Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 109
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.
🛎️Superconsumers! To lead a category you have to love it
I love this recent post on the
, substack. It resonated with experiences I’ve had across several companies. It also ties also, I think perfectly into a growing trend in product management: moving beyond ABR/QBR reviews and towards direct feedback and rapid tests with -specifically- your super users, because they care and they want to help you move forward.If you care on product management, category and customer focus, and you read one article per week, let it be this one.
Superconsumers pull categories forward. Leaders who ignore them get left behind.
Superconsumers are not a “nice to have.” You need Supers in your:
Customer base
CRM and data analysis
Sales training and activation
Marketing and lightning strikes
In your C-suite, board of directors, and investor base
It’s the difference between creating category-defining loyalty and engineering your own backlash.
The best way to avoid it is to train your AI with Supers, not average customers. However, this is harder than you might think due to two sad truths.
Too many CEOs barely spend any time with Superconsumers
Too few AI advisors get why Superconsumers matter
📷 Gemini live: give it a try! This feature can solve problems!
Already tried Gemini live? Pretty fun! Imagine using this for example as a:
Language immersion guide: Point your camera at street signs or menus abroad; it translates in real-time, teaches pronunciation with fun phrases, and quizzes you later via voice.
Wardrobe wizard: Snap your closet or daily outfit; Gemini suggests weather-proof looks, color matches. That’s much easier then how I do it now, because I now put my clothes that I think I will wear on my bed, make a picture and ask ChatGPT if it matches 😂
Stock scanner: Point your phone at shelves or fridges during a quick walkthrough; it scans barcodes/labels, cross-references against your POS sales data, and lists items dipping below 20% stock (e.g., “Alert: Only 3 packs of beef left, enough for 12 burgers”). Voice-narrates reorder suggestions and auto-generates a supplier email draft or directly connects to the supplier(s).
Details: https://gemini.google/overview/gemini-live/
🇸🇬 New Singaporean e-commerce guidelines
Singapore, one of my favorite countries, is publishing new volunteer e-commerce guidelines. I like to catch up on those rules across the world, see how they differ between countries. Sometimes I write about them in this substack, like recently on Malaysia, that I think was a good proposal/law for both sellers and consumers.
Transparency is the key trend also here in the Singaporean proposal.
I asked Grok to summarize the guidelines, to give you an idea a summary of that summary here:
Avoiding Misleading Design Features (e.g., “Dark Patterns”), such as false urgency
Transparency in Algorithms and Rankings: Merchants should understand ranking factors (e.g., via a dashboard showing how price, reviews, or ads affect visibility). Badges like “Top Seller” must have disclosed criteria to avoid bias.
Dispute Resolution and Recourse: Platforms must explain listing removals promptly (e.g., within 48 hours) and provide appeals processes (e.g., independent review panels). I think also a very important one, I know from experience not all platforms are this transparent and this can really hurt smaller sellers.
Detection and Reporting: Use AI to scan for suspicious content (e.g., cloned listings or scam keywords). Respond to regulator queries within 24 hours (unless a legal deadline applies). Keep records for 2+ years, including chat logs, IP addresses, and transaction details for tracing.
Details: https://www.singaporestandardseshop.sg/Product/SSPdtDetail/12d86491-2f0a-4c9c-ae84-6bbe40fe51c5
Previous article on my substack on Malaysia’s e-commerce law
🇮🇪 Feature watch: Ryanair goes fully digital and enhances app experience
I love Ryanair, big fan. Now Ryanair is in the news again and they go fully digital. No more paper boarding passes and they try to achieve that also by really adding value in the app. And that I like! I think that’s the way forward, providing so much value insiden an app, people use it instead of forcing an app because some manager wants it.
They now have included this feature, for on board food delivery. Really innovative. Eat that Transavia 😂 where last week I could not even order food.
This is the latest step in Ryanair’s industry leading digital transformation, having already rolled out several in-app features and initiatives to enhance its 206M+ customers’ travel experience (especially during disruption), including:
Order to Seat: Order food and drinks from your phone and get served first.
Live Flight Information: Real-time updates on boarding, gates, and delays.
Direct Disruption Updates: Live notifications from Ryanair’s Operations Centre during disruption.
🇨🇳 China low altitude economy taking off
Just to show the difference between China and in this case NL in speed of technology adaption.
NL finally has a medical drone flying but very very limited and they talked years about it. Now read this article from the economist on China (and readers of this newsletter remember my earlier experience in China with drones)
This is typically China, I have seen that also with the bike sharing industry and it is important to realize
What is more, despite the controlling nature of the Chinese state, regulators are nimble and accommodating. Bureaucrats from different cities now come to Meituan to suggest that it initiate a new delivery route, rather than the other way round, an employee notes. Rather than spending a long time drafting a systematic policy, officials have been drawing up rules as the industry develops.
Flying cars, although not nearly as widespread as drones, have also been boosted by the Communist Party’s endorsement. Many Chinese carmakers are trying to manufacture them. One of them, Xpeng, has designed a chunky six-wheel electric vehicle that holds an eVTOL aircraft in the boot. It says this futuristic two-in-one will enter mass production next year and cost less than 2m yuan ($280,000).
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2025/06/12/chinas-low-altitude-economy-is-taking-off
Unpaywalled: https://archive.is/Qn90T
My earlier drone delivery experience in Shenzhen
📧 Dela Quist: running ads inside Gmail that looked like emails
Gmail Sponsored Promotions, ads that look like emails, are blending into inboxes, often appearing in the Promotions tab. As Dela Quist highlights in his latest newsletter, these ads can mimic emails from brands users have unsubscribed from, raising questions about trust and consent in advertising.
But the issue goes beyond Gmail. Increasingly, laws and consumer expectations are shifting toward greater control over personal data. Unsubscribing from an email list should mean “don’t contact me,” yet some brands still rely on third-party tracking or murky permissions to reach opted-out users. This approach is risky, and may soon be illegal.
I’m not against ads, the ad ecosystem drives growth. But with privacy laws tightening and technologies like blockchain paving the way for transparent, user-controlled data systems, the future of advertising is changing. That’s why I think it’s important to take note of this trend and make space on your product roadmap to think of it’s implications.
This matters because unsubscribe, in the minds of most marketers, means “don’t email this person.” But in the eyes of the law – increasingly, unsubscribe should mean:
What This Means for Brands and CMOs
If your advertising strategy depends on inference, obfuscation, or 3rd-party logic — it’s on borrowed time.
If your email list isn’t permissioned properly, it may soon become unusable — or illegal to activate.
If your growth engine relies on tracking people who opted out, you’re building on quicksand.
Details: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/perception-vs-reality-next-privacy-battle-dela-quist-bjzwe/
😄Time for a laugh: ChatGPT prompt left in FB Ad
🇦🇱 Albania has the world’s first AI minister
First time I write about Albania, I think. A country also on my “to do visit” list. Albania has the worlds first AI minister/advisor and she just gave her first speech😅
Take a look!
Details: https://dig.watch/updates/ai-government-minister-delivers-first-speech-in-albanian-parliament
https://www.politico.eu/article/albania-apppoints-worlds-first-virtual-minister-edi-rama-diella/
Thank you!
That’s about it for this edition. Email length nearly reached according to substack’s editor. Thank you for reading, see you next week.
Warm greetings, connect via: Alex Baar
Or checkout my archive of previous newsletters if you want to read more :