The average dweller of a developed nation is exposed to as much data in 24 hours as the average 15th century peasant was exposed to over the course of their entire life, according to new BBC calculations.
If science is to be believed, while humans are deluged with more data than ever, humans have only about the same ability to retain data as they did in the 15th century.
That’s why we comb through all those info streams each week to make sure you’re ready for what’s next. So what info do you need to have top of mind this week?
Amazon disappointed kindergarten teachers everywhere this week by officially curtailing their official support of sharing.
At least when it comes to Prime memberships.
While Amazon’s previous policy allowed Prime accountholders to share their account benefits (free two-day shipping and Prime Instant Video streaming) with up to four other household members, that policy came to an end last week.
Prime benefit sharing options now fall under the “Amazon Households” program. This version of sharing allows six members to share a Prime membership, but only two of those members can be adults, and they must share the same primary residence.
Moreover, in order to share Prime benefits, the two accountholders within an Amazon Household are required to authorize each other to use any payment methods associated with their Amazon accounts for purchases. That makes sense – can you spell chargebacks?
Amazon didn’t make a formal announcement of this policy change — according to reports, users discovered the change on their own, and began complaining on Internet forums shortly after the change in policy quietly went into effect.
Other things that Amazon is quiet about? Its incredibly extensive and mutually beneficial relationship with the United States Postal Service.
Though neither entity has been particularly forthcoming on details of their working relationship, Amazon operates a network of at least 15 sorting facilities located near post offices so packages can be more efficiently sorted and handed over to the USPS. In a regulatory filing earlier this year, the eCommerce giant confirmed plans to expand the number of these sorting centers over the course of the year.
Bernstein Research analyst David Vernon estimates that USPS handled approximately 40 percent of Amazon’s volume in 2014 — or about 150 million items. The suspected reason is price, because since Amazon does all of its own processing, they get a big discount on their shipping.
“I think [Amazon’s] idea was, why give this volume to FedEx when we can just sort it ourselves?” Vernon told Bloomberg. “Because it’s not that hard.”
At an estimated $2 per package, Amazon is saving big compared to what it would normally pay UPS and FedEx.
USPS has seen payoffs from the boost of its eCommerce deliveries and is eyeing an expansion in that area.
“It’s just leveraging our infrastructure,” notes Postmaster General Megan Brennan. “We’re on people’s doorstep six days a week, seven days a week in some cases. It’s just a logical progression. Amazon is the first… but we’re obviously looking to get additional customers who are interested in that type of customized delivery. The Postal Service is far more technology-centric than most people would understand or believe.”
Might as well get something out of those tax dollars.
Commerce as an institution is about 5,000 years old. Digital commerce, on the other hand, is about 20 years old, and as a result is a bit more mysterious to the viewing world. We’ve had much more time to figure out regular commerce, and digital commerce is still emerging and evolving very quickly.
“The places where people shop online has changed. Five years ago, when a retailer talked about an omnichannel leader, it meant store, online, mobile. Today, online itself is a plurality of channels that is very different. Five years ago you would have found that marketplaces wasn’t the first place people went to buy. You probably would have seen search and their favorite merchant on the very top of the list. What we’ve been seeing is both the coming of age of marketplaces of all sorts — both big and small — and also the early emergence of social media,” noted Patrick Gauthier, VP of Amazon Payments.
PYMNTS, in conjunction with Amazon, decided to drill down on the digital shopper, and specifically study the purchase process. Where do they start, what do they buy, how do they pay and do their preferences change depending on device?
The evident change, as Gauthier noted, is the evolving path of commerce. Consumers’ interactions are much less likely to be moderated one-to-one by merchants as they seek out goods and services, and are much more likely to be experienced through digital marketplaces and social media networks.
However, the surprisingly consistent piece is what the main driver of consumer behavior was across the spectrum when it came to driving consumer behavior: trust.
When asked what was the most important reason for determining where to make the final online purchase, 23 percent named trust in the site as their decision driver. That saw it edge out rewards or promotions at 16 percent, prior good experience at 14 and speedy availability of desired items at 13 percent.
“The ultimate digital destinations are driven by trust – trust that the sites have what they want to buy, trust that they will be given a fair price, trust that their goods will be delivered to them in a time frame that is relevant. Trust is also something that appears important when consumers are presented with new ways to pay online and on mobile – familiar brands that they know and use seem to trump the efforts of even the most progressive new technology players,” MPD CEO Karen Webster said in response to the research.
Gauthier concurred, noting that when consumers are building their digital preferences, they aren’t thinking so much about one specific channel so much as they are thinking about a whole experience and ending up with the product or service they are going after.
“The first finding we found is about the journey, it’s not about the channel itself. When I read these numbers it tells me something that we otherwise know. With the convergence with the time spent online, mobile as a channel and online as a channel is probably the wrong way to think about things. And it’s more about the type of shopping journey,” Gauthier said.
The beacons are coming, the beacons are coming…
Soon, to a Target near you.
While Target is not the first name brand to make a beacon play, as the nation’s second-largest general retailer they may constitute the biggest beacon boost. Last week, the Minneapolis-based firm announced that it is rolling out beacons on a trial basis at 50 of its stores in the next several weeks in stores in Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis, New York City, Pittsburgh, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle.
If all goes according to plans, which is of course what retail is known for, beacons will have gone chain-wide for the holiday shopping push if rumors are to be believed.
Beacons at Target will be opt-in only and delivered through the Target app. Deals and information will be pulsing out for iOS customers (the Android version remains under development) — though in an effort to head off accusations from push message weary consumers, Target will be capping the number of notifications that stream to smartphones.
The beacon tech will also fuel an expansion of the “Target Run” section of the mobile app. That page also houses deals, product picks, and top-pinned items from Pinterest, but is designed to resemble a social media feed, and more closely mirror that user experience.
In the initial run, Target’s beacons will be about powering shopping on the saving end, though the retailer has hinted at greater expectations for the program. In the future, customers might be able to sort their shopping lists while they move through the store — in a way similar to how mapping apps can reroute a traveler when you ignore its initial directions.
Another potential feature will let consumers use their phones to summon an employee in the event of direct help being needed.
Target joins a fairly illustrious list of names as it climbs on the big beacon bandwagon. In the last several months, mall developer Simon, Macy’s, GameStop and Lord & Taylor have all enhanced their in-store experience with beacons. According to a November 2014 study by marketing platform provider Swirl, 73 percent of consumers surveyed indicated that beacons — if implemented correctly — up the odds that they will make a purchase.
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