Bricks and mortar stores are shutting at pace. What does it mean for eCommerce in the UK, and how is branded content a part of the mix? We have already seen the effects of consumers tightening their spending, resulting in the downfall of major names on the high street. Can social save the shops?
One of the primary reasons that many high street brands are struggling is due to a failure for bricks-and-mortar retail to keep up with digital expectations. Drab web design and questionable user experiences turned consumers off, and on to other more developed ecommerce propositions, such as Amazon. It’s, sometimes, about more than just price – it’s also about immediacy, seamlessness and simplicity.
So as users increasingly turn to the digital to make purchases of physical items, how can retailers adapt to survive? It’s increasingly less about your core website and more about being present at the perfect purchase moment. In 2019 Instagram will become a shopping platform in itself, with the introduction of a native credit card payment system. Browsing #ootd just became so much more dangerous.
Facebook will be implementing new AR ads, allowing users to virtually try out new products (such as makeup and sunglasses).
And WhatsApp is creating a business platform which will enable brands to respond to customers within 24-hours. In some countries, WhatsApp is already a common form of communication between retailers and consumers.
What does this mean for a waning high street? Brands can learn from the likes of IKEA, Amazon and Alibaba, which have transcended from online to offline experiential stores, designed not to aggressively push sales and stack up products, but to allow people to get hands on and experiment with the brands’ products. This experience encourages consumers to make their purchases online. The tactile high street shop may not quite be dead yet, resuscitated by evolving digital experiences.
Bricks and mortar stores are shutting at pace. What does it mean for eCommerce in the UK, and how is branded content a part of the mix? We have already seen the effects of consumers tightening their spending, resulting in the downfall of major names on the high street. Can social save the shops?
One of the primary reasons that many high street brands are struggling is due to a failure for bricks-and-mortar retail to keep up with digital expectations. Drab web design and questionable user experiences turned consumers off, and on to other more developed ecommerce propositions, such as Amazon. It’s, sometimes, about more than just price – it’s also about immediacy, seamlessness and simplicity.
So as users increasingly turn to the digital to make purchases of physical items, how can retailers adapt to survive? It’s increasingly less about your core website and more about being present at the perfect purchase moment. In 2019 Instagram will become a shopping platform in itself, with the introduction of a native credit card payment system. Browsing #ootd just became so much more dangerous.
Facebook will be implementing new AR ads, allowing users to virtually try out new products (such as makeup and sunglasses).
And WhatsApp is creating a business platform which will enable brands to respond to customers within 24-hours. In some countries, WhatsApp is already a common form of communication between retailers and consumers.
What does this mean for a waning high street? Brands can learn from the likes of IKEA, Amazon and Alibaba, which have transcended from online to offline experiential stores, designed not to aggressively push sales and stack up products, but to allow people to get hands on and experiment with the brands’ products. This experience encourages consumers to make their purchases online. The tactile high street shop may not quite be dead yet, resuscitated by evolving digital experiences.
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
With France crowned the winners of the FIFA World Cup after a nail biting tournament, we turn our attention from the pitch back to business. For Omnicom this means the launch of Omni – our marketing and insights platform. “Until now, the idea of mass personalisation was more of an aspiration than a reality – Omni changes that. This is precision marketing at scale and in action. And the new platform can be leveraged by all Omnicom clients across multiple disciplines.”
AI is also hot on everyone’s lips, as new research reveals that personal touch trumps AI in the workplace. Apparently, the majority of us would rather talk to a real person over a machine when it comes to workplace issues. If you’re looking to win a complex first-person multiplayer video game however – AI might be your ticket – and with children as young as one interacting with voice activation, it’s easy to see why we’re so taken with this tech.
HEADLINES
- One for all of us: Omnicom Media Group launches marketing and insights platform ‘Omni’
- Pinterest adds a chat tool for collaborative planning boards
- Experts say ICO’s fine to Facebook signals seriousness of its GDPR enforcement
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
Litigation, regulation and precedent are the flavour of the week as European Members of Parliament voted to reject fast tracking the EU Copyright Directive, a major victory in maintaining an open internet. MEPs this week also call on the EU Commission to suspend the EU-US Privacy Shield as it fails to provide enough data protection for EU citizens. Someone’s looking out for us after all.
On a lighter note, FiveThirtyEight’s Soccer Power Index (SPI) is predicting the top teams to take home victory at the World Cup. Get even more technical by delving into the stats behind the best teams – they’re scatter charts that dreams are made of. Finally, remember that you can always check into OMD’s World Cup Social Intelligence Platform to check out what’s trending, tune into live conversations and stay on top of the chat.
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
- Before algorithmic timelines filtered our reality for us there was RSS: Really Simple Syndication
- Dungeons and Dragons, not chess and Go: why AI needs roleplay
- On the “Gorillas in Our Midst” experiment and Daniel Kahneman’s assertions in Thinking, Fast and Slow; The fallacy of obviousness
- Deceived by design, how tech companies use dark patterns to discourage us from exercising your rights to privacy
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD.
Litigation, regulation and precedent are the flavour of the week as European Members of Parliament voted to reject fast tracking the EU Copyright Directive, a major victory in maintaining an open internet. MEPs this week also call on the EU Commission to suspend the EU-US Privacy Shield as it fails to provide enough data protection for EU citizens. Someone’s looking out for us after all.
On a lighter note, FiveThirtyEight’s Soccer Power Index (SPI) is predicting the top teams to take home victory at the World Cup. Get even more technical by delving into the stats behind the best teams – they’re scatter charts that dreams are made of. Finally, remember that you can always check into OMD’s World Cup Social Intelligence Platform to check out what’s trending, tune into live conversations and stay on top of the chat.
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS
- Before algorithmic timelines filtered our reality for us there was RSS: Really Simple Syndication
- Dungeons and Dragons, not chess and Go: why AI needs roleplay
- On the “Gorillas in Our Midst” experiment and Daniel Kahneman’s assertions in Thinking, Fast and Slow; The fallacy of obviousness
- Deceived by design, how tech companies use dark patterns to discourage us from exercising your rights to privacy
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
Hello and welcome to your weekly FWD. After a week of scandal erupting in the digital data world, speakers at Advertising Week Europe set a more hopeful tone. As OMD UK’s Joseph Harake said on stage, “we’re seeing a bit of a turn of the tide”. Speaking with Levi’s, they discussed how brands and publishers are tackling the duopoly of Google and Facebook.
It was announced last week that Google will ask publishers to get users’ consent on its behalf to comply with EU privacy law. For a deeper read, this white paper delves into the impact of the ePrivacy regulation on Facebook and Google.
As always, please share anything you find interesting using #OMDFWD
HEADLINES
INSIGHTS
COOL
DEEP READS