online (including prescription dog food), plus a slew of pet supplies, but allows you to just “set and forget” shipments at key intervals. Amazon does this, too, but does even one better by selling dog food bowls that automatically reorder based on how much Fido has consumed.
Then, there’s cars.
EBay Motors introduced us to the notion of buying and selling cars online in 2000. By 2004, it had sold 1 million cars online — something that most people then thought implausible. Buy a car online without, literally, kicking the tires? But eBay Motors proved that ratings, recommendations and pricing systems provided the transparency and buyer protection to inspire consumer confidence and move cars without having to see it first before buying it.
Over the years, competition naturally followed. But it was the news made a few weeks back by two rather unconventional entrants to the car-buying space that caused the collective industry to gasp and the stocks of two longstanding industry players — TrueCar and Autobytel — to tumble.
A direct cause of those players’ stock woes was Amazon’s launch of an auto portal, which gives consumers a place to search for information about the cars that they might like to buy, too. The week prior, Amazon also announced it was testing an on-demand test drive program that will bring a Hyundai to the homes of consumers who might like to buy one. It’s a pretty safe bet that Amazon isn’t just going to be happy for long with being just a source for information about car buying (since it doesn’t make money on advertising) and a free way for consumers to scratch their Hyundai test drive itch.
Chase also launched an auto portal that allows consumers to find new and used cars online, and then apply for a loan once they find the one they want to buy. However, given that Chase’s new auto venture is powered by TrueCar, Amazon’s announcement certainly had a bigger hit on TrueCar’s bottom line.
Breaking the car dealership model won’t be easy — as Tesla has discovered — but thinking that dealerships and cars on the showroom floor are going to be way that most cars are bought and sold a decade from now is a folly of fools. In fact, it might be that buying cars online will become the most disruptive forms of showrooming there ever was.
Years ago, a visit to the local liquor store was pretty much the only way that you could discover and then buy that fabulous full-bodied Malbec or stock up on Grey Goose.
Innovators like Drizly have turned the sale of alcohol into something that can now not only be bought online but delivered the same day — sometimes, in the same hour.
It would seem that the zillion federal and state rules and regs would make the mere prospect of selling spirits online impossible and, therefore, an illogical category to ever shift substantially online. But alcohol is just the latest example of another “it will never go online” product that is, in fact, shifting that way. It is exactly the blue ocean opportunity that innovators are using technology and regulatory know-how to conquer.
These few examples — books, cars, groceries, liquor — represent but only the tip of the shift online iceberg.
We’re seeing even more acceleration of sales online in the categories that were among the early poster children for eCommerce: shoes, sporting goods, electronics. But you get the point — physical stores no longer have a lock on the things that once were only ever purchased there. This shift is happening for two reasons.
First, PayPal and other “buy buttons” have made the process of paying for things easier on PCs, as well as the smartphones and digital devices that consumers are increasingly using to place those orders.
And second, Amazon has invested in a logistics infrastructure that delivers what consumers buy with one-click more efficiently than if the consumer were schlepping to the store to buy the very same things. In the past, waiting a week or 10 days for stuff needed in two days justified the schlep to the store, while helping to keep retailer shipping costs in check.
Cracking the logistics quagmire — delivery — plays a big part in both the why and the how of how shifts to online are not only happening but getting traction and creating new opportunities for those who wish to capitalize on them.
One of the biggest omnichannel boxes that retailers most want to check is giving their consumers the option to buy online/pick up in store (BOL/PUIS). Retailers know that doing it increases the odds that a consumer will buy more stuff once they step inside. That’s a trend that we see and track in our quarterly OmniReadi Index.
But that’s only a part of the pick out and pay online, fulfill in physical store story — and the source of the real online shift.
There are a host of products that, to actually get, one actually has to visit a store. For instance, it’s hard to drink that double soy latte with an extra shot from Starbucks or eat that bean-and-cheese burrito from Taco Bell if you don’t actually go to Starbucks or the Bell to get it.
But how consumers order and pay for those products before they get it to eat or drink is changing — a lot.
Waiting in line to order and pay, and then, waiting in line for the food that has just been ordered and paid for will soon seem like something that only amateurs do. Mobile order ahead is taking QSR by storm. It’s driving 4 percent of all Starbucks sales after only one year and showing double-digit growth. Many chains see similar results, and others are eagerly jumping on board.
It’s the proverbial win-win.
Apps that allow for orders to be placed and paid for online typically drive incremental spend — offering up the bag of chips or extra cheese that consumers might not think about when in the store. Consumers are spared the wait to get what they really want — the biggest friction of all in those sorts of establishments. Restaurants get sales lift and a healthier bottom line, since fewer cashiers are needed — a welcome benefit as they face the prospect of higher minimum wages for their workers and the cost of installing pricey new POS terminals to support growing volume.
Then, there’s fuel.
Whipping out a card (or cash) has been how gasoline has been bought as long as there have been cars on the road. That was until a few years back when ZipLine rolled out its branded mobile app for independent station operators that let consumers activate the pump from their car and pay when they’d filled up, using their bank account as the funding source.
P97 is after the same experience, using its platform and oil-branded mobile apps that leverage mobile wallets, like Chase Pay. It, too, sees a mobile app future that eliminates the consumer friction from having to use a physical card to pay at the pump, shifting instead to an online purchase using a cloud-based app. Station operators are hip to this new scene, too, since it spares them the billions that upgrading to EMV will cost them.
Then, there’s Walmart Pay.
Leveraging the Walmart.com app means using a QR code in-store to authenticate the consumer to the app and then having purchases charged to their Walmart.com credentials — and whatever methods of payment they have registered to it. Buy in-store, pay online.
Now, this payments shift — paying online and fulfilling in the physical store — does a lot more than change how consumers pay for what they are buying.
It changes how retailers should be thinking about the reinvention of the in-store experience once consumers step inside and how leveraging the behavior that consumers know really well — how to pay for stuff online — can be leveraged to remove the real frictions consumers encounter when they visit their favorite brick-and-mortar establishment.
We’ve been talking about invisible payments now for as long as there’s been Uber.
The “Uber” experience was touted as “the way” that all payments needed to work — embedded inside of an app whose utility was about something else entirely — in this case, booking a ride. What made payments “invisible” was that, once the ride was over, without the consumer having to actively engage and push “buy,” the card registered to the app was charged.
Over the years, Uber has refined and perfected that experience. Most recently, it’s added a message that gives the rider an estimate of how much the ride is likely to cost. It seems that riders love the invisibility of the act of paying but not how much they were actually going to be charged.
Today, embedding payments inside of apps and ecosystems is only increasing.
Amazon’s Alexa can order a pizza, an Uber, a book and any number of things using payments credentials embedded in the apps that she’s fetching those items from. Apple’s Siri can also book an Uber and send a pal money, leveraging Square Cash.
Facebook’s Messenger lets consumers book a JetBlue flight using Masterpass and conduct a host of other commerce-enabled activities using apps and embedded payments from its messaging platform. Venmo now lets users order from a variety of merchants from inside of Venmo. WeChat is an entire ecosystem that lets its users buy any number of products or services from any number of providers, without ever leaving WeChat.
Google lets consumers buy from its search pages and via its YouTube videos. Restaurant reservation apps, like OpenTable, Reserve and Velocity, make it possible to reserve a table and pay for the meal using payments credentials registered to the app.
Yelp has embedded a restaurant order, pay and delivery app inside of its own app and now lets consumers put themselves on a waiting list for those restaurants that don’t take reservations. Payment can’t be that far behind.
Amazon’s idea of embedding payments off Amazon shows how differently it imagines embedded payments. “Check-in is the new checkout,” Amazon believes. When consumers are asked to “sign in with Amazon,” that means they are setting themselves up for a one-click checkout once they have finished filling their basket.
Platforms like MINDBODY help SMBs do things like make bookings online. But now, booking a cut and a blow dry with that favorite stylist can also include an option to pay online once the hair is perfectly coifed, tip included. Want to sign up for a package of SoulCycle or Bar Method classes? Book online, pay online and workout until the cows come home — without ever paying at the studio. Want a SoulCycle T-shirt, too, just because? Charges are made to the card on file in the app.
For most of the last decade, the vision for mobile payments has been all about a hardware and technology solution using mobile phones as a form factor replacement at a relatively static in-store shopping and checkout experience.
A funny thing happened on the way to the consumer’s digitally dependent lifestyle.
Not enough of them thought that a form factor swap-out was enough.
If the last decade was about making hardware first and software-driven payments ecosystems second, the next decade will be its polar opposite.
And it doesn’t take much more than looking at the first three shifts — and their successes (and the current lack of success with every single “Pay” solution that is hardware-first) — to understand why I see the future that way.
Apple, Android and Samsung Pay have failed to get traction so far — and not for the lack of a slick phone or a slick app to go with it. Their traction is a function of too many other people and businesses having to do too many other things. Consumers have to buy the right phone, download the app and register a card. Merchants have to install the right equipment so that consumers with those phones can use them at enough places to make downloading the app worth it. And enough of that has to happen in enough stores the consumer frequents enough times in a week in enough parts of the world for habits to form and adoption and usage to take off.
And happen at the same time that more in-store sales are happening online, the payment for goods and services fulfilled in-store are moving online and ecosystems are emerging that give consumers more opportunities to buy things online and fulfill those experiences in a physical location where payment happens online before they ever show up.
It’s why the future of mobile payments isn’t going to be about “the device” that enables payment but about who can enable a consumer’s digital payments experience across any app, any device, inside of any ecosystem or shopping channel they pick to buy what they want to buy.
If online is the tip of the spear that’s driving the four shifts that I laid out, then it might be that the players who are best positioned to win should be those who know online because that’s where they were born, came of age and earned their stripes.
That would put PayPal and Amazon at the top of that list — in part, because they have each driven these shifts but in very different ways. Each have invested in cloud-based solutions that meet the consumer where she is going — online — not simply where she might have been yesterday — in the store with a plastic card in her hand (or a mobile phone that is supposed to be a swap for that card). Each have a decade-plus consumer track record that has instilled the trust and confidence that doing business with them online is a safe bet, literally. And each is pursuing a very different roadmap for how they see the future of payments, commerce and retail playing out.
Yet, the digital future is not as black and white as a consumer buying from Amazon or paying with PayPal on a merchant site somewhere on the web. It’s many shades of grey, with many permutations of players and partnerships each trying to sort out where they fit and how it might work out. It’s still early days, with time for players to pivot, adjust and make their moves.
Make no mistake, though, the dye has been cast for what’s needed to get there — and it’s no longer something that is so far off in the distance that you have to squint to see it and not worry too much about how far away you are from it today. The four shifts that I described are now our digital payments reality and offer some very strong clues about the direction, the path and the players who are aligning their strategies to those shifts.
Keep in mind, though, that you don’t really see an inflection point until you’re on the other side of it. This, however, is one inflection point you don’t want to find yourself standing on the other side of wondering how it happened.
So, sharpen those pencils and get busy fine-tuning those 2017 plans. The future won’t wait, and neither will your customers.


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*A story written by Odile Tezel conservationist and intern for Fuze Ecoteer*
From simple consumerism to sustainable consumption habits
At Fuze-Ecoteer, we believe that we have a responsibility towards our planet and its inhabitants: humans, animals and plants. That is why we carry out awareness campaigns, develop conservation projects, and fight against poaching activity and illegal exploitation of natural resources.
Of course, big scale actions count: in order to reverse the trend of global warming and the depletion of natural resources, dramatic changes will need to take place at corporate and governmental levels. However, I wonder: surely, preserving the environment should not only be politicians, global payers and NGOs’ business? Isn’t it crucial to change the way we live and the way we consume as well?
Nowadays, developed societies rely on a lifestyle made of abundance and overconsumption of resources. All the process that comes before and after consuming a good is invisible to our eyes and, therefore, we lack a broader vision of the real environmental impact of our consumption on the planet.
For example, did you know that the meat industry is more polluting than transportation? It also requires 2,500 gallons of water to produce one pound of beef and cattle rearing is responsible of 80% of the destruction of the Amazonian rainforest: as we lack space we transform huge portions of forests into grazing land. Therefore, by cutting meat out of our diet or by only reducing our daily intake, we can participate in preserving clean air and water resources.
Also, we waste a huge amount of electricity by leaving electrical appliances on standby. Figures show that 8% of the total electricity used in our homes comes from appliances that we did not completely turn off. So by turning them off, you would not only save energy but also money!
Let’s take another example. You might have heard about the tremendous amount of food wasted every year. Here are the numbers: 41200 kilos of food are wasted every second around the world. It means that, every year, we waste 1.3 billion tones of food. Not only it is a lot of wasted energy, but also, this food could have gone to people in need.
Therefore, I am personally convinced that part of the answer to the problems currently afflicting our planet lies in the way we consume. Given the urgency of the situation, we have to realise that the abundance of resources our lifestyle relies on is an illusion. Living standards in developed countries are completely out of proportion compared to the limited resources of our planet. And the only reason we have been able to sustain this lifestyle until now is because a lot of countries are still not part of this exponential development. If every inhabitant on this planet would consume the way western countries do, we would need three or four other planet Earth!
So what should we do about that? Well, we can stop being simple consumers and adopt sustainable consumption habits!
Being a simple consumer means that desire and convenience are the only things that guides our consumption choices. This behaviour is influenced by marketing campaigns and social pressure, however we can easily change that. By detaching ourselves from these external influences and by asking ourselves how necessary a good is before consuming it, we can go back to reasonable and responsible consumption habits. It might mean consuming less things, but also consuming better things. And in the long run, it also means saving money!
Moreover, in order to make responsible and informed decisions, we need more information: by informing ourselves on what we consume and the way it was produced, we make choices that fit our expectations for our planet’s future. At first, it can seem hard, but the information is out there, we just have to go and look for it. A lot of Smartphone applications can actually help you in the process (here are some application examples: Goodguide, SeafoodWatch, Oroeco, Farmstand.
Finally, by doing everything on our own, we can easily feel powerless and start doubting of the efficiency of our actions. But nowadays, several movements are appearing all over the Internet, companies are more and more innovative and constantly developing alternatives to mass consumption’s products and technologies to give us the possibility to be more environmentally friendly. Those initiatives bring people together and give strength to this silent revolution. To make a difference, but not doing it alone, you just need to join them.
Here are some of my favourites:
Fairphone: maybe you have heard about the monstrous environmental and social impact of electronic devices. Well, the company Fairphone is well aware of it and has decided to launch a mobile phone without rare metals coming from countries afflicted by war, assembled in factories that give decent working conditions to their employees, and it is designed so that everything can be replaced, modified and fixed. The company sold 60.000 of those so far and the second version of the Fairphone is already available.
Plastic Free July: disposable plastic products are an integral part of our daily life, but they are also an aberration in terms of environmental protection: we only use them for a few minutes and they stay in nature for hundreds of years! By joining the Plastic Free July movement, you will say no to disposable plastic products for one month and raise awareness about this issue. Of course, it is up to you to completely cut them out of your daily life!
I-boycott: this online platform will be launched in France on June 6th, 2016. The idea is to transform spontaneous and individual boycott actions in collective and change-making dynamics. Therefore, if, for this or that reason, you are already boycotting a brand, you will be able to let people know about it on I-boycott and invite them to join you.
We can all be responsible consumers. I am not saying that it is easy, but, above all, it is necessary. At the end of the day, if we fight for the environment to be protected, it is not to save the planet, it is to save ourselves: planet Earth does not need us to exist, but we surely need it to survive!


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- The first Japanese manga property to join The Sandbox will be The experiences on this LAND, which Minto will co-produce.
- Last year, Sandbox made headlines when it sold over $350 million in virtual land, with one piece going for $4.3 million.
Captain Tsubasa, the famous football manga that has sold over 80 million copies worldwide, is coming to the metaverse’s new Captain Tsubasa LAND. The experiences on this LAND, which Minto will co-produce, will be Captain Tsubasa’s first-ever debut in the metaverse and the first Japanese manga IP to join The Sandbox.
Representative Director of TSUBASA Co., Ltd. Yoshihiro Iwamoto announced the update through a tweet:
『キャプテン翼』初のNFTプロジェクトとなるThe Sandboxとのコラボを発表しました。The Sandboxはソフトバンクグループから約100億円の資金調達をしたことでも話題になったブロックチェーンメタバースです。『キャプテン翼』のキャラクターだけでなく、サッカースタジアムもメタバース上に作ります！ https://t.co/2MPShV1yIy
— 岩本義弘 (@ganpapa) June 21, 2022
The protagonist of the Captain Tsubasa manga is an 11-year-old boy named Tsubasa Ozora who adores football and aspires to be the best player in the entire world. Tsubasa’s motto is “the ball is my friend” because a football once saved him from a bus crash.
Thanks to a lifelong commitment, Tsubasa became a football legend in Japan, Brazil, and Europe. Captain Tsubasa’s fame has influenced many international football players, and manga and anime have substantially contributed to football’s global growth.
This new partnership aims to advance Captain Tsubasa’s collaborations and projects focused on The Sandbox. Sebastien Borget, COO and Co-Founder of The Sandbox, said:
The Captain Tsubasa Japanese comics and animation series have contributed to making Japanese manga culture global in the 80s and directly influenced the youth of millions of fans around the world — including myself as a teenager. Bringing this iconic series into The Sandbox is like a ‘teenager’s dream come true.
A leading Web3 venture funding firm, Animoca Brands is the parent company of The Sandbox, a blockchain-based metaverse platform and video game. Last year, the business garnered media attention when it sold over $350 million worth of virtual land, with one piece going for as much as $4.3 million. Borget added:
By giving fans full ownership of Captain Tsubasa items, we’re empowering players to create their own user-generated football-themed experiences featuring their childhood favorite players to further extend Tsubasa Ozora’s influence on new generations of football fans.


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If rural markets shutter across producer states, the moderate price rise seen so far, driven by panic purchases, could spike
Traders in large wholesale markets in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are unwilling to operate due to fear of Covid-19 infections
New Delhi: Urban India is staring at a possible spike in food prices and scarcity of fruits and vegetables in the coming days, as transport curbs and pandemic fears open up a wide chasm between the farm and the fork.
Major crop-growing states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh have imposed lockdowns or curfews in a desperate attempt to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus. Inter-state goods transport is at risk as well, as truck drivers are harassed at borders, and casual labourers who sort, grade and load harvests are in short supply. So, while consumers in towns and cities may shell out more and fresh produce turns scarce, farmers will have to dump their perishables or leave the crop to rot in the fields. If mandis (rural markets) shutter across producer states, the moderate price rise seen so far, driven by panic purchases, could spike.
Mint spoke to stakeholders in several states to learn if a country-wide lockdown will translate into a food crisis in cities. The signs are already here: in Noida, retailers sell potatoes at ₹40 per kg and onions at ₹50 per kg, sharply higher than last week.
A trader from Delhi’s Azadpur wholesale market said that around 205 truckloads of onions are inside the market, but there are only a few buyers as small retailers and pushcart sellers are unable to reach. “The situation is likely to worsen in the next 2-3 days as mandis are shut in states like Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Policemen are standing outside the mandi gate and not allowing retailers to come in," the trader said, asking not to be named.
According to Pankaj Khandelwal, managing director of Mumbai’s INI Farms which handles 300 tonnes of fresh fruits every day, inter-city transport is severely affected despite clear orders from the Centre and state governments to allow transport of essential items. “Our vehicles were stopped in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Scared truck drivers are running away. We are now clearing existing stock from warehouses and have asked farmers to stop harvesting," Khandelwal said.
All five southern states have imposed restrictions on the movement of trucks carrying perishable produce, said Raghuvir Badrinath of Lawrencedale Agro Processing from the Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu.
Traders in large wholesale markets in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra are unwilling to operate due to fear of Covid-19 infections. Rural mandis are busy hubs attended by thousands, comprising daily wage earners, farmers, retailers and traders.
Almost all major grain markets are now shut in Madhya Pradesh, while fruits and vegetable markets are open for a few hours, said Kedar Sirohi, a farmer leader from Harda. “If the situation worsens, farmers who are harvesting their winter crops like chickpeas and wheat will suffer heavy losses. In my village, tomato growers are now selling their produce for ₹3-5 per kg. They are scared to carry the harvest to towns. They are afraid of the police and that they may return infected with the virus," Sirohi said.
It will be a disaster if trade in wholesale markets comes to a halt, warned Siraj Hussain, former agriculture secretary. “The government will have to issue clear instructions so that inter-state transport of farm produce is allowed while mandis function while following hygiene protocols."
“Nobody knows what is going to happen in the next few days. Supplies from states are dwindling. The government has to take immediate steps to prevent a scarcity situation," said the procurement head of a major Delhi-based retailer who did not want to be named.
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Fesco, UralChem to consider prospects for cooperation in shipping fertilizer
ST. PETERSBURG. June 7 (Interfax) - Fesco Transportation Group, the flagship company of which is Far Eastern Shipping Company (Fesco) , and UralChem United Chemical Company will study the possibility of cooperation in shipping mineral fertilizer by railway and regular marine shipping lines.
The companies signed a letter of intent at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on Thursday.
The agreement is aimed at mutually beneficial cooperation in import and export shipments of mineral fertilizer and industrial chemical products, as well as increasing the level of containerization of finished products at UralChem divisions, Fesco said in a statement.
This primarily concerns shipment of fertilizer, Fesco president Alexander Isurin said. "Because UralChem does not only produce fertilizers, it produces fluoropolymer, buys polyamide. There are various types of cargo that they transport," Isurin told reporters on the sidelines of the forum.
Freight shipments will be multimodal and will be made by Fesco Transportation Group, "because Transgarant's freight cars, some cars are hired, we manage several types of transport, transship through Commercial Port of Vladivostok to ships belonging to Fesco," Isurin said.
"But the initial stage, it's being worked out, is a new route for shipping freight. They need to work out, understand to what extent it is advantageous. It's not just transport logistics here, but also trade relations, in which we do not participate. That is, there was shipment to the border, now it's to the end point. We'll offer the best that there is, they will take a look at how this fits into their trade relations with partners," Isurin said.
"This is foremost containerized freight," he said. "There is the technology of shipping fertilizer in hoppers to the nearest transshipment point, because not all mines have the technology to load into containers. [UralChem Trans] will then load into its hopper, ship to some point where it is possible to transfer to a container and travel on with the container," Isurin said.


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Blog: Walkers rides the nostalgia wave
Dean Best | 16 October 2008
For any of you who may have spotted something large, pink and furry on a night out recently, then fear not. You may have just passed a Monster Munch puppet and you could be in for a GBP5,000 (US$8,588) windfall.
Monster Munch crisps have become the latest product to be relaunched in an attempt to ride a wave of 1980s nostalgia. And Walkers are certain to be making a packet out of it.
Following the successful revival of Cadbury's Wispa chocolate bar last year, Walkers relaunched its popular corn snack last month, closely followed by a ‘search and rescue’ for its monsters – all part of the relaunch, Walkers happily confirmed.
The crisp maker said that its three iconic monster puppets, stars of the 1970s and 1980s adverts, have gone missing and the company has launched a nationwide search to help find them, with a reward for their safe return.
Lurid you may think, but clever all the same.
It seems Walkers has followed Cadbury’s lead in coming up with a savvy advertising campaign with which to promote the crisp.
The confectionery giant launched a clever advertising campaign for Wispa using Facebook and YouTube after Wispa fans, apparently acting independently, stormed a stage at Glastonbury during Iggy Pop's slot, waving a banner that read: ‘Bring back the Wispa’.
Nostalgia certainly seems to be the way forward for companies wanting to connect with the public. Whatever next?! White leather sofas and New Kids on the Block?
I guess at least we can be thankful we don’t have to chomp our way through 5,000 packets of flaming hot flavour crisps in order to claim a prize. Although, as a food journalist partial to a packet of Monster Munch or two myself, it wouldn’t be too much of a hardship.
A new report by the Soil Association has highlighted a lack of healthy lunch options at the cafes of some of the UK's most prestigious visitor attractions....
The BBC turned to just-food today for insight on the price dispute between Tesco and Unilever....
Just weeks after buying UK turkey processor Bernard Matthews from administration, food tycoon Ranjit Boparan has struck a similar deal....
- Nestle India grows with global, digital innovation
- Analysis: Tyson's shrewd investment in Beyond Meat
- Thailand: convenience to continue to thrive
- Focus: Thai demographics drive health categories
- How Nestle tackles Indian challenges - interview
- Mars launches Maltesers in the US
- Bel takes majority stake in MOM Group
- Campbell backs US nutrition start-up Habit
- Mondelez focuses on margins as sales slip
- Nestle's Buitoni to remove GMOs
- The Big 15: Strategies and Priorities of Top Packaged Food Players in Comparison
- Omega-3 in Food and Beverage:Time for a Reboot?
- Packaged Food: Quarterly Statement Q3 2016
- Global Food Packaging: Innovating for Greater Convenience and Quality Image
- Meat Processing in China - Industry Market Research Report


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* Date : 2015-01-16
These days, more and more people are sharing their views or information on social media. When an individual casually writes a comment on a social networking site, others share their views on how tasty the food is or other crucial information. Some snacks or candies are beginning to be sold out after gaining huge popularity on social media. Without launching any special marketings, a facial cream is making headlines with just some user comments and validation photos posted on SNS. An independent film's audience topped 2 million after the film's reviews went viral. More and more companies are smiling or crying because of consumer's comments. The world where consumers themselves, not producers or companies, become marketers and promoters. We will take a look at the power of consumers which is growing in line with increasing use of social media.
Interviewee: HYUN Jin-kwon, Director of the Center for Free Enterprise (CFE)/Honorary Chairman of the Korean Association of Public Finance
The key direction of Korea's economic policy in 2015 is structural reforms. The government is banking on reforming the four sectors as announced by Ministry of Strategy and Finance late last year. The plan is to fully reform the labor, education, finance and public sectors. The government believes it is essential to strongly reform each economic sector to revive the country's economy which is facing a possible long-term recession. We will find out why the government has put forward reforms as its policy keyword, and what specific policy directions and measures are needed to successfully implement the policy.
Korean researchers have developed 'optical shutter' technology that can rapidly change transparency levels of glass windows in just 0.1 seconds. Under the method, electrochromic materials are attached to the surface of fine particle structures sized 8 nanometers. Then, electricity is applied to change the color. It took minutes for previously commercialized products to change the window's color, but the latest technology just requires 0.1 seconds to change the color. We will look into smart optical shutter technology set to be applied to rear-view mirrors inside vehicles as well as dimmable windows.
With the increase in use of easy mobile payment services, various authentication methods that minimized process and stepped up security are emerging. Now, the government is also encouraging the use of easy payment services. The authentication methods include putting a credit card to a smartphone or combining images that change locations or contents every time. We introduce you to various authentication methods that are easy to use but offer stronger security.
The U.S. government said North Korea was behind the cyber attack on Sony Pictures that produced the movie 'The Interview' and U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to impose new sanctions on Pyongyang. The latest move was triggered by the cyber attack, but it is seen as a move to put a broad pressure on the North for its development of weapons of mass destruction and for its human rights violations. In response, North Korea denounced that the new sanctions were a unilateral move by the U.S. and further emphasized its military-first policy and autonomy. We will analyze the rapidly cooling relations between the two countries and how this will affect Northeast Asia.


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Your Boomers are waiting. Heed their call.
The pandemic has pushed all of us out of our comfort zone in a variety of ways. That said, the generation that’s probably been pushed and shoved the most is the Boomers. As a group, they lag behind in tech adoption, smartphone usage, online purchases and basically all digital consumption and usage across the board. Boomers aren’t entirely non-digital though – let’s not forget this is the same generation that led the charge in home computer adoption. At this stage in their lives, Boomers just aren’t being pushed to adopt new tech for work or education. But things have changed with COVID-19 on the scene.
Thanks to shelter-in-place orders, tons of brick-and-mortar storefronts closing and limited shopping hours, we all found ourselves hitting the web to shop online more. In fact, the pandemic has accelerated eCommerce growth in the US to a level no one expected to reach until 2022. US eCommerce sales will almost reach a whopping $800 billion this year, offering a YoY increase of over 30%. While this growth has been driven by all US shoppers, nearly half of US Boomers have boosted their digital spending big time since the pandemic began.
In addition to shopping, Boomers have also doubled-down on their social media usage in order to stay connected with family and friends and fend off isolation. And in an effort to manage stress and anxiety, Boomers have also pumped-up their digital video consumption, as streaming content has increased by nearly 75% YoY throughout the pandemic.
For marketers, Boomers present a unique opportunity during the pandemic as a result of being in generally better financial shape than younger generations. With many Boomers already retired, they’re not at the mercy of the grim job market like many of their younger counterparts who are still in prime income-earning years. Over half of Boomers report they feel financially comfortable and are looking to fulfill their dreams and explore new worlds and technologies thanks to this financial security.
Boomers are also far more brand-loyal than other generations, proving once marketers win them over, Boomers are fans for life. And when it comes to transactional relationships with brands, Boomers have far more than younger generations. Almost 75% of Boomers surveyed express they’re still highly interested in obtaining product coupons for completing actions over other product rewards. And though discounts may get them in the door, it’s imperative to understand great customer service is what will keep them coming back.
The Boomer generation represents a unique group of consumers and big opportunities for marketers who understand how to reach and resonate with them. Unbound’s team of strategic thinkers can tap into this Boomer audience for you and find all the hidden opportunities for your brand. With years of retail experience, we can examine your digital ecosystem and see how it delivers from a customer experience standpoint. We’ll provide recommendations for optimizations and enhancements that will ensure you’re leveraging every touchpoint and building fans for life.
Give us a call at 816.589.3333 and let’s start talking about what opportunities Boomers hold for you.
Sources: eMarketer, Kantar Media, Nielsen, AIMA