WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: great comparative study of 6 of the biggest tools with all kinds of great insight. Beware this is marketing material from sharpSpring with obvious biais!

WHY IT MATTERS: mirakl has analyzed 50K sellers with 60M+ SKUs and released the first marketplace index. Some useful data nuggets in there.

WHY IT MATTERS: an essential read to best define new marketplaces and have a chance to compete against Amazon

WHY IT MATTERS: headless solutions are all the rage in web development, including eCommerce. This ebook pulls it all together with good insights and analysis followed by overview of 14 tools. Useful.

WHY IT MATTERS: no one knows how stores will change but this eBook brings some interesting store concept and retailTech examples. Don't expect too much from the title though...

WHY IT MATTERS: CDPs are maturing fast and should be considered first in organizations that look at centralizing the customer data.

WHY IT MATTERS: eCommerce is starting to specialize, showing the limitations of Amazon a-to-z "the everything store". As raised in this short post, the specialization comes from the pick-pack-delivery side of eCommerce - logistics - as shoes, furniture and pizza can all be sold on the same website - say Amazon or Shopify - but require vastly different logistics to fulfill the order. We will see technologies appears to answer those special needs in the future.

With Le Panier Bleu we recognized that limitations of eCommerce for small retailers often are related to the high cost of delivery by mail (poste canada, UPS or other) and that a marketplace solution must address those concerns. This post just provides insights into one aspect of this.

WHY IT MATTERS: digital marketing has become more complex, with 8000+ solution in the most recent marTech solutions map. Fortunately processes and tools are starting to appear to help manage this complexity.

WHY IT MATTERS: I find EA to be useful as a practice and approach. However it deployment in organizations often fails because EA architect tend to boil the ocean without bringing value. Agile EA is an interesting concept but again, I fear it may not deliver value. But the approach should inspire and guide solution architects, analysts, managers and other software specialists in organizations.

WHY IT MATTERS: this article explores the cost of cloud computing for large SaaS companies that rely on cloud computing to run and operate their business. The basic argument is that cloud computing is amputating Billions from the market value of those large organizations. It should be read by every software engineer in every corporation and the proposed solutions implemented rapidly.

This statement summarizes the post best: "For a new startup or a new project, the cloud is the obvious choice. And it is certainly worth paying even a moderate “flexibility tax” for the nimbleness the cloud provides. The problem is, for large companies — including startups as they reach scale — that tax equates to hundreds of billions of dollars of equity value in many cases… and is levied well after the companies have already, deeply committed themselves to the cloud (and are often too entrenched to extricate themselves)."

WHY IT MATTERS: yes, technology and digital transformation affects all industries. Here a detailed look at beautyTech solutions.

WHY IT MATTERS: there are now enough company experience to start drawing conclusions and best practice. What's interesting here is that IT transformation (not *All* digital transformations) have bigger success when they focus on bottom line improvements than top line ones. Yet, most projects focus on the top line. Hhhhmmmm, this should make some CIOs review their project portfolio, no?

WHY IT MATTERS: not a big fan of surveys like this one but jump to the 10 recommendations for marketplace sellers for useful tips. 

WHY IT MATTERS: I like this model because it is simple to understand makes sense. Not all MM are like that. That being said this document skims the surface so don't expect much more than generalities - and plugs of contentful and its Canadian(!) customers.

WHY IT MATTERS: NFTs are in the news these days and this reports highlights some of the recent transactions along with the position of NTFs in the blockchain ecosystem.

WHY IT MATTERS: acquisition of magento by Adobe has taken a few years to integrate but it seems that the process is over. This comparison is quite high level but provides good insights to get started. The net-net: magento ain't your open source project anymore and has moved into the corporate grade solution, with the good (support, features, integration to Adobe portfolio, ...) and the bad (pricing, inflexibility, ...) that comes with it.

WHY IT MATTERS: in reality it really doesn't matter I guess but I find this annual report a good reminder that creativity takes many forms... including in the naming of logo types (electric tape?). Fun to read when you are waiting for the bus.

WHY IT MATTERS: AI is complex and exploration is still under way to detect the best way to apply machine learning to real world problems. This article reviews reinforcement learning algorithms and their potential use cases in different industries, including retail.

WHY IT MATTERS: innovation in the team collaboration front has been slow at times. Covid has made it a critical tool for many, thus pushing innovation to the top of the priority list. And it is a good thing.

WHY IT MATTERS: always good to understand how hacking was done 10 years ago. And remember that today Internet usage is at least 10x what it was in 2011.

https://www.inphi.com/the-rise-of-internet-3-0/

WHY IT MATTERS: human nature will dictate return to the office or work from home.

People that DO things for a living - coding, answering calls, writing marketing copy, etc. - don't want to waste 1-2hrs per day traveling to an office to sit in front of the same computer they use at home! Return to the office will not be a huge selling point for them.

People that MANAGE others will crave the visibility and face to face interactions. They will push for a return to the office. And because they are higher up in the food chain, the pressure will be HUGE for workers to return to the office.

Thus I think working remotely will negatively impact your promotion potential within typical organizations and that most workers will goo back to the office at least 3 days per week - even if their work could as well be completed remotely.

WHY IT MATTERS: this short intro on selling in Amazon marketplace highlights a key concern for small retailers: customers are aggregating on marketplaces (Amazon being the largest for now) and you need to be able to dynamically decide what you sell, where, for how much and consolidate all the orders in a single. Where better than your existing ecommerce website - magento, shopify, hybris or other? Used to be this was done on your ERP (for large retailers) or POS (for single shop owners) or PIMs and OMS for those with more mature eCommerce architectures. Now it looks like you'll do everything to centralize in the Ecommerce store.

WHY IT MATTERS: an amazing account of the 3 year process to convert existing mobile apps with a new framework to improve software development productivity.

WHY IT MATTERS: a long read about tens of new developments in the works at Apple from a long time AR-VR industry watcher (he was very bullish about Google glasses back in the day). Nevertheless, the article is a good rundown of what the future of 3D in AR and VR may be. 

What I find great is that it goes beyond the classic AR-VR use cases and into a more fundamental trend of embedding digital into the real world in 3D. The examples of what is being developed in the labs is eye opening. But remember, this is R&D and will take years to become ubiquitous. 

WHY IT MATTERS: the end of 3rd party cookies will impact advertising the most. This chart highlights the 50% of revenues that go to different players (including 15% unknown!). What irritates me most is the 7% to agencies that, unfortunately, seem to do very little to earn that amount in my experience...