E-commerce fails to escape ongoing Covid-19 wave, unlike last year
E-commerce hasn’t been able to escape the impact of the ongoing second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, unlike last year. There had been an almost immediate spike in online orders once the national lockdown was lifted and delivery of all goods was allowed from the middle of May last year. This time around, there is uncertainty among industry executives over recovery in the sector with pandemic impact being visible over the past several weeks. According to data from Unicommerce, an e-commerce solutions provider, online shopping volumes dipped 11% in April from the month ago. That’s in line with what executives have said—the effects of the current wave of Covid-19 has hit consumer demand for non-essential segments, both in urban and rural markets. Expectations of a demand revival are driven by the belief that consumers will continue to avoid offline shops and malls. Unicommerce data further showed fashion and accessory sales were down 22% in the same period while eyewear and accessories were down 16%. Only fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) and agri, and health and pharmaceuticals, saw growth—of 33% and 18%, respectively. Consulting firms and analysts are reviewing the annual growth outlook for e-commerce this year as they are largely concerned with non-metro markets being hit hard this year. In 2020, the virus outbreak was largely limited to the country’s bigger cities. The second wave of the pandemic has hit everyone hard and e-commerce, unlike last year, has not been spared. The second wave has caused distress in the broader economy and the sheer scale of infection this time has depressed consumer sentiment. This has reflected in online shopping, even though it remains safer than visiting your local store.E-commerce order volumes are down by 11% in April compared to March, data from Unicommerce showed. It’s possible that the rate of fall will be higher by the end of May. It is expected people will continue avoiding malls and offline stores even once things stabilise, and that will help online shopping. This time around, the virus has spread deep inside the country. Though ecommerce growth is driven by the top 8-10 cities in India, tier-II and tier III towns, and rural areas, are also important. Urban consumers would still buy essentials online but other categories like fashion and electronics form a larger chunk of total sales for both Flipkart and Amazon India.
Google I/O 2021: Search giant wants to make selling easier for small businesses
Google is making quantum leaps, quite literally, with its announcement of next generation quantum computers during their annual developer conference called Google I/O on the 18th of May. Some of the announcements are:-
Sell better with Shopping Graph
Google’s Shopping Graph can pull & collate information across websites, prices, reviews, videos to provide better shopping experiences for users.
Collaborate better with Smart Canvas
“Can you see my screen” is the phrase we all have used while working through video calls. With Google’s smart canvas, you can now have video calls inside Google docs and sheets for better collaboration.
Better conversational AI
Google revealed its newest, cutting edge advancement in conversational AI named LaMDA, a neural network architecture that is trained to not just read words and sentences, but to understand the relation between words, nuances, and provide sensible responses in a dialogue, usually through a chatbot.
Better health on wrist
Google acquired Fitbit and is now bringing the best of it to Google Wear, the smart watch. They have also merged with Samsung to fuse Wear OS and Tizen for building a better ecosystem for developers.
Quantum leap
Google aims to make a commercially available Quantum Computer within this decade, and Sundar Pichai showcased some advancements Google had made through their dedicated quantum AI lab at Santa Barbara, California
Clubhouse Android app coming to India, other countries soon
Clubhouse said that it will roll out the Android app to more countries this week (18th May till 23rd May). The app will be available in Brazil, Japan, and Russia on Tuesday, India and Nigeria Friday, and the “rest of the world” throughout the week. As per The Verge, for the first year, Clubhouse was only available on iOS devices. Despite its early limited access the platform grew to 10 million users in its inaugural year, and was recently valued at USD 4 billion after a new funding round. Whether it can keep up that momentum remains to be seen, as competitors– Twitter’s Spaces, Discord’s Stage Channels, and other better-known social media platforms–enter the audio market. Clubhouse remains an invite-only application and has been criticised for not providing automatic captions for Deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
Digitalisation 2.0: Six trends that will shape banking, fintechs this year
Open banking
Open banking is a revolutionising technology that brings fintech and banking together and enables data exchange across institutions. Fintech markets in the UK and Europe have become crowded with AIS and PIS services providers and will reshape the traditional banking industry.
Hike in banking fees
Globally, banking and fintech firms are hiking their fees. Some banks have already announced that they are planning to charge customers for interbank payments or increase fees for payments and account opening.
Decentralised finance
The surge in Bitcoin value has put focus on other revolutionary trends of the crypto world including decentralised Finance (Defi). It is a pool of financial applications based on crypto and blockchain technology and used worldwide across banking, insurance, and other financial services.
Banking-as-a-Service platforms
The Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) industry has attracted many players and is set to become a US$7.2 trillion industry by 2030.
Focus on cybersecurity
There has been a rise in fraudulent activities during the Covid pandemic. Cybercriminals have heavily exploited the disruptions and attacked financial institutions. With the recently introduced Open Banking, there are more concerns about security, privacy, and fraud in banking and fintech.
Anti-money laundering fight
The sixth AML Directive was introduced in European law last December, which sets out that all EU members and their organisations must implement these regulations by June 2021. The 6th AMLD aims to close the gap of domestic legislation and harmonise the definition of anti-money laundering across EU member states.
Use of AR leads in marketing to 94% conversion rate: Report
Deloitte Digital and Snap Inc have partnered to create a global AR (augmented reality) report that takes a closer look at how brands can leverage AR to create personalised, engaging experiences for consumers. It also looks at how consumers respond to AR marketing.
Key Findings: Snap Consumer AR India Report 2021
AR adoption is tracking with the mobile usage boom – by 2025, about 40 per cent of the Gen Z and millennial population in India will be frequent AR users.
73 per cent of people successfully identify AR when they see it, but when talking about it, they have a hard time defining or describing what it is.
64 percent of Snapchatters in India and across generations use AR to have fun; the majority are discovering AR through social / communications apps.
81 percent of people expect and desire to use it as a practical “tool” in their everyday lives.
Interacting with products that have AR experiences leads to a 94 per cent higher conversion rate.
Globally COVID-19 accelerated AR adoption, with worldwide spend on AR/VR expected to accelerate from just over $12.0 billion this year to $72.8 billion in 2024.