Amazon Marketplace

I've written a couple times how much I enjoy the MorningNewsBeat blog so it should come as no surprise he is up with some more content I find worth sharing.

Did you know an entire ecosystem of companies have sprung up to help you sell on Amazon?  I didn't realize it was nearly as extensive as it is.

Enjoy this innovation conversation:

http://www.morningnewsbeat.com/News/Detail/50870/2016-11-30/

Here is a snippet from the piece:



Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

The TV Revolution

The changes to how we receive and view our video content continues.

This is a bit of news from AT&T on their new digital service, bypassing cable TV.

http://www.recode.net/2016/11/29/13772672/directv-now-streaming-tv-competition

Here is a snippet from that:

AT&T finally took the wraps off DirecTV Now, its new streaming TV service, and it’s just what it said it was going to be: The base package, for now, is $35 a month for more than 100 channels.

That’s a lot cheaper than a traditional pay TV service — and a lot cheaper than DirecTV’s own satellite TV service.

Of course, there are strings attached. Or more precisely, there are things that aren’t attached to DirecTV Now.

The world she is a-changing isn't she?

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Free Wi-Fi In Store

Compelling argument for retailers to offer free WiFi in their stores.

https://econsultancy.com/blog/68560-five-compelling-reasons-to-offer-free-wi-fi-in-store/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

According to research, more than 90% of consumers now use their smartphone while shopping in-store.

So, first and foremost, that is a huge percentage of people walking through the door that a retailer could potentially target.

If a store does not have Wi-Fi, I doubt it would impact the customer’s perception too negatively.

But on the flip side, customers are much more likely to have a positive response towards those that do.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Black Friday 2016

The news is starting to come in from the big turkey day shopping season and things are looking increasingly mobile.

Couple headlines for you, and I may add to these later.

First up is the decline of in-store sales this year:

http://www.mytotalretail.com/article/store-shopping-holiday-weekend/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

According to the National Retail Federation, 99.1 million people said they shopped in stores this past holiday weekend, which is down 3 million from last year. Of the four-day weekend, Black Friday was the most popular day to go shopping — 75 percent of the 99 million shopped on Black Friday, up 3.4 percent from last year. And despite Thanksgiving Eve doorbusters, that day only barely outpaced Sunday in terms of in-store traffic. About 40 percent of brick-and-mortar consumers ventured out on Saturday, 35 percent on Thanksgiving and 17 percent on Sunday, the data found.

Next is the increase in online sales this year:

http://www.mytotalretail.com/article/black-friday-thanksgiving-online-shopping-surpasses-5-billion-first-time/

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Adobe today released its 2016 online shopping data for Black Friday and Thanksgiving Day. More than $5 billion ($5.27 billion) was spent online by the end of Black Friday, a 17.7 percent increase year-over-year, according to data released by Adobe Digital Insights over the weekend. The $5.27 billion set a new record by surpassing the three-billion-dollar mark for the first time at $3.34 billion (21.6 percent growth YoY). Thanksgiving accounted for the remaining $1.93 billion, 11.5 percent more than in 2015 (but slightly lower than the $2 billion anticipated.) In addition, Black Friday became the first day in retail history to drive over $1 billion in mobile revenue at $1.2 billion, a 33 percent growth YoY.

So what's going on?  Seems obvious to me.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Walgreens Has Beacons in its Mobile App

Want to talk to your customers as they walk through your store?

Walgreens has figured out the way.

Read on:

http://www.businessinsider.com/walgreens-latest-mobile-app-update-pushes-beacons-to-shoppers-2016-11

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Walgreens' latest mobile app update includes an increase in beacon-enabled deals and coupons, reports GeoMarketing.

The company has been testing beacons in its Duane Reade locations since February to push mobile coupons and promotions. And while Walgreens is well poised to see a lift in sales due to such tools, the company has some significant consumer concerns to overcome before adoption spreads.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Wearables Tell Us Who Lost the Most Sleep Election Night

I'm pretty bullish on wearables overall, as I glance at my Apple Watch, and love stories like this.

According to FitBit, that has extensive sleep tracking in many wearable devices, we know which cities lost the most sleep in the U.S. on election night.

Ding, ding.  If you guessed Washington D.C. you were right.

Read on:

http://fortune.com/2016/11/15/fitbit-sleep-election/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Twitter's New Anti-Harassment Tools

Twitter has certainly proved to be a critical social media utility.  I admit to being addicted to it. Now can it clean up its act?

They are trying.

Read on:

http://adage.com/article/media/twitter-addresses-critics-adding-tools-report-harassment/306771/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Del Harvey sees too many of the same kind of tweet. It contains a screenshot of a message from Twitter's user support, saying that a post someone reported as abusive on the site doesn't violate Twitter rules. It's often accompanied by commentary: "Seriously?"

For Ms. Harvey, it's a personal criticism. She's the head of trust and safety at Twitter, and it's her job to make sure that people have tools to deal with harassment and abuse on the social-media site. But during the course of her eight years at the company, she said, "It's very easy to find instances where we got to the wrong answer.''

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Citi Mobile Pay

Wow, really, everyone is in on this now.  Mobile payments everywhere.

Time for consolidation?  Not yet, it appears.

Citi is next.  Read on:

http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/citi-joins-mobile-pay-as-consumer-adoption-reaches-highpoint

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple Purging their App Store

The Google Play store has been a bit of a mess every time I've ventured there, with deceptive or fake apps all over the place.  Microsoft has problems as well.  Now Apple is publicly cleaning up its store.

Worth a read for iOS users and those interested in generally following these market places:

https://techcrunch.com/2016/11/15/apples-big-app-store-purge-is-now-underway/

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Earlier this year, Apple promised it would clean up its iOS App Store by removing outdated, abandoned apps, including those that no longer meet current guidelines or don’t function as intended. That great App Store purge now appears to be underway, according to new data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower. The company found that app removals increased by 238 percent in October 2016, with mobile games seeing the most deletions.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Star Wars Rogue One 360 Experience

If you haven't seen any of the 360 degree experiences, or VR simulators around the net you are in for a treat.  If you are skeptical how a Virtual Reality experience might pull you in, take a look at this.

Just for the sake of warning, I have no idea if this short bit is any kind of a spoiler for the little movie coming out December 16, but I can tell you to avoid this if you want a completely clean experience.  It isn't anything substantial, and is well worth it in my opinion, but some folks might want to avoid this.

Check it out!

http://www.comingsoon.net/movies/news/786165-watch-the-rogue-one-recon-360-experience#/slide/1

Happy ... VR fun?!?

J.W. Gant

PS  The viewing experience is best on a hand-held device such as your phone or tablet.

Facebook, Google, the Internet and the Election

I've been utterly absorbed by the politics in the Unites States this summer, as have many of my fellow Americans, and now it is time to move to other things I'm very intrigued by the question of Facebook's impact on the results.

Did "fake news" run rampant on Facebook and tilt the election one way or another?

Mark Zuckerberg doesn't think so but they are looking in to it.  Read on:

https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10103253901916271

Here is a piece of that:

After the election, many people are asking whether fake news contributed to the result, and what our responsibility is to prevent fake news from spreading. These are very important questions and I care deeply about getting them right. I want to do my best to explain what we know here.

Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99% of what people see is authentic. Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes. The hoaxes that do exist are not limited to one partisan view, or even to politics. Overall, this makes it extremely unlikely hoaxes changed the outcome of this election in one direction or the other.

Is that all?

This is kind of an interesting place right?  We have only their word on this, really, because their internal workings are proprietary.  Yet, as a global utility for social communication their obligations run deep. Full transparency is called for here and I'm not seeing it yet.

One thing is clear to me, we aren't finished with this discussion.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

PS  Important to note how much larger the story is.  Google has its own issues.  For example, in the days following the election if you googled for the election results the top hit would be a fake news site that incorrectly listed Trump with more votes than Clinton.  Wow.  That sort of mis-information is damaging.  Read on.

https://www.cnet.com/news/google-fake-news-election-donald-trump-popular-vote/

Samsung Pay to Roll Out Samsung Rewards

Just in time for Black Friday shopping, if you use your Samsung device (hopefully the ones that don't have explosive batteries) and Samsung Pay to close your transaction at retail stores you'll receive rewards for doing so.

Read on:

http://www.digitaltransactions.net/news/story/Samsung-Rewards-Marks-New-Tack-for-Endearing-Consumers-to-the-Samsung-Pay-Mobile-Wallet

Here is a snippet from the piece:

Announced Monday, the program enables consumers to earn points for their Samsung Pay transactions, which can be redeemed for retailer gift cards, prepaid Samsung Rewards Visa gift cards, other Samsung products, and other items. As transaction frequency increases, the consumer’s account advances to a higher level, which earns more points. Samsung Rewards is not tied to a specific card stored in the Samsung Pay wallet. More than 500 credit and debit card-issuing banks support Samsung Pay.

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant