Well, you know summer has arrived when all you hear about is conference after conference after conference. Apple’s r conference revealed what many of the advanced rumors were already predicting—their highly anticipated streaming music service simply called, Apple Music. I love streaming music. I’m addicted to Spotify and am not sure I see any reason to change—which will be the biggest problem Apple has in the crowded field of similar services, many of which have been keeping consumers pretty happy. Time will definitely tell on this front. Now that we’ve got music out of the way, let’s get to the latest edition of “Things You Need To Know This Week.”
Industry
Digital Device Use Influences Over One Trillion Dollars In-Store Retail Sales
Data published last month by Deloitte indicates the use of mobile devices before or during in-store shopping trips influenced or helped to convert approximately $970 billion in sales, representing 28 percent of the total. That’s a lot of shopping!
Looking ahead to the year in total, Deloitte estimated digital would influence 64 percent of in-store retail sales. “Our projection for the future of retail is that the concept of online is dead. Because when everyone is online all the time, when digital is pervasive—there is no offline,” according to the study.
Other research studies indicate high consumer usage of mobile by consumers while in-store. DigitasLBi found that 85 percent of smartphone owners worldwide were using their smartphones while actually in the store, actively shopping, up from 72 percent last year.
Shoppers Love Self Checkouts
As reported by emarketer.com, according to recent research by CFI Group, “…almost 66 percent of U.S. Internet users have used self-checkout registers at the front of the store, with just 20 percent who had scanned items at kiosks around the interior of the store, and 17 percent who had checked out with a sales associate roaming around the store.”
And, it seems, as I mentioned above, it’s the improved checkout process that’s driving this popularity (at 28 percent), with that meaning more to customers than even price. One interesting note on this topic, our local Costco implemented self-checkouts a few years ago and they were wildly popular. I noticed on my recent visit to the store that all the self-checkout stations were gone, replaced once again by traditional checkers and check out stations. When I asked why, the guy waiting on me said that they’d done a ton of testing and found that it was actually quicker for customers to get out of the store when the traditional checker system was used versus the self-checkout stations. Interesting, isn’t it? Costco is a pretty sophisticated retailer—I’d love to see their data on this topic.
Digital Media
Apple Introduces Its New Spotify Killer
via Venture Beat
As we mentioned, Apple introduced its long-rumored subscription music service called Apple Music. Consisting of three parts—a music recommendation engine, a live radio station, and a social media platform where artists can connect with fans—a subscription will set you back $9.99 a month (after three months free). Apple Music is also offering a “family plan” (funny, all the “Apple Fan Boys” must be growing up!) where six family members can access the service for $14.99 a month. That’s a great deal.
Naturally, they’re pushing the launch on iOS, OS X and Windows, happening around the end of June, with Android following sometime in the Fall.
Twitter Embraces Landscape Video
You know how everyone gets all shouty about taking smartphone pictures and videos in landscape rather than portrait…? There’s a reason they get all shouty! Landscape simply looks better, and captures more of whatever you’re trying to shoot. Apparently, there’s even a name for online, black-barred videos: Vertical Video Syndrome, or VVS.
Well, Twitter has listened. On Twitter, it used to be that users could only shoot video in square-format from within the app. VVS sufferers rejoice – you can now shoot landscape on Twitter.
Now that Twitter has added the ability to post landscape video, can the company’s live video-streaming app, Periscope, be far behind? Twitter launched Periscope for Android just a couple of weeks back, but the app still doesn’t support landscape video. This is a change that would certainly go a long way to improve the experience for those wanting to watch a live-streamed event from a computer.
Technology
Square to Launch New Apple Pay-Ready Credit Card Reader
via TechCrunch
This week, Apple announced a new partnership for Apple Pay with Square, which will introduce a card reader designed to take Apple Pay payments and credit card chip payments, with nary a swipe of your card.
According to a recent techcrunch.com piece, “The partnership comes after many thought Apple Pay and Square would become bitter competitors. Late last year, though, Square co-founder Jack Dorsey said he wanted his system to facilitate Apple Pay payments, and the company was rumored to be building a device to do so. Now the companies will be working together, with Square earning transaction fees for Apple Pay payments made with the reader.”
The new Square Contactless + Chip Reader will roll out in the fall. Smart, smart, smart.
Mobile
Are Consumers Streaming to Periscope and Meerkat?
There’s a lot of buzz around live-streaming and these two players, but does that buzz equal actual interest? Just over 20 percent of U.S. Internet users polled by Horizon Media in April 2015 were interested in or were using Periscope or Meerkat, with, not surprisingly, the majority of users being Millennials.
It seems live-streaming from your mobile phone doesn’t hold much interest for the older generations. Out of that 20 percent, one-quarter those aged 35 to 49 said they were keen, only 16 percent for those ages 50 to 64, and a teensy seven percent for the 65-and-older group. That’s okay. Every platform or application has its early adopters and, just like people couldn’t figure out what Twitter was for the longest time (and many still haven’t), live-streaming will catch on, it’ll just take some time.
And where’s the money in that? Good question. Even with all the enthusiasm, most users aren’t willing to actually pay for either app. eMarketer estimates that just 40 percent of mobile app users will actually pay for an app. So, the “free” part of Periscope and Meerkat is definitely driving much of the interest.
They have a way to go to catch up to some of the other better known “visual” apps on the market as well, with only 9 percent of Internet users aware of Meerkat, and only 6 percent, Periscope. Compare that to the more than 75 percent were aware of Instagram, 59 percent of Snapchat and 44 percent of Vine. Again, these things are new, and they are definitely interesting to watch. I look forward to seeing where the market for and the interest in this stuff goes.
Facebook to Challenge Pinterest With News Feed Buy Button
via TechCrunch
Until now, Facebook was testing a Buy Button with a few selected test merchants, but now its opening it up to any retailer on Shopify’s ecommerce platform. That’s a big move toward making the Buy Button available to everyone, resulting in higher sales conversion rates, a speedier purchasing process, and Facebook users remaining onsite, rather than heading elsewhere to shop.
According to Facebook, “The test will help us understand how the feature can drive sales for a wider variety of merchants.” They clearly want data on what products attract the most attention, and which parts of their purchase funnel needs work.
Users Can Now Share Twitter Blocked Accounts List with Their Friends
Twitter has announced that they will now let users to share lists of blocked accounts. According to an article on imore.com, “Users of its web app will now be able to share their lists of blocked accounts with others. This is an extension of Twitter’s anti-harassment tools, first introduced last year. If you want, you can export your list of blocked accounts, sharing it with another user, letting them block multiple accounts at once.”
According to a statement from Twitter:
“You can now export and share your block lists with people in your community facing similar issues or import another user’s list into your own account and block multiple accounts all at once, instead of blocking them individually. We also hope these advanced blocking tools will prove useful to the developer community to further improve users’ experience.”
Twitter trolls and other social harassers have been making headlines recently, and Twitter has been stepping up security for its users in the last few months. “In addition to new anti-harassment tools in December, the company also made policy changes in April to protect against abusive users.”
Send Saved Places to Your iOS Device with Latest Google Maps Update
The latest version of Google Maps for iOS, now lets users send locations from their computer desktop to their iOS devices.
searchengineland.com repots, “While you can already save places on the desktop and retrieve them on the iPhone, this is just another more elegant cross-device integration for Google Maps. After installing the new version of the app, you’ll be prompted to turn on notifications. From there, on any major browser you’ll see a prompt: “send to device.” You’ll will then get an immediate notification you can tap that will take you to the particular destination within Google Maps on your iOS device.”
Miscellaneous
Johanna Channeling Aretha Franklin! I seriously could not love this little girl any more.
Lie Witness News – Golden State Warriors Edition
Photo Credit: wiolettapudlo via Compfight cc
