The planet would be happier if people bought used electronic devices rather than succumbing to the temptation of new products. But there’s an undeniable joy in buying something new. And device makers with supreme marketing teams know that. However, what if you could give a buy-like-new boost to purchasing refurbished smartphones and other electronics?

On TechHQ we’ve written about how R2V3 – the latest version of the sustainable electronic reuse and recycling standard – provides a ‘trust mark’ to firms looking to dispose of IT assets. But the wheels of the circular electronic economy are only going to pick up speed if more consumers are happy to shop for remanufactured and refurbished devices.

Making buying refurbished smartphones feel like new

And that’s where electronics marketplaces such as Back Market fit in, by making the purchasing of refurbished smartphones – to name the most popular category of used device – feel like buying new.

Device refurbishers and electronics re-manufacturers are doing a great job of breathing new life into products and components that are no longer needed by their original owners. And it’s worth reminding that the amount of resources saved by extending the life of products such as phones and laptops is huge.

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A detailed 181-page report commissioned by ADEME, the French agency for ecological transition, lays out the environmental impact of choosing a refurbished device over a new equivalent – examining smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers. Using lifecycle analysis methods, researchers crunched the numbers on the environmental burden presented by different usage scenarios.

Putting devices back on the market still leaves a footprint – used products need to be transported for inspection and re-selling, and screens and batteries may need to be replaced – to give a few examples of where resources are still consumed. But the scale of the environmental impact is tiny relative to the energy and materials that are involved in manufacturing new products.

The ADEME report found that purchasing a refurbished smartphone and using it for 2 years, instead of purchasing a new smartphone and using it for 3 years, reduced the ecological load by 86% – examining the material input per unit of service (MIPS). Carbon dioxide emissions were 87% lower, and the benefits of extending device lifetimes add up across all environmental measures.

Latest from our most comprehensive refurbished report
->Refurbished smartphone sales grew 5% globally but China saw a 17% YoY decline.
->Apple captured 49% of the global refurbished smartphone market in 2022 followed by Samsung at 26%.https://t.co/xt5XaNjMVA pic.twitter.com/2CciP2rrri

— Tarun Pathak (@Tarunpathak) April 24, 2023

What’s more, refurbished devices in excellent condition are indistinguishable from new products. The last hurdle to overcome in convincing shoppers to opt for used over new devices is the buying process. And for sales of refurbished smartphones and other electronic goods to boom, this has to compete with the experience of selecting and purchasing a new product.

Marketplaces for refurbished electronics such as Back Market, which brings together buyers and sellers globally, understand this and are rising to the challenge. Shoppers have 30 days to return purchased devices – for example, if they change their mind about an item. Devices are guaranteed for 12 months, and shoppers have the same payment options that they are used to when buying new.

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“The obsession with buying new is going to diminish over time,” Katy Medlock, General Manager for Back Market in the UK, told TechHQ. “All of our markets are showing the enthusiasm for refurbishment.” Medlock points to the role that marketplaces have in educating consumers on not just the benefits of buying a used device, but emphasizing how the user experience (UX) has developed.

Back Market has 8 million customers worldwide and has recently launched a trade-in service that allows device owners to get an offer on phones, tablets, laptops, and gaming consoles from expert refurbishers. And having operations at scale, providing a badge of trust to buyers and sellers, is great news for the circular electronics economy.

Right to repair movement

At the same time, legislative wheels are turning and putting pressure on electronics firms to design products that are repairable and make it possible for customers to buy parts. “Having a reliable working device is no longer a nice to have; it’s a need,” Medlock adds.

Right to repair not only lowers the environmental burden of electronic goods, it makes devices more affordable and available to all. Education has moved online in a big way, and being without a laptop means missing out on lessons. Also, accessing services from banking to managing your energy supplier to booking travel and accommodation is moving to a digital-first model.

Refurbished smartphones, tablets, and other internet-enabled devices keep people connected without having to pay a premium for the latest shiny new thing. There are also supply chain considerations. Giving consumers and businesses other channels to purchase devices builds resilience.

And in some cases, it may be the only way to find parts. In the automotive sector, scrap dealers have embraced the digital age, and the so-called reverse manufacturing of cars and other vehicles is becoming an increasingly slick operation. Vehicles are barcoded as they arrive, booked onto a database, stripped, inspected – with parts photographed – and saleable items prepared for online bids, all within a few hours.

There’s money to be made in keeping useful items out of landfill, and when it’s profitable to do the right thing for the environment, the planet stands a fighting chance of being saved. Sectors such as aviation and fast fashion have come under scrutiny, and companies are realizing that they can no longer bank on sales without demonstrating how there are addressing the environmental impact of the products and services that they provide.

That ecological burden applies to electronics too, but when shopping for refurbished smartphones, laptops, and other products lights up the brain in the same way as buying new – thanks to UX-focused marketplaces – resources are saved for another day.

The post Refurbished smartphones get buy-like-new boost appeared first on TechHQ.

Companies researching the best way to receive international payments in 2023 soon discover that they have no shortage of options for accepting foreign currency from customers overseas. And that includes blockchain-based cross-border payment solutions such as Ripple. The US tech firm has long been on a mission to ‘build breakthrough crypto solutions for a world without economic borders’ – but how do blockchain-based cross-border payments work and should your organization use them?

Making overseas payments using traditional banking systems means lining up multiple intermediaries between the payer and the beneficiary. And with each link in the chain taking a fee for enabling the transaction, the cost of international payments adds up. Plus, those transfers can be delayed if cross-border payment requests happen to coincide with a weekend or bank holiday. Also, the pre-funding of overseas accounts locks up working capital.

Ripple’s blockchain-based cross-border payments, on the other hand, promise settlement in seconds, not days. And transaction fees are kept low by removing no-longer-needed intermediaries from the equation to give customers competitive last-mile payment rates.

How does Ripple work?

Ripple’s solutions are built using the XRP Ledger, which is a blockchain for IOUs and enables transactions between different payment types. The digital ledger has a number of features that make it attractive to fintech providers looking to modernize financial services, including on-chain escrow that can gate XRP and release it once payment settlement conditions have been met.

Using XRP as a digital intermediatory, Ripple cross-border payment settlement is active in more than 50 countries, allowing users to send a variety of currencies using the blockchain-enabled system. Senders receive a fiat-to-fiat quote on pricing and FX, and beneficiaries can be paid out immediately in the chosen currency.

Ripple is an interesting case study on how fintech providers are using blockchain to modernize the provision of financial services. Rather than compete against traditional banks, Ripple is reaching out to them – offering its digital currency payment rails as a high-speed, more efficient alternative to legacy systems such as SWIFT.

Ripple vs SWIFT

SWIFT, a global member-owned cooperative that specializes in secure financial messaging services, connects more than 11,000 banking and securities organizations. And the Belgium-headquartered organization has customers in more than 200 countries, putting it ahead of Ripple.

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But announcements by SWIFT, such as a successful experiment to move tokenized assets using its infrastructure, show that even dominant players are having to adapt to a financial future that could be increasingly blockchain-based.

A common criticism of cryptocurrencies has been their energy demands, with Bitcoin miners propping up the profits of energy companies and chip makers. A switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake shrinks this carbon footprint by reducing the computing demands of running a digital ledger. Rather than mining for cryptocurrency, users can earn rewards by staking their cryptocurrency to participate in the consensus mechanism of the blockchain.

The safety net comes from the idea that stakeholders won’t want to jeopardize their locked-up cryptocurrency by attempting to add invalid blocks to the chain. But there are fears that proof-of-stake networks could become centralized if a large amount of cryptocurrency is controlled by just a few actors.

The XRP ledger, which underpins Ripple, gets around this by adopting a different method of coming to consensus on adding blockchain entries. XRP makes use of a so-called federated byzantine agreement, which relies on validators overlapping in their endorsement of yet-to-be-added transactions. For example, if 80% of validators agree on adding a block to the chain then those details are assumed to be trusted.

And nodes carry their own unique node lists (UNLs) of validators, which they believe provide reliable information – removing them if they keep failing to reach consensus. Overlap between UNLs provides continuity across the community, with the XRP Ledger gravitating towards proven validators and shying away from untrusted nodes. But there could be a catch.

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A study by researchers at KAIST in South Korea on Stellar – a cryptocurrency that also operates using the federated byzantine agreement method of reaching consensus – showed that, rather than encouraging decentralization, the approach can bake in dependences on certain key nodes.

“We show that all of the nodes in Stellar cannot run SCP [Stellar Consensus Protocol] if only two nodes fail,” writes the KAIST team in its paper. “To make matters worse, these two nodes are run and controlled by a single organization, the Stellar Foundation.”

And like Stellar, Ripple operates its own validators, which could be problematic if those nodes form the dominant link between the various UNLs. Also, blockchains aren’t bulletproof and exhibit residual failure modes – something that David Schwartz, Chief Technical Officer at Ripple, admits.

“It’s important that we continue to innovate to reduce the odds of them happening and reduce their severity even if it is a bit embarrassing for the industry to point the finger at these failure modes,” he commented at Apex – the XRPL developer summit, in a talk on the continuous evolution of the XRP Ledger.

Ripple's latest report let this sink in.. 250 trillion by 2027 in cross-border payments alone. #XRP pic.twitter.com/2SCe8h8ZnV

— RIZ.XRP (@RizXRP) July 19, 2023

In Ripple’s case, the ledger could halt its forward progress if too many validators fail before humans can respond to the issue. And, as Schwartz points out, the goal is to have ledgers that offer maximum reliability. Hence, it’s why developers are working on solutions such as Negative UNL – a feature of the XRP Ledger consensus protocol designed to improve ‘liveness’.

“Using the Negative UNL, servers adjust their effective UNLs based on which validators are currently online and operational, so that a new ledger version can be declared validated even if several trusted validators are offline,” explains the latest XRP Ledger documentation.

Given the rollercoaster ride that cryptocurrencies have been on lately, it’s promising to see fintech firms being transparent about potential weaknesses. And if these are signs of blockchain developers building firm and well-tested foundations, digital ledger projects may live up to the hype after all.

The post Blockchain-based cross-border payments – the Ripple effect appeared first on TechHQ.

Customers walking into modern retail stores or shopping online – whether they like it or not – are participating in a never-ending sales experiment. And thanks to advances in brain-sensing technology, that experiment has grown ever more sophisticated. Today, sales teams can draw upon a growing body of neuromarketing knowledge to really get inside the head of their customers.

Pitching products to neurons

If you were wondering which kinds of brands are putting neuromarketing techniques to the test, you only have to look at the client list of customer behavior experts such as Neurons Inc. The firm – founded a decade ago and headquartered in Copenhagen, Denmark – is trusted by brands such as Coca-Cola, H&M, Facebook, Google, TikTok, and many other multinational firms.

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Just as mobile phones have shrunk in size from blocky designs with handheld battery packs to current slimline devices, so has brain-sensing technology. Lightweight, portable brain activity monitors can be worn while volunteers watch an advertisement or select products (albeit with some curious looks from other shoppers).

Examples of brain activity monitors used for gathering neuromarketing data include multi-channel EEG headsets.

List of lightweight EEG headset manufacturers –

• Advanced Brain Monitoring, US
• Emotive, US
• Wearable Sensing, US
• ANT Neuro, The Netherlands
• G.TEC, Austria

Measuring brainwaves can determine how alert, relaxed, or tired, wearers of the headset-mounted EEG sensors are. And, of direct relevance to neuromarketing, the brain-monitoring technology can indicate – based on where neural pulses are firing – whether users are responding positively or negatively to products. But the details don’t stop there.

Neuromarketing consultants use other information, too, such as heart rate, pupil dilation, and eye-tracking coordinates, to build up an even more complete picture of how potential customers feel about what they are seeing and experiencing. Metrics that can be output – based on measurements gathered from volunteers – include excitement, stress, and engagement levels, and whether subjects are distracted.

Applied neuroscience is taking traditional research on the brain out of the lab and into the world of retail and other business settings. “Applied neuroscience can help you understand what consumers want, what motivates them, what drives their decision-making process, and what emotions they experience,” explains Shikher Chaudhary – Director of Neurons Inc Asia – in his 2020 TEDx talk on neuromarketing: decoding the consumer mind.

Focus group fail

Product developers might think that they have the answers based on focus groups and other spoken or written user feedback. But firms face a major roadblock when asking potential customers what they think of their products. “Most of our decision-making processes are unconscious,” writes UK-based Mindlab, which uses psychology-based tools to fill in the gaps for brands. “We [consumers] post-rationalise our decisions, but can’t always tell you why we really made them.”

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Understanding buyers’ emotional preferences and responses at a subconscious level helps developers to navigate what’s really attracting clients to their products. According to Chaudhary, emotional preference can be as high as 85% accurate in predicting actual consumer choice, which makes it a key indicator in neuromarketing studies.

He has some useful insights into web metrics too – drawing on results collected for Ericsson, which was interested in the impact of network buffering on mobile device users. Ad loading delays of 2-3 seconds raised the stress response of subjects to levels similar to those felt when watching a horror movie, pointing to the kinds of details that neuromarketing can tease out.

Also, to emphasize the perils of overlooking the subconscious response of consumers, it’s worth recalling Coca-Cola’s experience when they launched a reformulated version of the classic drink in the mid-1980s. Despite having many thousands of people say that they preferred the new version during trials, the launch was a flop as the emotional attachment of buyers to the original recipe suppressed sales.

Neuromarketing guardrails

And if neuromarketing, which dates back to at least the early 1990s, is making you feel a little queasy about your next shopping trip, it’s time for some brain training. Easier said than done, but becoming more aware of your subconscious decision-making processes – System 1 thinking, to use cognitive psychologist and ‘Thinking Fast and Slow’ author Daniel Kahneman’s terminology – could spotlight otherwise hidden behavior.

Great day today spending time with @UWS_SBCI Msc Digital Marketing students developing #reality & #neuromarketing experiments using EEG. Many thanks to our PhD student Omar Hraib for helping with the set up & presenting his exciting research project. @UWSKTP @UniWestScotland pic.twitter.com/cvKnV4zkJ3

— THEOFILOS TZANIDIS (@Theo_Tzanidis) November 30, 2022

Hardware might help too. Consumer EEG devices such as headbands developed by mindfulness tech firm Muse or interactive controller designer MyndPlay give wearers an insight into their brain activity. In fact, shoppers of the future may even choose to wear some kind of neural sensor to monitor their buying responses. And thinking back to the auxiliary data that neuromarketing teams gather today, it’s possible that even heart rate monitoring smartwatches could alert emotional preferences and responses at a subconscious level.

Today, there are numerous market research agencies using consumer neuroscience to help companies to build products and services that resonate strongly with customers. And the Neuromarketing Science and Business Association (NMSBA) company directory has entries for vendors based all over the world. There are major conferences too, such as the Shopper Brain Conference series held in Europe and Asia, as well as the Neuromarketing World Forum in the US, which is now in its 11^th year.

As a condition of membership, NMSBA members are expected to follow a code of ethics for the application of consumer neuroscience in business, which the association says represents a first step towards international standards.

Without a doubt, the field of neuromarketing is a fascinating one, and there’s AI to consider too, which further ramps up the possibilities – for example, a recent study has shown that generative AI can read your mind, if you let it.

The post Neuromarketing brainwaves capitalize on sales opportunities appeared first on TechHQ.

The demand for a solid third-party logistics (3PL) provider has never been greater.  Last year, the global market for these companies’ services reached $1.47 trillion USD, and while this is nearly double what it was in 2016, it marks a 14.5 percent increase on 2021. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on this stratospheric growth cannot be ignored. The ‘sink or swim’ scenario forced businesses to move towards e-commerce and put pressure on their logistics providers. A new necessity for swift order processing, delivery, and returns management also demanded a raised level of efficiency across all industries.

Recognizing the need for specialized expertise and infrastructure to navigate the complexities of e-commerce, an increasing number of companies have transitioned from second-party logistics (2PL) and a self-managed supply chain, to leveraging the services of 3PL providers. The shift lets companies tap into the vast experience and resources of established logistics partners who possess the necessary technological capabilities and network reach to handle the intricacies of e-commerce operations, particularly when international.

By outsourcing their logistics functions, businesses can focus on their core goals while benefiting from the expertise of these specialized partners. The 3PL team will streamline processes, optimize inventory management, and enhance overall supply chain efficiency without any time or energy from company executives commissioning their services.

Source: KCH Transportation

Not only did this transition to 3PL alleviate the burden on companies to invest in and manage their own logistics infrastructure, but it also allowed them to adapt to the dynamic e-commerce landscape, responding swiftly to changing market demands and scaling operations as required.

Saying that, not all 3PL providers are created equal. Last September, the CartonCloud Logistics Index whitepaper found that the most common ways companies provide additional support on top of their standard operations are increased visibility, order tracking, and customer integrations. Examples of the latter are automating data entry and sending frequent order updates. However, 35 percent of respondents also revealed that, in reality, their company lacks the resources to capture and track the data required for these features.

While the report added that many of the participating organizations plan to investigate fleet and warehouse technology updates in the future, it is crucial for the customer to consider the capabilities they provide today. Given that there are currently over 570,000 long-distance freight trucking businesses in the US to choose from, it is essential to assess them from a  technological view to ensure that specific logistics needs are met efficiently.

Businesses stand to benefit greatly from pairing with a 3PL provider that utilizes advanced digital systems. An online portal brings convenience and transparency to managing the logistics process for end-users who aren’t massively digitally fluent. With simple visibility into shipment status and updates, customers can proactively manage their inventory and address any potential issues. Choosing to outsource to a 3PL over managing your own transport network has significant advantages that come from the deep insights technology brings.

Source: KCH Transportation

One 3PL company that offers tech-driven benefits and more is KCH Transportation. Established in 2004, the company provides freight services for loads of any shape or size, from liquid bulk to oversized equipment, across the US and beyond. Its portal presents data from an industry-standard transportation management system (TMS) that looks at each aspect of the shipping process. Real-time data on the status of a delivery replaces the unreliable trackers offered by transport service providers that update only periodically, for example. This also makes handover at shift change easy, as the new handler will have all the shipment information they require at hand.

KCH Transportation leverages advanced routing and weather monitoring systems by using the Trucker Tools app. This ensures trucks are not delayed by road closures or adverse weather conditions (or if they are, you know about it in real-time), allowing them to maintain reliable delivery schedules. Avoiding these seemingly small obstacles is all the more critical today, given the widescale disruption caused by the Russia-Ukraine war, COVID-related bottlenecks, and labor shortages. The Trucker Tools app also indicates the cheapest fuel along a driver’s route, allowing them to reduce their overall transportation cost. KCH Transportation passes on these savings to the customer.

This isn’t the only way the 3PL company saves its customers money. It uses an integrated intelligence system that matches shipments to the most cost-effective and reliable carriers. KCH Transportation also makes use of sophisticated transportation software for greater control over LTL shipments (where the truck carries the deliveries of multiple companies). The feature combines the visibility and service one would expect from a full truckload with the lower price of an LTL. These tools, and more, allow for seamless pickup, shipping, and delivery of customers’ goods all over the world.

Find out how KCH Transportation can upgrade your logistics by getting in touch with one of its advisors.

The post Track your parcel: Why 3PL visibility is essential for smooth-running international logistics appeared first on TechHQ.

In April, Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud arm of Amazon.com Inc, made an official move indicating its participation in the generative AI race – but it did not involve ChatGPT or chatbots. Instead, AWS made two new AI language models available for customers to build their own bots. 

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Building context-based truth models for ChatGPT

Now, as the tech juggernaut watches its two closest rivals, Microsoft and Google, come up with their cutting-edge generative AI models, Amazon will certainly not intend to be left behind. Amazon may now incorporate a ChatGPT-style product search into its web store. According to Bloomberg News, the e-commerce giant’s ambitions appear in recent job postings.

One listing seeking a senior software development engineer says the company is “reimagining Amazon Search with an interactive conversational experience” designed to help users find answers to questions, compare products and receive personalized suggestions. “We’re looking for the best and brightest across Amazon to help us realize and deliver this vision to our customers right away,” the company said in the listing.

The listing was posted on its jobs board last month. “This will be a once-in-a-generation transformation for Search,” Amazon said. Another job posting indicated that the position is “a new AI-first initiative to re-architect and reinvent the way we do search through the use of huge scale next-generation deep learning techniques.”

Conversational product search like ChatGPT has the potential to reshape a vital element of the core retail business of Amazon. In recent years, the search bar at the top of the app and homepage has become the default gateway for millions of shoppers seeking a specific product. 

For context, based on a survey by Jungle Scout, a software maker for sellers on Amazon, more than half of US shoppers say they start product searches on Amazon, a higher share than Google. Amazon spokesperson Keri Bertolino however, declined to comment specifically on the job listings. “We are significantly investing in generative AI across all of our businesses,” she said in an email to Bloomberg.

Amazon Vs. Google Search: What’s the difference without a ChatGPT-like bot?

Amazon and Google search engines share fundamental similarities. Both rely on sophisticated algorithms and keywords to rank results and satisfy users. Both also display two types of results: paid and organic. The main difference between Amazon vs. Google search engines is user intent. Google users are in research and discovery mode, whereas Amazon users are in buying mode and typically know exactly what they’re searching for.

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Additionally, Amazon and Google use different keywords to drive qualified traffic. Keywords on Amazon are more product-focused, highlighting benefits or special features. On the other hand, Google looks at long-tail keywords, loading speed, and backlinks when ranking a page.

Even Google, during its I/O conference last week, announced that it will apply generative AI to shopping searches as part of a series of new capabilities. According to a blog post, Google is now testing a new form of shopping search where users who type in the kind of item they are loooking for get a “snapshot of noteworthy products to consider and products that fit the bill.”

Beyond search – a robot, perhaps?

Reports of a further development have been surfacing recently, based on some internal documents from Amazon seen by Insider. According to the documents, Amazon is working on Burnham – a new AI robot project that adds a layer of “intelligence and a conversational spoken interface” to a smart home robot.

It will be an upgraded version of Amazon’s Astro, and according to Insider, the documents indicate that the technology “remembers what it saw and understood.” The robot can “engage in a Q&A dialogue on what it saw.” The “Contextual Understanding,” as Amazon describes the tech in the documents, is its “latest and most advanced AI technology designed to make robots more intelligent, more useful, and more conversational.” 

It’s best to rein in any excitement for a while, though. Amazon acknowledges in the documents  that it will be a long time before Burnham can be commercialized.

The post Amazon will soon add a ChatGPT-style search to its online store appeared first on TechHQ.

In Part 1 of this article, we spoke to Martin Bradbury, Regional Director, Financial Services UK & Ireland at Dynatrace, a cloud provider that enables digital services for commercial clients (including providers of cashless transactions), about the drift towards the long-fabled cashless society in the UK. In Part 2, Martin outlined for us the issues of public trust that currently stand in the way of a truly “cashless society.”

While we had him in the chair it seemed only right to ask Martin for his map from where we are now – a situation in which there’s significant public distrust of the idea of a cashless society even in the UK – which is considerably further down the pathway than is the US – to the place he predicts that at least the UK will be within a decade, with cash purchases down from around 15% of cases to just 6%. What does the roadmap to at the very least a cash-lite society look like?

MB:

Well, as we said in Part 2, what’s likely to happen is that digital service providers, upto and including banks, are likely to respond to moments of system failure much faster, in the first instance – either to put things right, to guide service users through a process they might not have understood, and/or to compensate them for the inconvenience of a breakdown in the system-

THQ:

Does that mean a vast army of new, human, transaction-watchers, so that Steve in South London gets a call when his card gets declined at an automatic register in a gas station?

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The cashless society – A UK perspective

MB:

Ha. There probably isn’t a huge appetite for ramping up that kind of human interaction in a lot of businesses, but actually, the levels of automation and artificial intelligence that we can apply to these things now actually can deliver quite a good connected experience without having to have that human interaction, necessarily.

THQ:

To be fair, any spectacular rise in human automatic support would probably only lead to an uncontrollable wave of scammers, calling and pretending to be that support team.

So how do digital service providers actually move the dial on this and get more and more people comfortable with the idea of the oncoming cashless society?

MB:

It all starts with education – and that extends to those sorts of scams you mentioned, too. The more people know and understand, hopefully, the less often they’ll be caught by those trust-based scams, even though the level of sophistication there is rising. Education has to continue to outpace that.

THQ:

And is that the cornerstone of the roadmap to the cashless society – or at least the cash-lite society – of the future. Education, education, education?

MB:

I think so, yes. It’s a continuation of what the high street banks have been doing for some time, it’s having specific educational programs in place, it’s having people in branches that are trained specifically as digital champions to help customers onboard into the services.

One UK bank had an initiative a year or two ago, where they gave the elderly laptop tablets, they gave them education specifically around using digital services, helping them to get more comfortable with those services and that tech.

There will always be an element that just won’t like anything, that will be resistant to change, and that’s their prerogative, right? That means we still have to have the facilities for the people that don’t want to adopt those services, aren’t comfortable with using them, or particularly aren’t comfortable with the privacy aspect of them – because the consequence of having more traceability in a cashless society is that there will be more privacy concerns from people, for sure.

THQ:

That’s a visceral reaction, no? What are you tracing me for? I’m not a criminal. What do you want my data for? Why would you? Why should I give you that? What are you going to use it for?

Is there anything that can be done about that? Or is that just a natural built-in data point? There are going to be those people. Don’t attempt to solve for X, just build systems that accommodate them?

MB:

I think organizations can be very clear about what they do with data and what people’s privacy rights are, but frankly, I don’t necessarily think that makes a huge difference. I think the reality is that it’s largely a generational concern – not entirely, but largely – and I think that as the younger generations come through, who have had their whole life online with access to things digitally, naturally they will become more comfortable with it.

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The cashless society and consumer trust

The counterargument for financial transaction knowledge is that it means the bank can use that to identify patterns and hopefully prevent fraud. That’s a valid argument that can be made to older generations, but whether any argument can outweigh that sense of intrusion that comes with service providers having intimate access to their data seems unlikely.

THQ:

What sort of timeline are we looking at for the UK to be as cashless a society as it’s going to be? Any idea how long it will take to make “peak progress” towards a cashless society, given that in Part 1, we saw that there’s no political capital to be made out of pushing for the UK to become a cashless society?

MB:

I don’t think anyone’s setting out a timeline for it, I think the forecast currently is that it will shift from 15% of payments made in cash right now down to 6% over around the next 10 years, which makes for a fairly gradual transformation, rather than a sudden jolt.

It all comes down to looking at countries that are further down the line on this journey and asking what’s the ultimate benefit here? And what’s the downside?

THQ:

So it’s more a kind of magnetic drift, you think? More and more places offering cashless options, just gradually shifting the landscape of what’s “normal”?

MB:

Yeah. I think there will be more and more services digitized so it becomes the default option. That will facilitate a gradual drift towards cashlessness. But I think as we do that, more thought will need to be put into the protection of the infrastructure and the certainly the environment to enable cash to still be a viable means of payment.

Going back to what we spoke about in Part 1, the cost of running the ATM infrastructure is about £5 billion pounds a year, and it’s largely borne by the banks. I’m sure, given the option, they’d like to reduce that cost burden. And as cash gets used as a default option less and less, clearly, that cost stands out more and more, so we might start to see a reduction of the network.

But that will take a kind of gentle pressure from governments – allowing retail outlets to give cash back without purchase, for instance. Things like that can help to mediate against that.

One interesting thing is that a leading UK building society last year saw an increase in ATM use, that it directly attributes to the cost of living crisis and the fact that people want to use cash to more effectively budget, because we know that that is one of the downsides of digital – the speed and ease it gives you to spend money and go over budget.

THQ:

You can’t stack up invisible money and say “This is what I actually have.” Whereas if you’ve got a pile of notes in front of you, you know exactly.

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As The Swiss Vote Against Becoming A Cashless Society, Will Other Countries Follow Suit?

MB:

Absolutely. The UK’s certainly ahead of the US in that, and in terms of the speed of digital transactions showing – in the UK, it’s more or less instantaneous, whereas in the US, the lag is several days long in certain instances. But you’re absolutely right, you can’t guarantee what you actually have in digital terms right now, whereas with cash you have precisely the amount of cash you see in front of you.

THQ:

Hit us with a key takeaway. What’s the important psychological shift we’re going to need to undertake to make the journey towards a more cashless society?

MB:

The concept of taking a digital experience and thinking about it less generically and more in terms of its demographic, and how to optimize it for that demographic, I think is a really key thought process that we’re going to see more and more of as we progress down on this journey towards something that looks significantly more like a cashless society.

THQ:

So – gradual magnetic pull, a slow shift in the norm of society, and more contextually-optimized digital experiences. Sounds like a plan.

The post The cashless society – a roadmap appeared first on TechHQ.

Digital platforms and global companies are rushing to get a foot in the door in India, where the 1.4 billion residents have a propensity for online spending. By way of an extreme example, Japan Times spoke to a Mumbai resident who can’t remember the last time he left home to shop; his only offline spending is at bars and restaurants, where he meets friends.

Financial investors are finding new ways to tap into the economic growth that India is seeing as a result of private consumption. According to available data, India’s per capita gross domestic product recrently crossed the $2,000 threshold, despite the risks posed by weak job growth and income inequalities.

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There are nearly 700 million smartphone users in India, who are estimated to consume an average of 17 gigabytes in mobile data per month, exceeding North America’s average of 15GB. A contributing factor to that statistic is the fierce competition between telecoms providers in India, resulting in the cheapest mobile data rates in the world.

According to Priyanka Khandelwal, who is fund manager at ICICI Prudential Asset Management, the consumption boost is aspiration-led, and “has the potential to provide a material fillip to discretionary consumption in years to come.” The interconnection that social media provides mean that consumers can see what others in entirely different regions are spending on, and follow suit.

It’s not just new-age Indian tech companies that offer investors a chance to tap into the rise in spending. Traditional firms that are adding digital capabilities have just as much potential for returns. Bain & Co estimated that India’s online shopping market hit $50 billion in 2022. With between 180 million and 190 million online shoppers, India has the third largest market in the world.

Online spending high in India

Exposure opportunities came rolling in when platforms catering to online commerce, like SoftBank-backed logistics firm Delhivery, were listed recently in Indian markets. “Investors can play the online and digital consumption boom in India directly via the tech companies enabling this space, or indirectly via supported industries such as logistics or fintech,” said Kunjal Gala, head of global emerging markets at Federated Hermes.

India’s per capita consumption of food was at $314 in 2020 compared with $884 for China, while for clothing, that figure stood at $53.9 versus $212.9 for China, data from CLSA showed. Per capita spending on health-related items in India was $56.8 in 2020 and $389.3 for China.

According to Vikas Pershad, portfolio manager for Asian equities at M&G Investments, “a pattern will continue to repeat for years in India: industry after industry emerging from a long period of underpenetration” and moving up the per capita consumption scale.

Aspirational spending will increase as Indians’ incomes and wealth rise. Demand will ramp up for packaged food and drink, branded goods, travel, preventative healthcare, and personal care. Already, with private consumption making up 60% of India’s $3.5 trillion GDP, foreign investors are latching on.

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It hasn’t been an entirely easy journey: investors chasing the consumption boom have seen shares of new-age tech companies drop since their listings, and are expensive compared with the industry median. Despite this, portfolio investors pumped a net $2.7 billion into India in four key consumption sectors in the 11 months to March, according to data from India’s National Securities Depository. The areas that saw investments were: automotive; consumer durables; consumer services; and fast-moving consumer goods.

As with tech company listings, Indian equities are expensive, both relatively and historically. But for investors who look beyond that, analysts predict the results in the longer term could be spectacular.

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Clients shopping for contact center as a service (CCaaS) products have a keen interest in how providers are integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into their solutions. Without a doubt, AI puts big performance gains on the table – for example, fine-tuning large language models (LLMs) with industry data improves self-service prospects for consumers and helps agents too. But understanding how contact center AI helps businesses and customers is a much bigger story.

In fact, one of the best views on how contact center AI helps businesses and customers comes from focusing not on the technology directly, but on the key challenges that it solves. Consumer demands are higher than they have ever been. There’s pressure for service channels to be available 24/7 and offer personalized features, which creates much more work for brands.

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What’s more, companies that lack the right tools to keep up with those expectations can soon find themselves overwhelmed. And in the worst cases all of that incoming unstructured information sits in siloed systems, which employees have to respond to and deal with. “While positive for consumers, the proliferation of channels is a challenge for agents to manage and it affects the ability of brands to forecast their business,” Darren Rushworth, a member of NICE’s global leadership team, told TechHQ.

The good news is that AI can help. And NICE is one of a number of CCaaS providers that are implementing solutions to address not just one, but many potential bottlenecks that have emerged as contact centers have evolved beyond voice to deliver customer service on multiple channels. Call volumes and durations are relatively straightforward for businesses to forecast, and operators need to have confidence in those numbers to hit metrics such as customer satisfaction (CSAT) and cost-to-serve.

Joining up data and finding patterns

However, once you start adding other channels into the mix and try to account for blended interactions, getting those resource predictions right becomes much harder. That data needs to be joined up, which is another challenge when contact centers find themselves relying on more and more discrete systems added over time – a scenario that Rushworth refers to as the ‘Frankenstack’ problem.

Also, an agent’s work isn’t over when a call finishes. There’s admin to perform and details to update, which can involve multiple backend applications. Helping service providers today are solutions such as robotic process automation (RPA) software, which can quickly streamline repetitive tasks. Early chatbots were supposed to make things easier too, by solving common customer queries. But first-generation FAQ bots lacked the power of modern AI. Often they fell short of the mark and could end up leaving customers frustrated.

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Today, however, it’s becoming a very different story. NICE’s services enable more than a billion transactions per quarter. And huge, aggregated datasets (anonymized and stripped of sensitive information for security) turn out to be highly effective food for data-hungry modern AI, epitomized by LLMs such as OpenAI’s GPT-4. Large, domain-specific datasets allow CCaaS providers to offer advanced chatbots that are much more capable of dealing with customer queries.

Also, guardrails can be included so that these ChatGPT-like solutions know their limitations and can hand over to human agents when the chatbots recognize that they lack the information to answer queries they’ve never come across before. And those knowledge gaps can be filled in by learning from the new data that follows.

Making more accurate projections

Tracking back to the forecasting issues that have built up as contact centers support more and more channels, AI can contribute there too. The ability of algorithms to find patterns in vast amounts of data can be utilized to create much more accurate projections of how many resources will be required and at what times. And it highlights how contact center AI helps businesses and customers on multiple fronts.

Rushworth explains how NICE has used AI to identify 16 key behaviors that point to strong CSAT scores and positive interactions between agents and customers. And, in his view, this has led to a much fairer assessment of contact center agent performance. All transactions can be analyzed, rather than just relying on a small sample of interactions where a manager may be listening in. And the AI-powered system can be used to offer real-time guidance to agents, bring up knowledge, provide a playbook, and automatically schedule training. “Employee satisfaction has gone up,” Rushworth adds.

Flexible working tool

Employee engagement management is another area where AI is benefiting staff by giving team members the ability to work to more flexible schedules. Solutions can automate forecasting and incorporate shift bidding to account for when agents are available. It also gives contact center operators a way of reaching out to team members. For example, if a never seen before pattern triggers an unexpected rise in customer enquiries and the contact center needs more agents to cope with the spike in traffic.

Joined-up big data can be used to educate search engines, as another way of smoothing the workload faced by operators. “81% of the time, people still go to Google with their queries,” Rushworth points out. “It’s another self-service digital channel.” There are many ways in which CCaaS providers are extending the contact center AI landscape and making solutions even more capable to help businesses and customers.

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In the US, the concern around TikTok has been drawing fresh attention to how Chinese apps like Shein, Temu, and others dominate app stores. While TikTok and Shein have been popular for a long time, the recent ascension of Temu, a discount shopping app first launched in September 2022 in the US, is making a new reality clear: Chinese-made apps are thriving in America.

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TikTok’s fate in the US, especially since the Congress hearing, has set the tone for Chinese apps in the US. Considering how fast Chinese platforms are gaining traction and going global, it did not come as a surprise when Shein and Temu fell under the eyes of US officials. 

In a report published on April 14 by a commission affiliated with the US Congress, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission blamed quick fashion platform Shein and shopping app Temu for “data risks, sourcing violations, and trade loopholes.”

Like the multiple reports produced in the US now and then, the USCC report follows the years-old logic that everything from China is risk-laden. The risks listed are often the same, such as data and privacy. 

The report, titled “Shein, Temu, and Chinese e-Commerce: Data Risks, Sourcing Violations, and Trade Loopholes,” details the challenges posed by Chinese “fast fashion” platforms, including the exploitation of trade loopholes, concerns about production processes, sourcing relationships, product safety, and use of forced labor.

“These platforms primarily rely on US consumers downloading and using Chinese apps to curate and deliver products. The primary focus of this Issue Brief is first mover Shein, about which the most data are available, with additional discussion of Temu, which has rapidly expanded its US market presence in the past year,” the report states.

Shein, Temu, and the myriads of issues the US sees

The USCC believes those firms’ commercial success has encouraged both established Chinese e-commerce platforms and startups to copy their model, posing risks and challenges to US regulations, laws, and principles of market access. 

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The report also highlighted that Shein had surpassed its competitors, such as Zara and H&M, saying that its growth was supported by what it claimed to be “controversial practices,” such as analysis of consumers’ search history and fast supply chains. 

In a report published on April 14 by a commission affiliated with the US Congress, the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission blamed quick fashion platform Shein and shopping app Temu for “data risks, sourcing violations, and trade loopholes.” (Photo by Yuichi YAMAZAKI / AFP)

“Investigations in 2022 alleged that Shein failed to declare that it had sourced cotton from Xinjiang for its products, a violation of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act,” the report added. “Shein and Temu also exploit trade de minimis import exemptions, through which firms make shipments to the US that are below a US$800 value and are therefore not subject to import duties,” the USCC stated.

The USCC believes Shein and similar firms are a case study of Chinese e-commerce platforms outmaneuvering regulators to grow a dominant US market presence. To explain how significant Shein is in the US, the USCC found that Shein’s market share of fast fashion sales in the US rose from 18% in March 2020 to 40% in March 2022.

By November 2022, Shein accounted for 50% of all fast fashion sales in the US, ahead of brands H&M (16%) and Zara (13%). “After surging past Tiktok, Instagram, and Twitter to briefly become the most downloaded app in the US in May 2022, Shein maintained its growing popularity,” the report added. 

As of March 2023, Temu and Shein rank in the top five free apps on the Apple Store, ahead of retailers Amazon and Walmart. Due to that, the USCC said, “numerous other established and emerging Chinese e-commerce firms seek to penetrate the US market by modeling their strategies on Shein and Temu’s businesses.”

The post The US government has its eyes on Shein and Temu now, and here’s why appeared first on TechHQ.

AI automation in the workplace is moving at a dizzying pace. Business wheels are turning fast to capitalize on the capabilities of large language models (LLMs) such as OpenAI’s GPT-4, which is bringing all kinds of advanced chatbot capabilities to enterprise software thanks to API integration. But LLMs aren’t the only AI automation show in town, and businesses have long been using machine learning methods to enhance sales outcomes – for example, by scaling up authentic content marketing activities.

Authentic content marketing, like other engagement activities, aims to strengthen the bond between a brand and its customers. Potential clients want to know what other users think about products and services. Company websites are great for gathering technical specifications. But it’s impossible for developers to provide an unbiased review of their own products. No firm is going to stay in business long by championing a rival’s offering. And even when a company has the leading solution, and the data to support its claims, customers will likely still want to do more research of their own and seek other opinions.

Don’t just take our word for it

These preferences highlight why firms have been adding authentic content marketing to their sales playbook, and exploring user-generated content (UGC) opportunities more widely. Sources of UGC can take many forms, from social media posts and video unboxings to verified reviews on popular platforms such as Trustpilot, Feefo, and others. The influence of reviews on purchasing decisions, especially for first-time customers, can be huge.

Considering Trustpilot alone, the verified reviews site has compiled over 800 million reviews – accord to figures provided by the firm to TechHQ – with monthly active users totalling over 30 million. And looking at other UGC channels, popular brands receive a multitude of mentions on social media, and this feedback can be gold for firms if they can act on it.

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Platforms such as SocialBee help businesses by bringing together company social media accounts into a single pane of glass. Other benefits include analytics and scheduling assistance. Plus, tools are increasingly equipped with AI content generation features, to help write captions and guide other content. StoryChief – another tool that streamlines social media account management for firms – claims that users can work 50x faster using AI.

Time-saving rewards are significant. And so is the potential for companies to use UGC to fuel growth through authentic content marketing. Manual workflows are going to leave too many opportunities on the table. The volume of trusted reviews, social media posts, videos, and other UGC is huge, and it’s a cycle that never stops. But sales and marketing teams can leverage technology to not only keep up, but scale their campaigns in ways that would be impossible by hand. Solutions like Flowbox use AI and automations to gather and organize authentic content posted on UGC channels. Systems can receive content posted by users and compare images and mentions with inventory items in company product catalogs.

Automation allows companies to easily share real-life examples of their products and services being used by customers. And such a portfolio gives potential clients a valuable resource for conducting sales research. Companies wanting to add another layer to their UGC portfolio by working with influencers or brand ambassadors can benefit from AI automation too.

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Influencer discovery platforms include affable.ai, which allows firms to search for candidates worldwide across any industry. Companies can quickly generate a shortlist of industry relevant people to engage with thanks to advanced filters. And as relationships form, the system can be used to gather insights on how the influencer-based marketing campaign is going, making it a potential end-to-end solution for firms.

Conventionally, sales enablement is about equipping sales teams with the tools they need to enhance outcomes. But the rise of authentic content marketing and the wealth of business intelligence that goes with it is too valuable to leave siloed. The overlap between sales enablement and content marketing is ripe for cross-functional business teams to explore.

Customers tell the story

The analytics and metrics-based approach at the heart of sales enablement can be readily applied to content marketing. And sales team knowledge of how to keep the conversation going has parallels in the power of customer engagement to boost average order value (AOV). Bazaarvoice – one of the pioneers in helping clients to instill trust and drive up customer confidence through the use of quality UGC – highlights the rewards for firms.

Engagement platforms capable of collecting, displaying, and distributing UGC at scale can dramatically increase AOV. And they point to a growing trend of so-called social commerce where company product stories are told through posts, videos, verified reviews, and other UGC streams. AI and automation helps to bring the content together, and those company product stories contribute across a range of business development channels.

For example, actionable insights can help companies with benchmarking and getting an independent view on their competitors. User feedback can contribute directly to future products and services, as well as improve day-to-day operations. If clients are more confident that a solution will be right for them ahead of purchase, then customer service teams will potentially have fewer product returns or service cancellations to manage.

By enabling authentic content marketing, AI and automation represents a powerful combination for enhancing sales outcomes.

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