U.S. retail sales, which do not include automotive sales, increased 7.6 per cent this past holiday season compared to the 2021 holiday season, according to the Mastercard Spending Pulse report. “This holiday retail season looked different than years past,” Steve Sadove, senior advisor for Mastercard and former CEO and chairman of Saks Inc., said in […]
When asked why they would shop in a physical retail store, 45 per cent of consumers say the desire is rooted in getting hands-on goods instantly, and 38 per cent enjoy the element of discovery. The third most cited reason is that shopping is viewed as a social experience with friends and family. Those are […]
One of the first multi-brand interactive virtual reality (VR) worlds, Tomato Galaxy, officially launched on Meta Horizon Worlds. The project is led by Tomato US, a subsidiary of BlueFocus Intelligent Communications Group Co. Ltd, with the world itself created by designers at Vidyuu. Meta Horizon Worlds is a social VR platform where users can explore […]
The Sandbox, a decentralised gaming virtual world and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, has announced a strategic partnership with Wunderman Thompson to develop metaverse brand experiences. The new partnership will allow Wunderman Thompson clients to engage their communities in immersive decentralised entertainment experiences, the agency said. Wunderman Thompson will work closely with The Sandbox to […]
SeaX includes Twilio Flex plugins that address common contact centre requirements while keeping the flexibility of customisation. Seasalt.ai, an advanced cloud communication artificial intelligence provider specialising in customisable speech solutions for contact centres, has partnered with Twilio, a customer engagement platform provider, to launch SeaX, a quick deployment bundle built on the Twilio Flex platform. […]
The VTO solution will allow Avon to offer its shoppers and Reps a hyper-realistic virtual beauty experience Beauty and fashion tech solutions provider Perfect Corp is extending its partnership with beauty brand Avon to launch a virtual try-on (VTO) online shopping experience in nine markets, including the UK. The immersive shopping experience is powered by […]
The two companies will explore cooperation opportunities in the field of intelligent short-distance mobility Aurora Mobile Limited, a customer engagement and marketing technology services provider in China, announced signing a strategic agreement with Konica Minolta Office Systems (China) Co., Ltd. Aurora Mobile will help Konica Minolta improve user engagement and interaction with its leading notification […]
Following an increase in returns last year, a Salesforce report predicts that consumers will return more than $1.4 billion in holiday orders this season, an 57% jump year-over-year. Salesforce noted the uptick in returns could be from consumers who bought gifts earlier this year and returned them to repurchase at a deeper discount. The report […]
Dialpad extends its AI capabilities to include real-time assistance, virtual agents, AI CSAT, and more Dialpad has committed $50 million to the continued research and development of artificial intelligence-related technologies to automate business processes and provide predictive insights. The company pioneered the use of AI in real-time speech recognition engines for business conversations and has […]
Ecommerce Heavyweights Partner with Jitterbit, Bringing Crucial Connections, Speed and Agility to Retailers Worldwide Jitterbit, the API transformation company, has seen significant growth over the last 12 months, hitting record highs in its ecommerce integrations and Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) business and growing ecommerce-related deal flow and ARR by over 100 per cent. Jitterbit has […]
