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Black Friday, a wonderful customer experience

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Us Brits are predicted to have spent a whopping £5.6Billion combined on Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. With the average spend also predicted to be £251.20 each. Why the shift in behaviour? The digital era. Shoppers are now preferring speed and convenience rather than going into a brick and mortar store.

92% of those surveyed by PwC claim that they will have bought at least 1 item over the internet between Black Friday and Cyber Monday. This number includes 56% of all customers who intend to do all their shopping on the net!

Black Friday Human Interaction

Despite this HUGE increase in online shopping. The PwC survey discovered that 75% of consumers desire human interaction as part of the digital journey. Therefore more retailers are investing in assisted intelligence solutions.  Which therefore will create a seamless brand experience in order to compete in such a competitive online environment, this is according to Sameer Parvez, Head of Retail & Ecommerce at Teleperformance:

With sales predicted to be 800 per cent more than a regular Monday, it is imperative retailers have a digital customer experience in place that integrates chatbots with their existing customer interaction channels, alleviating pressure from customer service agents. The demand for chat services is significant, with over 50 per cent of consumers preferring this method of instant communication.

As more and more consumers go online, companies that adopt an omni-channel customer engagement strategy can retain an average 89% of their customers, deepening the relationship between the brand and the consumer.”

In order to stay relevant to consumers who now expect 24 hour communication, retailers must respond to this need and boost their digital online experience by considering a High-Tech, High-Touch approach. This gives shoppers the option to speak to a customer service advisor as well as round-the-clock online chat services.

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Amazon Go

Amazon Go launching another store!

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In what seems like a move to eradicate all jobs for customer advisors everywhere. Amazon are launching another Amazon go store. After the succesful launch of it’s first cashier-less store in Seattle in December 2016.

It’s second store will too open in Seattle and launched earlier this month. It’s part of the gradual roll out across America with other Amazon Go stores looking to open in LA, San Francisco and Chicago.

Amazon’s second store will be a smaller venue. It won’t feature a working kitchen like it’s main store. Neither will it include a liquor section. The smaller store is more aimed toward the office workers. Therefore will focusing on offering it’s customers baked goods and ready to go meals. Plus it’s own Blue-Apron-Like meal deals. It’s open from 7AM-7PM Monday – Friday and is situated on 5th and Marion in downtown Seattle.

Amazon Go: A Re-Cap.

Amazon Go is the world’s first cashier-less ‘regular’ store. It allows customers to enter the store by scanning a code on their app on a smartphone. You are then tracked by Amazon within the store by a ton of cameras above you. Amazon will then bill you when you take items off the shelves directly to the account which you used to enter the store. Therefore nulling the need fo a cashier. Verge are reporting that the cameras within the store are so smart they can even distinguish between three Amazon employees who dressed in Pikachu costumes to simulate robberies.

Would you use this if it was brought to the UK? What worries do you have or do you just see this as a way as us moving forward with technology? We shall see what the future holds for the jobs of many many people. However, some could argue that it’ll create more jobs?

(Verge)

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mind control

Will there be Mind Control for real?!

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Well turns out we’re all screwed. We may not even know what free will is even more, mind control could be happening!

Ok enough movie quotes, let’s get on to the real reason as to why we may be seeing Jedi mind tricks in the real world at some point in the future. Hope you’re sitting down for this, scientists have suggested that we humans could tuen into mindless ‘cyborg’ type super consumers. The same technology has been used on rats – successfully. Well, it’s time to turn off all technology. It was nice knowing you!

Mind Control: Shopping

It relates to shopping. A team of researchers working at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology discovered that by stimulating a certain part of a mouses brain. The process triggered a craving, a craving for possessing unnecessary objects. Looking at you impulse buyers! The intended use of the discovery of this process is intended to treat people. The idea is to treat people with brain disorders such as kleptomania or hoarding. However, they also stated that it could be used to ‘control human behaviour’

You may think that craving objects is quite scary in and of itself. Prepare to be bamboozled. The team said that it can control the behaviour with a technique known as MPA-Induced aDrive Assisted Steering. This, when used, made the mice chase whatever is in front of them whenever the same region is stimulated.

Psychological

The joy that we as children got when we recieved a toy from our parents has followed us into adulthood. We experience the same sort of lust for objects – one example of this would be if you have a shopping addiction. Which of course, could be used to exploit us, coroporations couold make us shoppers just grab anything, mindlessly. Though, would mean shops would have access to our brains. Which isn’t going to happen.

Professor Kim noted that:

‘This study provides evidence to treat brain disorders such as compulsive hoarding and kleptomania. ‘It also contributes to the development of technology to control the behaviour of animals and humans using strong innate motivation, and thus could impact neuro-economics, defence and disaster relief.’

So there is some good to the mind control news. Of course, the treatment of brain diseases. But disaster relief could be good if it got more people to safety. But again it needs access to the brain!

 

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Augmented GAP dressing Rooms!

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You soon may be able to ‘try on’ clothes before you actually buy them or have them in your possession! GAP have been experimenting with AR and are launching their “Dressing Room” app in the near future.

The app which was built in collaboration with Google and San Fran start up Avametric uses Augmented Reality to let users ‘try on’ clothes without having to have the clothes with them or be in an actual store. You’re not actually seen with them on unfortunately but rather a 3D mannequin type model. After you add info such as height/weight the app places a virtual model (which is based on you but isn’t you) in the room infant of you to see ho different items would fit. If you like it, then go ahead and purchase right from within the app.

Sounds cool enough but it won’t be available to all and is only available to Google Tango smartphones. Which are little and none, only the Lenovo Phab2 pro and an ASUS phone called ZenFone AR later this year. GAP Says that it is solely focused on making its app work on Google’s augmented reality platform.

Click here to listen to the guys chatting about this!

 

Episode 123 Phone Shopping

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