Augmented Reality (AR) is defined by IAB as “an experience that utilizes a camera to change or enhance the user's view of the real world. This experience can be app-based or web-based, though app-based is more common today.  AR experiences are a new way to create context and add experiences over real physical world objects and attributes like location or recognized image or object."

For online retailers, it’s no longer a simple case of bricks vs. clicks anymore. Spoilt for choice these days, consumers are far less loyal to brands and are more likely to try new products. With online retailers facing increasing competition, how can they build brand loyalty and retain customers in today’s marketplace?

The discrepancy between what marketing could theoretically accomplish and the reality is huge. You do not have to be a marketing expert to know that. Especially for consumers, this gap is clearly noticeable: they (rightly) increasingly complain about annoying, intrusive or irrelevant advertising and their concern about losing sovereignty over their personal data is steadily growing.

It’s the most digital time of the year for retailers, with the upcoming holiday season in full swing! But how exactly will online retail sales pan out this year?

In recent years, developments have taken place that are dramatically changing the role of stationary retail, putting it under pressure and questioning its right to exist.

According to Socialbakers, the unified marketing platform for social media marketers, 2019 was the year TikTok exploded and influencer marketing gained traction, especially with marketers in beauty, fashion and e-commerce.

This year, marketing and media experts will have to develop new skills, engagement models and assessment methods to appeal to consumers in the crowded media landscape, Kantar found out in its global study "Media Trends & Predictions 2020".

Today, every customer is leaving behind vast amounts of data while shopping online, providing marketers with numerous indications of their personality, their preferences and their purchase intentions. Each point of contact with an individual customer can be tracked across channels and evaluated according to the role it played in the purchase decision process.

According to Dynamic Spectrum Alliance (DSA) President Martha Suárez, competitive access to spectrum resources will result in a thriving fixed and mobile marketplace that can deliver new, innovative services. During a TV White Space (TVWS) workshop in Buenos Aires, she highlighted that harnessing spectrum sharing technologies like TVWS is key to enabling rural broadband.

Measuring and optimization are the nuts and bolts in digital marketing since precision and deep understanding of how to compare and synchronize different data sources are key to the quality of the results and the success of campaigns. If marketers work consistently on a data-driven basis and align all measurements with the needs of the customers, more turnover with the same budget or budget savings can be most certainly achieved while maintaining the same turnover.  Considering the following prerequisites definitely helps:

The proportion of digital contact points, significant for the success of your own business model, is growing. As a result, the online customer journey has become an integral part of the customer intelligence strategy today. In addition to the online advertising contacts that take place along the entire digital customer journey, one's own website plays a central role here, too. Whether in traditional eCommerce or lead generation, the focus is always on the user. With the help of digital analytics, the behavior and needs of users can be better understood so that in-depth recommendations for action can be derived, thus, leading to improved service, a better product, and an optimized customer experience.

The new IDC 2019 Future SMB Pulse survey shows that 84% of SMBs in Asia Pacific (excl. Japan) recognize the need to use digital technologies to make significant changes in their companies' processes and operations to become more competitive. While 39% of those have already started their journey and are at different stages of digital maturity, 42% are just planning to start. The survey reveals further that the top priorities of SMBs in the next 18 months include improving revenue growth, increasing efficiency/productivity, and reducing costs/expenses.

With the rise of nonhuman intermediaries ― recommendation engines, voice-powered search, smart-home devices, autonomous purchasing programs and other artificial intelligence-powered systems, machines are now empowering consumers with new levels of intelligence. These algorithms have begun playing an increasingly important role by augmenting consumers with the information they need, influencing their decisions and ultimately helping them become better humans.

Anyone who wants to succeed in a market is well advised to think about differentiation and to deliver quick-witted arguments in the form of special skills. This requires identifying the digital challenges of the future as soon as possible in order to be able to respond to the problems of potential customers with tangible products and services.