Today In Data: Changing The Technology And Evolving Preferences

Normal operating procedure for consumers on the eve of the 2020s is incredibly different than it was on the eve of the 2010s – and it’s almost unrecognizable from the eve of the millennium. Consumers shop, bank, work and get paid differently than they ever have – and as the connection points keep rolling in, so will the changes.

A digital world is a smaller world, with consumers moving both actually and virtually much more often than they ever have before. They are working and earning differently. And their frame of reference when searching for goods and services has gone global. Consumers are shopping, seeking education and healthcare, and searching out new experiences on a more global scale than ever before – powered by payments that are streamlining and smoothing out more by the day. And as the number of connected devices is expected to explode over the next half decade, those connection points are going to get more varied and powerful, giving consumers new reasons to interact with brands on new channels. It’s a good time to be a digital merchant that is good at riding the rising global digital commerce trends – Amazon,  for example – and an even better time for those that aren’t so good to raise the level of their game.

Data

40 billion: The number of IoT devices expected to be installed by 2020.

300,000: The number of connected store coolers the Coca-Cola Hellenic Bottling Company is installing in stores.

76 percent: Share of U.S. gig workers who say they would not leave gig work behind for regular full-time employment.

28 percent: Share of Flywire’s payments volume that comes from China.

3: The number of consecutive quarters Amazon’s profits has come in north of $1 billion.