WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

WHY IT MATTERS: although the focus is on Israel startups the analysis applies worldwide IMO.

WHY IT MATTERS: a very interesting article about a robot taxi system, how it works and its limitations. Fun read to understand what is possible and what is not in self driving tech today. This is important because many of digital transformation use case depend on this for profitability (for example eCommerce delivery cost should reduce drastically when this available).

WHY IT MATTERS: a simple overview of cloud based ecommerce solutions that small businesses should consider.

WHY IT MATTERS: machine learning biggest contribution is with image analysis and the visual search feature is a great example of a useful application. Of course search engines and eCommerce are low hanging fruits but what are business use cases for this? Find me the user manual for this part? Where is this product in the warehouse? Etc.

WHY IT MATTERS: this post is a bit theoretical for someone not bathing in digital transformation all day as I do (mostly). It explores what could come next but more importantly stresses an important fact: we now have a new platform - the mobile phone - in our pockets that has the potential to transform our world. We have started to see this with eCommerce - physical retail stores become irrelevant and we can price compare from anywhere - but we have yet to see the real impact of eCommerce+mobile+cloud+5G. THIS is what I think about most days...

WHY IT MATTERS: the explosion of ecommerce due to covid lockdown will see impacts in years to come. This list sounds about right regarding what's coming in the foreseable future...

WHY IT MATTERS: picking the right ecommerce platform is not easy. This guide can help - keeping in mind that it is very biased to Shopify strengths ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: this guide is specific about Google and Shopify but the principles apply to all eCommerce solutions and the various discovery channels out there (facebook, Amazon, etc.). It highlights the relative complexity and expertise required to let your eCommerce website standout in a sea of solutions. Retailers thus must learn new ways to market and merchandize their store and their products to standout online. In the illustration from the guide, just crafting the right title for your product names requires time and effort in order to make it easy for users to *find* your products on Google. Not easy, not simple. This is where Le Panier Bleu can help by reducing the clutter and making local retailers standout when buying local is a concern for shoppers...

WHY IT MATTERS: a great starting point for retailers looking for #local Quebec #tech solutions. One missing tech may be DVORE www.dvore.com for eCommerce... and www.lepanierbleu.ca ;-)

WHY IT MATTERS: last mile delivery is the Achille's heal of eCommerce. This report provides a great overview of the micro-fulfillment solutions out there.

WHY IT MATTERS: the best comparison of Shopify store options that I've seen to date. 

WHY IT MATTERS: every country, state, region is faced with similar problem: keeping local stores alive during covid shutdown - and then later on in the face of eCommerce popularity. This article provides a non exhaustive list of French startups that focus on helping local retailers.

WHY IT MATTERS: this is a great example of the way small local businesses can survive - by creating marketplaces to sell and promote their wares. This is a vertical marketplace (focus on books). You also need horizontal marketplaces (focus on all stores on a street or region). And you need amazing search engines to let you discover merchants and their products.

WHY IT MATTERS: shopify as a marketplace is question I've been asking for months (or any other eCom solution). After all, once you build your own eCommerce website on Shopify, all the components are in place to create a marketplace: products, categories, inventory, etc. After all, a marketplace is nothing more than a superset, a combination of all those individual shops?

Well, not really. A marketplace is more than a collection of products. It is a destination that provides a single user account, consolidated shipping and delivery, a single destination to resolve customer issues. It is a service, not a technology.

Thus, even though Shopify has the *technology* to build a marketplace, it does not (yet?) have the infrastructure to provide the *service* that a marketplace requires.

WHY IT MATTERS: marketplaces are the next step in eCommerce, as retailers realize that technology is not the issue anymore. Expect hundreds of marketplaces to show up on your radar in the coming years, further splitting the market in multiple zones. Retailers will have to revert back to the old maxim: location, location, location!

WHY IT MATTERS: sharing content across different websites, eCommerce, in-store displays and new devices (ie. Alexa, siri) is difficult. This survey provides insights into the reasons why sharing is difficult. Be aware this is biased towards headless CMS, but the conclusions appear valid IMHO.

WHY IT MATTERS: Google has a number of tools and solutions to help small retailers appear in google maps, google search, google shopping and other areas where customers go when they search for products.

Direct link to the solution: smallbusiness.withgoogle.com/holiday

WHY IT MATTERS: to make stores relevant in a world that moves to eCommerce, this report is full of useful insights to improve in-store marketing via technology and analytics.

WHY IT MATTERS: 5G telecom network promises to revolutionize many industries including retail. This report from Forrester presents use cases for 5G may bring but also puts those in context of what exists today and how fast the transformation will be.

WHY IT MATTERS: a review of 10 live streaming technologies - basically video conferencing for shopping. As we move into maturity of eCommerce solutions beyond the simple catalog-search-filter need to be considered. And in a world of massive store closure and covid fears, this may be an attractive solution for retailers.

Also this report on the 62B$ market in China: www.therobinreport.com/livestreaming-its-big-in-china-is-the-us-next 

WHY IT MATTERS: an essential part of shopping is product search and discovery. Easy to do in stores: just walk around, look at products on racks. More difficult to do in eCommerce websites. Technology, and especially AI, is being pulled to help identify product characteristics automatically so that searching for a "confortable summer dress with flower patterns" becomes possible.

WHY IT MATTERS: a short description of 10 personalization techniques.

WHY IT MATTERS:  watch for robots to start making guest appearances in stores as covid post-pandemic distanciation come into effect - and as retailers have pressure to raise minimum wage. This report provides very good insights and examples of retailers that have already deployed robots.

WHY IT MATTERS: customer centric and omnichannel approaches are essential in today's retail & ecommerce. Tools have started to appear that help track path through the journey and provide consolidated metrics. This list is a great starting point and I am happy to see Quebec-based Coveo be part of the list this yer.

WHY IT MATTERS: an amazing overview of technologies that are on the horizon. They range from bizarre - empathy design? - to the probable and useful - supply chain tech improvements. Read it.