Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 39
Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 39
Inspiration from across the world for retail enthusiasts, e-commerce professionals, marketing lovers and technology fans. Welcome back! I summarized some great links again, I stumbled upon this week.
Good morning! I have collected a few interesting links this week. We look at Changi Airport, where technology simply works, a link to lot’s of Temu details, a few AI posts, I discovered an app called Everuts, it’s a marketplace and personal shopping assistant and I tested TestBrew, a tool for AI product description generation. Check it out in this week’s edition. Thank you for reading.
🔥Eat that Schiphol !
When I was younger, Schiphol was among the best airports in the world. But in the past decade or two, it emerged to a below average airport. I can give many examples, but it all has to do with -in my opinion- not having a customer focus and too much politics.
On the other hand, there are the Asian airports of which Changi is maybe the best. Technology simply works, with everything they do. Whether it is the conveyor belt for luggage, the train into town, or now automatic lanes for immigration clearance. It simply works, for everyone!
So, eat that Schiphol, where almost always some of those e-lanes are broken, have a poor interface, and work often very slowly.
I dream of having a Changi-style airport in Amsterdam, but I think it will never happen.
🇨🇳 Temu: strategy, tactics and figures
I like Temu. I find their strategies and tactics very interesting, as they effectively maximize the opportunities available to them. I make an effort to read extensively about their approach because there's a lot to learn for anyone interested in this field.
Ed Sander’s China Talk does a great job of following Temu, and they published an extensive post full of statistics and strategies on Temu.
Temu plans to further develop in Asia and Africa but might also have to pull out of some markets. At the end of 2023, it launched in 8 African markets, but only Cameroon proved successful, and it had to close down in the other seven markets. In January, Temu launched in South Africa, but orders were expected to have long shipping times of up to 20 days. Following a familiar pattern, only weeks after Temu launched, it became the most downloaded app. Buffalo International Logistics, which handles orders from Temu and SHEIN in South Africa, could not handle the tsunami of packages. It was reported that delivery was delayed for one week.
Details:
https://www.chinatalk.nl/the-current-state-of-temu/
💸Value creation opportunities based on generative AI
“Most of the money made off the invention of refrigeration wasn't by the makers, but companies like Coke. If AI/LLMs are refrigeration, who is next Coca-Cola?”
What he is essentially saying is that by focusing on creating unique and helpful content, local companies can position themselves as valuable contributors to the development of large language models, potentially leading to lucrative opportunities and partnerships. So imagine you are a tourist company specializing in local tourism and you have extensive knowledge about an area's history, culture, hidden gems, and lesser-known attractions. You can then use a strategy to create high-quality content, like detailed guides, articles, and videos showcasing unique aspects of the local area, using personal stories and interviews with local residents, for example. Then organize this in a well-structured data repository and either create your own LLM model by limiting access to this data or sell the data to larger companies that can integrate this data to feed into their LLMs.
📘Google’s 70 pages Prompting Guide
Google released a 70-page Gemini prompting guide for Gemini. Worth a quick read to improve your prompting skills.
Although most Gemini prompts include less than nine words, it's prompts that are roughly 21 words long that are most effective.
Google recommends using these four components of a great prompt. These are persona, task, context, and format.
Ask for feedback: Google says to try asking Gemini what additional information it needs to provide the best response. You can treat it like a two-way conversation, just like a colleague might ask for clarification if they aren't quite sure what you're asking for.
Direct download:
https://services.google.com/fh/files/misc/gemini-for-google-workspace-prompting-guide-101.pdf
🔍Google: AI, Ai, Ai!
Since Google left the “Don’t be evil” adage, the company tends to move away from their users in many of their services, in my opinion. The recent change Google made to activate so-called “AI overviews” was such a move. It’s always important to see the changes Google makes and how they are received by Google’s users, to take tactical advantage for your website or product.
Details:
https://www.seroundtable.com/google-ai-overviews-launch-37389.html
https://www.seroundtable.com/searchers-want-to-turn-off-google-ai-overviews-37405.html
➡️➡️Extra reading tip 20 slides on how Google manipulates advertising —> increases prices
https://searchengineland.com/doj-google-search-ad-price-manipulation-440207
🇭🇰 Sam’s Club Expansion and My Discovery of Everuts in Hong Kong’s E-Commerce Landscape
I was reading the South China Morning Post on how Sam’s Club is expanding its e-commerce service to Hong Kong. They expect a huge impact on HK’s e-commerce landscape.
‘Supermarkets and online platform HKTVmall will be hard hit … I am afraid this will cause a retail crisis in Hong Kong,’ economist Simon Lee says
Hong Kong and Shenzhen are two megacities next to each other but very different, with a border between them. Sam’s Club is located in Shenzhen and is now offering free delivery from Shenzhen to Hong Kong for all orders over RMB 599. I visit both cities very often, and I used to travel to Shenzhen for cheaper products and a more thriving retail landscape. It’s very easy to travel from Hong Kong to Shenzhen by train, subway, bus, or even ferry.
So, I looked into HKTVmall to see what they sell, how it works logistically, and how well they perform. From there, I discovered the “Everuts APP.” I had never heard of it before, but this is an app that allows you to set up your own shop from wherever you are, targeting HK residents. Everuts is both a marketplace and a personal shopping tool. It’s a really nice idea, especially useful for selling your local international products that might attract HK residents.
🤖Boost Your Efficiency with Textbrew: The AI Tool for Unique Product Listings and Enhanced SEO
I am beta testing “TextBrew”. This is an AI tool that reduces tasks, and helps you focus on more important things. With Textbrew.ai you can optimize or generate your product listings with unique product descriptions. The only thing you need to do is to enter an EAN. I think these tools will be integrated in lots of PIM systems, product research tools, SEO tools or translation services. Take your advantage of products like this to differentiate in an easy and rapid way.
"The content created is unique, so that’s important not only for SEO but also for customer experience. They use a non-deterministic LLM. It never gives the exact same answer.
There are currently 6 tone different tones of voice you can choose and a custom tone of voice. In the near future you can add different tones of voices, so you can create your own unique style.
They also plan to integrate actual search data of different search engines/platforms. When this is added, it will make a huge difference.
Details:
That’s it for this edition!
Take care,
Alex Baar