Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 32
Inspiration from across the world for retail enthusiasts, e-commerce professionals, marketing lovers and technology fans.
Good morning! In this edition I made a demo of an empathic AI agent, which can sense my mood, we take a look at Japan’s 7–11 stores, there is an item about SEO, some ideas for a ski resort, the China social media cheat sheet and I will inform you on what is happening in South Korea. That and more in this edition.
🇯🇵 Meanwhile, in Japan, 7-eleven opened a new type of convenience store
7-Eleven, is one of my favorite stores. I even recorded the sound of the door sound when you entered the shop. Or does that sounds nerdy? It is true 😊
In Japan, 7-Eleven opened up a new type of store, one where they partner with other brands, like Daiso, or Loft. That makes things a lot easier. Shopping in Japan is often walking through incredible large shopping malls that make reaching your goal for a quick shop difficult. This move by 7-11 helps (a little) to solve that problem.
With such a wide variety of food and goods to choose from, this SIP store is definitely taking things to the next level and blurring the lines between convenience store, supermarket and chainstore in all the right ways.
https://soranews24.com/2024/03/15/7-eleven-opens-next-generation-sip-convenience-store-in-japan/
🇦🇹 Ski-resort journey: Saalbach-Hinterglemm
Last week I had a ski-holiday in Hinterglemm (AT). I like Saalbach-Hinterglemm from the moment I went there for the first time in the late 90’s.
The resort currently has an app, and I installed it, to see what happened. The result was fairly limited. There are so many opportunities for resorts like Hinterglemm, to let people enjoy their holiday more and spend more for example:
Send push messages for lunch during the ski-trip, taking into account how busy a restaurant is and/or a seat reservation or discount.
Give a live chat option with the tourist office or fans from the resort to ask questions and tips. This can also be an AI chatbot.
Set up my preferences f.e.: after ski party till 8pm , rodeln in the evening, a ski route suggestion based on snow quality, sun direction, or crow🇦🇹dedness, that results in (push) notifications.
Pre-book ski lessons or equipment (for a discount)
Pre-order food at mountain restaurants, order when you are going up, ski down to the restaurant, and pickup or eat the food you ordered.
Use AR to for example beginners to show the easiest route down from a slope or the most challenging for advanced skiers.
Mini surveys based at local events or places, to improve the visitor experience index as a whole without getting all data public, the resort can directly address issues to venues and monitor improvements.
It’s a bummer the app currently is so limited. There are so many possibilities for resorts like Hinterglemm, to stand out and integrate on and offline experiences.
👨⚕️Say hello to Hume Evi, Empathic voice interface
That’s pretty cool! A conversational AI that detects your emotional status. I gave it a quick test, in the end it went into some kind of loop, maybe because my emotions were too intense🤣. But the idea is pretty cool. Imagine a service like this as a sales agent, when it can detect buying intent with people.
Hume’s Empathic Voice Interface (EVI), the first conversational AI with emotional intelligence. You can try it yourself:
🇨🇳 China Social Media Cheat sheet
Chinese social media is in many ways, far ahead of Western social media. The 2024 China Social Media Marketing Cheat sheet is out.
This resource is a must-have for global teams or people interested in what is happening in marketing around the world:
👇🏼 Get a high-level overview of all the most important social & e-commerce channels in China to Help your teams/vendors/clients understand the complex China digital ecosystem at a glance, The Cheat sheet breaks down the different channels in terms of:
🥟 Where consumers are likely to be during which part of the customer journey
🥟 Advertising options
🥟 Audience size, demographic, etc.
🥟 Basic functions
Remember, China is ahead. Many features available in these apps will come to the rest of the world eventually.
🇰🇷 Navigating South Korea: AliExpress and PDD attack the world’s 4th largest e-commerce market
In South Korea, AliExpress and Temu are the fastest-growing e-commerce sites. Coupang (the largest player in South Korea) allows Koreans to shop for millions of products online, with a reputation for very fast shipping speeds (sometimes even within hours). They even have a marketplace for international sellers to reach Korean consumers. But Coupang goes beyond just selling. They have their own streaming service, Coupang Play, and a digital payment system, Coupang Pay.
Their breakthrough in a country that has led in high-speed internet connectivity and creating a mature, digital-savvy consumer is a worrying development for incumbents in the world’s fourth-largest e-commerce market. It is worth nearly Won200tn, with almost half of the country’s retail spending made online, according to Euromonitor International. South Korea also has the world’s second-highest level of online spending per capita after the US.
Alibaba plans to invest $1.1bn over the next three years to build a logistics network in South Korea in order to shorten delivery time, according to Korea’s state news agency. Alibaba also announced a string of consumer protection measures in the country including setting up a call center, after the Korean authorities said the country’s e-commerce laws would apply equally to Chinese platforms.
Archive.is: https://archive.is/yCMZw
Original: https://www.ft.com/content/a1b58b28-7a82-41b3-b120-94782b4a2b36
🇨🇿 🇸🇰 Allegro: 1.6 million active buyers in the Czech Republic, now moves on to Slovakia
Allegro, the marketplace founded in Poland, expanded to the Czech Republic last year and currently has 1.6 million customers in the Czech Republic. That’s an achievement as a marketplace because the Czech Republic is known for having the most webshops per capita in the world👍. Now recently, Allegro expanded to neighboring Slovakia.
https://ecommercenews.eu/allegro-has-launched-in-slovakia/
https://praguemorning.cz/the-czech-republic-has-the-most-e-shops-per-capita-in-europe/
🩴AI review summary Nisolo (CRO test suggestion)
I had never heard of the brand Nisolo. Maybe because I hate sandals. However I was surprised by their use of AI in their product reviews. They have an AI-generated summary of review topics like size, fit, and quality. Seems to be powered by Yotpo.
While checking out their website, I also noticed many of their product pages really go in-depth, and they have lots of details written on them with high-quality pictures. Well done!
https://www.yotpo.com/platform/reviews/
🖥️Google: 3D models structured data, and please help visitors
Previously, Google struggled to understand which image (especially on pages with multiple products) corresponded to the 3D model. This new update with 3DModel markup clarifies this association.
Especially if you are a small and medium business owner, this can make you stand out compared to enterprise organizations that always need much more time to comply to these new guidelines.
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-adds-3d-models-markup-to-product-structured-data-37110.html
Then there is another article I want to emphasize.
I've always championed the idea of truly helping visitors! For years, I've been advocating for companies and individuals to prioritize creating unique content. This means considering different user types, perhaps using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) framework as a lens. A well-crafted content page should be a blend of text, visuals, and interactive elements – think engaging videos, sliders (when relevant), and even audio options. Unfortunately, the importance of such a diverse approach often goes unrecognized. Yet, with a touch of creativity, you can truly rise above the competition by providing a rich and engaging user experience. Human-generated content will be scarcer in the (near) future. It will be rewarded.
Google is begging SEO-ers now to do exactly that:
He later begged, saying, "I'm begging. Please, I'm begging you or anyone to stop focusing on specific content things. It's not whether a TOC or saying someone is an "expert" is somehow a specific signal. It's that these things might indicate a pattern of doing too much "show Google" things that's taking away of just being a good site for people -- which is what Google wants to reward"
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-begs-show-google-things-37099.html
That’s it for this edition,
Thank you for reading,
Alex