The future of education is digital – EdTech market, upwards! [5 Reading Tips] Posted on 25. April 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera Pexels.com The digital transformation revolutionizes all spheres of the daily life; also education, although at a slower pace. The convenience of implementing technology at educational institutions is generating a heated debate in all kinds of communities. E-Books, smartboards, apps, and tablets are slowly taking part of all kind students’ lives. Distance learning, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and game-based learning gain momentum. Does the EdTech market have enough potential? Although it is still at its early infancy, will it be ready for a definitive take-off? The interest of big IT players for this emerging market such as Microsoft, Google, IBM or Cisco Systems shows that it does has a great potential. Technology can help to bring order to the chaos, to automate processes, to make the most of interactivity, to improve and rethink teaching methods, and so on. Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
Amazon Fresh can push forward the grocery online German market, can’t it? Posted on 18. April 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © Eisenhans / Fotolia.com In England or even in France buying groceries online is no longer only a trend. Many young people prefer to fill their shopping baskets by a simple click with: fruits, veggies, milk and beer packs even meet and fish. In contrast, we already know that the online groceries market in Germany is still in its infancy, but, at least, not paralyzed. Rewe, Edeka, Lidl and Aldi are about to receive the fearsome opponent Amazon Fresh. Everyone is expectant of the consequences of this imminent arrival. Will it make a decisive impact on the German e-food market? Continue (1 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
Videos: the next influential tool in online marketing? [5 Reading Tips] Posted on 11. April 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © Donald Tong / Pexel Videos have a special power – they generate more intense reactions and emotions to every viewer. Moving images provide more information than pictures and obviously even more than a thousand words. It is considered one of the most effective media to increase customer engagement. However, it is still one of the most underestimated ones by businesses. I say ‘still’ because some indicators suggest change in the digital ecosystem regarding video content marketing. YouTube and Periscope have a new strong competitor: Facebook , who last week launched a dedicated hub for watching Live and recorded videos in its mobile app. Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
Attention: ‘Chat Bots’ might disrupt the social ecosystem Posted on 5. April 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © Igor Yaruta – Fotolia The mobile commerce growth is dragging social media channels to a more relevant position within the marketing and sales strategies of every retailer. The customer is king in this digital panorama where personalization, curated shopping experiences, dash buttons and immediacy join together to come up with the term Instant Commerce as one of the pillars of the current social commerce trends. What’s next? The ultimate trend in this area might be the so called ‘Chat Bots’ that are integrated in messaging platforms where the user’s experience is beyond texting, offering multiple services, such us making payments, booking a table or playing games. Their main advantages are its low price, its simplicity and its ubiquity. Chat Bots are about to disembark strongly than ever in the digital West by Facebook. Will be the predictions fulfilled? Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories E-Commerce
SEO: typing or speaking? That’s the question! [5 Reading Tips] Posted on 4. April 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © Sergey – Fotolia Consumers are regularly turning to their mobile devices to search. Basically, typing keywords in a browser and instantaneously getting a list of results doesn’t differ from the desktop experience. The various search results match pretty well with their questions and let them find, in the majority of cases, the perfect answer. However, the emergence of virtual personal assistants and voice recognition technology like Siri, Google Now, Cortana or Alexa might change the way consumers interact with their devices leading to re-think SEO requirements. Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
The future of payment is cash-free [5 Reading Tips] Posted on 21. March 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera Sergio Uceda The act of paying is becoming cashless and invisible. The reason: the digitization of all processes in which the banal act of exchanging money for goods is involved and the emergence of streamlined payments, mobile payments, and cryptocurrencies. The rise of connected devices opens broad horizons making fin-tech a key player in the field of Internet of Things. Imagine, future cars could perform payments to the charging station on your behalf. Are we ready to say goodbye to the deep-rooted gesture of counting cash and coins while queueing at the supermarket? Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
Open source data centers towards efficiency, remote desktop apps towards simplicity [5 Reading Tips] Posted on 14. March 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © Oleksandr Delyk / Fotolia.com In the digital era, where companies deal with a great amount of data and tend to digitize all their processes, it is more and more necessary to rethink the way they use these hardware resources in order to turn the current procedures more efficient, flexible, cheaper and streamlined. Now, the online giants Facebook, Google and Microsoft are the pioneers in making this idea reality from different perspectives. Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
Instagram: The power of insta-images to sell lifestyles and increase brand-engagement Posted on 9. March 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © Kalim / Fotolia.com Instagram has passed from being a simple photo-sharing app among friends to become a global community of consumers and brands. The social platform has been growing in the last two years at fast speed, exceeding the 400 million members and the most high-end brands are investing in reinforcing this powerful social engagement tool. The saying “A picture is worth a thousands words” applies totally in Instagram. The social platform lets users play with images, short videos, and catchy descriptions or questions increasing each follower’s engagement, beating Facebook and Twitter. Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories E-Commerce
Logistics: resell returned items as fast as possible [5 reading tips] Posted on 7. March 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera © maxoidos / fotolia.com Today, shoppers got used to order a certain amount of products that usually exceeds their financial possibilities and original expectations motivated by generous free-return policies or the popularity of ex post payment methods. The return-anything culture: order – receive – try on– decide (buy or return) has been established as a daily routine. As a consequence, retailers’ storages and warehouses are collapsing and the losses become a real headache. And then, some questions arise: What to do with such amount of undamaged items? How can return rates be reduced, and how can retailers take advantage of returns? Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week
CRM tools: smart data automation to conquer customers [ 5 Reading tips] Posted on 29. February 20161. July 2016 | by Sara Herrera KamiPhuc / Flickr.com Data, data and more data. Before getting crazy, think wisely. In the digital era, customers and organizations have a plethora of data at their hands. The customer journey is becoming more complex and hybrid. The shopping experience is influenced by multiple touch points and companies need to anticipate their actions so that they can create valuable offerings to their potential shoppers. At this point, it is when CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems start to play a decisive role nowadays because, beyond their classic support of collecting and analyzing data about customers, CRM software, like Salesforce says, has to be seen as a connecting tool, or, as a way of doing business, like Zoho points out. Continue (2 vote(s), average: 5.00 out of 5)Loading... Categories Reading Tips of the Week