WHY IT MATTERS: Digital Transformation

While there is evidence that the retail apocalypse is real offline. There are mixed signs about whether online retailing is experiencing a full apocalypse.

Will we be able to create sustainable prosperity, or are we on the way to a climate crash? Is the world interconnected or fragmented? Which new technologies shape our everyday lives? In a new study entitled “Delivering Tomorrow: Logistics in 2050," Deutsche Post DHL Group presents five sweeping, sometimes radical, prospects for the world in 2050 as well as the impact they would have on the logistics industry.

Blockchain disruptive nature is derived from its ability to transform almost any process, from basic documentation to settling complex contracts across geographies.

Digital transformation does not happen slowly over time, but rather abruptly after a long period of denial by industry leaders.

The Alexa voice platform and other deep learning projects have made Amazon an AI leader.

Augmented reality technologies promise to transform how we learn, make decisions, and interact with the physical world. In this package we explain what AR is, how its applications are evolving, and why it’s so important.

Whether Amazon chooses bitcoin, ethereum, or something else altogether, their choice will have dramatic consequences on the existing cryptocurrency landscape. Cryptocurrency and the technology behind it are here to stay, but bitcoin and its reign as the number one cryptocurrency might not be.

In this practical guide, you'll learn:

• The Pros / Cons of Different Pricing Policy Types including MAP (Minimum Acceptable Pricing) and UPP (Unilateral Pricing Policies)
• The Top Mistakes people make drafting their policies that can land them in legal trouble and tips from legal experts to avoid them
• How to determine the size of your branding problem and detect violations in Amazon and other Websites and Online Marketplaces
• Ways to automate enforcement
• Get practical advice from the pros

The dot-com boom and bust is often compared to the Gold Rush. But Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos says its more like the early days of the electric industry.

Taiwanese e-commerce platform OwlTing wants to change the way consumers think about their food. This year, it launched the world’s first blockchain-based app for tracing food products — including pork. And the process is pretty simple: by scanning a sticker on a slab of pork, OwlTing customers can quickly access information about everything from a piglet’s date of birth, to the vaccines it received before its slaughter. There’s a lot more to blockchain technology than learning obscure facts about a pork chop, however. For producers, using blockchain-based technologies to trace food through processing and shipping means that they might be able to avoid widespread food waste should a contamination arise — and even save lives. And it is not just small companies that are interested in this technology. The largest retailer in the world, Walmart recently partnered with IBM to develop their own pilot blockchain system. VICE News Tonight visited Taiwan to see how blockchain is affecting pork production, and then to Walmart to find out why the company thinks consumers are going to benefit from this technology.

We surveyed eCommerce Managers and CEOs from European countries and prepared the report based on their experiences and our knowledge.

The most anticipated slide deck of the year is here. Key takeaways:

• Global smartphone growth is slowing: Smartphone shipments grew 3 percent year over year last year, versus 10 percent the year before. This is in addition to continued slowing internet growth, which Meeker discussed last year.
• Voice is beginning to replace typing in online queries. Twenty percent of mobile queries were made via voice in 2016, while accuracy is now about 95 percent.
• In 10 years, Netflix went from 0 to more than 30 percent of home entertainment revenue in the U.S. This is happening while TV viewership continues to decline.
• Entrepreneurs are often fans of gaming, Meeker said, quoting Elon Musk, Reid Hoffman and Mark Zuckerberg. Global interactive gaming is becoming mainstream, with 2.6 billion gamers in 2017 versus 100 million in 1995. Global gaming revenue is estimated to be around $100 billion in 2016, and China is now the top market for interactive gaming.
• China remains a fascinating market, with huge growth in mobile services and payments and services like on-demand bike sharing. (More here: The highlights of Meeker's China slides.)
• While internet growth is slowing globally, that’s not the case in India, the fastest growing large economy. The number of internet users in India grew more than 28 percent in 2016. That’s only 27 percent online penetration, which means there’s lots of room for internet usership to grow. Mobile internet usage is growing as the cost of bandwidth declines. (More here: The highlights of Meeker's India slides.)
• In the U.S. in 2016, 60 percent of the most highly valued tech companies were founded by first- or second-generation Americans and are responsible for 1.5 million employees. Those companies include tech titans Apple, Alphabet, Amazon and Facebook.
• Healthcare: Wearables are gaining adoption with about 25 percent of Americans owning one, up 12 percent from 2016. Leading tech brands are well-positioned in the digital health market, with 60 percent of consumers willing to share their health data with the likes of Google in 2016.

Engineers at MIT have designed a workout suit that responds to your body heat, according to a study published last week in Science Advances. The clothing, made from latex, is covered with thumbnail- to finger-sized ventilating flaps that open and close depending on how much heat your body puts out. But what's controlling the flaps isn't something you'll find weaved into your usual workout gear -- it's bacteria.

The startups in this infographic have raised nearly $1.5B to optimize grocery store operations with AI, virtual reality and more.

China tops the US as home to the most e-commerce companies with funding over $100M.

Seattle-based Amazon is doubling down on AWS and its AI assistant, Alexa. It's seeking to become the central provider for AI-as-a-service.

There have been more retail bankruptcies so far this year than all of 2016. The number of retailers filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy is approaching its highest level since 2008 and 2009.
Why now? Many point to the rise of Amazon and e-commerce, the glut of malls and a spending shift from clothes to health care and experiences. All of these trends hold true, but they've been building for a while now.

The technical potential for automation differs dramatically across sectors and activities.

Popular ideas about the working class are woefully out of date. Here are nine people who tell a truer story of what the American work force does today — and will do tomorrow.

The Future of Personalization white paper looks at how retailers can deliver a more personalized, one-on-one online shopping experience. Specifically, the paper looks at the retail landscape and the challenges retailers must overcome in order to achieve personalization, such as understanding the individual consumer, including their style, size and brand affinities as well as external and internal factors that affect their decision making.

Starbucks is facing long lines and delays in stores, and the CEO hasn't offered any specific solutions for restoring service.

This year’s forecasts will highlight the trends & issues that we think will have major impacts on the retail industry over the coming 12 months.

The Artificial Intelligence Revolution isn’t around the corner—it’s here. A common remark is that as soon as some new form of AI is possible, it’s no longer AI, it’s just what computers “do”. And while we won’t notice most of AI’s effects in our world, there will be visible signs as digital technology is infused with AI. Through the lens of commerce, it’s easier to see AI’s deep effects as progress continues. Here are a few examples.

This transformation echoes the impact of Facebook on the media: there is a dramatic leveling of the playing field. The advantages of scale that guaranteed success in the post-war era just don’t matter very much when advertising is cheap, shelf space is infinite, and shipping is free. And, just as Facebook’s breakdown of the media broke down the political parties, Amazon’s break-down of physical retail will have its own knock-on effects: carrying household supplies is a major reason to own a car, for example, which means Amazon is a laying the foundation for a service like Uber to shift from being a car supplement to a full-on substitution.

New research shows that 66% of US adults aren't willing to pay more for groceries, even if it means skipping the checkout line