Global Digital Marketing & Retail by Alex 90
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.
Goodmorning! A new edition of my newsletter on global e-commerce, retail and marketing. Thank you for reading, liking and subscribing! Edition 90 already! Soon I will do again a “one man” retail inspiration trip to Seoel, Korea so stay tuned. Coming up end of june.
🇨🇳 China: Shenzhen’s technology in daily life in one video
China is special to me as I lived there, have friends there and still follow the news closeley. Maybe you remember that I visited Shenzhen to try “air delivery”, food delivered by drone, I did not had so much time, but Shenzhen has so much more to offer in tech and commerce. The guy in the video below, made a video, like I wanted to make it 😊, but he actually did it.
Take a look at technology in China in daily life, often difficult to comprehend for a Western mindset but I can tell you if you live there you get used to it very fast, it’s all so convenient. It’s very different from Western Europe.
📚Prompt engineering: prompt libraries are coming up
Prompt engineering is becoming increasingly vital. Just last week, I received job offers focused solely on prompt engineering, analysis, and optimization. This trend suggests that prompt libraries are gaining prominence and becoming more widely recognized:
Meet Promptly AI and SeconDisc.
Promptly AI offers a versatile prompt library for users of AI tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini. It includes browser extensions for one-click prompt optimization and conversation export, making it ideal for individuals seeking to streamline general AI tasks like writing or research.
SeconDisc is focusing more on developers, providing a visually appealing platform to store, organize, and share technical prompts for tasks like debugging, API documentation, or SQL query design. It focuses more on collaboration.
https://www.promptly.fyi/library
🔦Switch that toggle on: Google launche ”AI max” for search campaigns
Important to know for all digital marketers. Google launched AI Max for Search campaigns last week. Appearantly there is a big chance it increases your conversion. I think in order to let this work at it’s maximum it is even more important to analyze and optimize landingpages and to -more and more important- guardrail the AI, see what it comes up with, where it is placed etc.
A few things that are new:
Search term matching: uses AI to expand keyword matching, identifying relevant, high-performing queries beyond existing keywords, leveraging broad match and keywordless technology.
Text customization: rebrands the former automatically created assets tool, generating dynamic headlines and descriptions based on landing pages, ads, and keywords to align with user intent.
There is also some targeting innovation such as targeting at geographical intent not only physical location.
Adriaan made a video with some additional explanation:
Details: https://blog.google/products/ads-commerce/google-ai-max-for-search-campaigns/
🚫No 1:1 for Zuck | Future on Meta Advertising
A new pod with Zuck, just listened to it, and it is pretty good to listen to.
First of all it kicks of with some predictions on where things are going to with advertising, same as the Salesforce Agent world tour informed me a week or two ago, Zuck tells us, that in the near future, you just give an objective to the platform (like I want x subscribers) and the agents do the job. But Zuck emphasizes that still creatives need to be made: just if you choose to do not, Meta helps you out.
“All these companies that specialize in doing creative work and they'll keep on doing that”.
We basically encourage advertisers not to restrict what AI can do. For example if you think that women in this age range are going to be more receptive, then give us that hint as an input to the system, but unless you really have a reason why you don't want to sell to other people, don't constrain the platform to who we're going to reach, because the AI is probably going to be able to find who is going to be interested in your product better than you can.
I found this also interesting what Zuckerberg said :
In Thailand and Vietnam, the low cost of labor enables businesses to afford human staff dedicated to messaging-based customer support and sales. This has led to a significant portion of commerce—Zuckerberg cites approximately 2% of Thailand’s GDP—flowing through Meta’s messaging platforms. These countries rank surprisingly high (top 10 or 11) in Meta’s revenue despite their global GDP rankings being in the 30s, illustrating the success of this model. Zuckerberg envisions AI agents replacing human labor in this context, making it feasible for businesses worldwide, including in high-labor-cost regions, to adopt similar messaging-based commerce models. This would "turbocharge" business interactions by offering scalable, efficient, and personalized customer engagement, transforming platforms like WhatsApp into major revenue pillars for Meta.
Also nice that I am not the only one, who does not like hierarchie, and managing people. It appers Zuckerberg has the same 😂
"Our management team is not really just my direct reports, it's sort of this broader group of like 25 to 30 people who I try to include in everything," Zuckerberg said. He added that this "core army" is empowered to get anything done across the company, and that he makes sure this inner circle is up to speed on what's going on inside Meta”.
"Those people are all brilliant and I work with them super closely, but I also go directly to the people who are running whatever the thing is that I care about, so we're very nonhierarchical in that way.”
Details:
Full interview:
📺TikTok stich ad gets 15million views!
According to the Ad professor, stitch TikTok ads are still some of the most effective organic ads out there. This hilarious ad from Curry's received 15M views!
Insane results from such a simple organic format.
What stitch ads are you ask? “Stitch" refers to a TikTok feature that allows users to clip a portion (up to five seconds) of another user’s video and incorporate it into their own video as a follow-up or response. This creates a sequential video where the original clip plays first, followed by the new content.
Via the Ad Professor: https://www.adprofessor.com/
🇹🇷 Turkey e-commerce is on fire! Huge potential for e-commerce lovers
I have been to Istanbul recently and I really liked it. I am diving more into the Turkish E-commerce recently. Lot’s of potential there and I really have to dive more into it.
Turkey’s e-commerce market is on fire, projected to grow by 10.22% annually through 2029, reaching a market volume of US$49.49 billion
Marketplace Dominance: Platforms like Trendyol, Hepsiburada, and N11 are capturing the lion’s share of sales, with 60% of e-commerce deliveries tied to these marketplaces.
Super apps on the rise: emerging "super apps" integrating shopping, payments, and loyalty programs are reshaping consumer behavior in Turkey. (not strange as Asia begins in Turkey, Asia is known for it’s super apps)
https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/tr/turkish-e-commerce-ecosystem-outlook
Details: https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/tr/tr/pdf/e-ticaret-ekosisteminin-gorunumu.pdf
🇺🇸 Instacart launches Fizz: group ordering great problem solving features
Sometimes you see business rise of which you think “I thought of that before, but never did anything with it”. This is such a case. Instacart launches a platform for group orders. Great idea and I also like that they do not force people to use an app but that they let the people choose.
Fizz is tailor-made for groups. It takes just one tap to invite others into your Fizz cart, so everyone can choose what they want to bring. Everything is delivered right when you need it, no matter how many people participate, with no membership required.
When guests click on a link to a Fizz cart, guests will land on the Fizz.com website unless they’ve already installed the app. “We’re not trying to force people to install an app,” Instacart chief product officer Daniel Danker tells The Verge. “We want it to be the easiest, fastest way to shop as a group.”
Very nice idea, and great features, really like it.
https://www.theverge.com/news/661484/instacart-fizz-party-order-snacks-drinks
🇦🇪 Al Maktoum Airport: AI embedded passenger experience
While the Netherlands is shrinking its airports, many other countries are expanding and creating massive transportation hubs. Countries like Thailand, Singapore, Turkey, and Dubai are developing a colossal new airport. It seems like a very exciting project that heavily incorporates AI, making it worth watching and, hopefully, experiencing soon. It could set a new standard for AI-driven customer experiences. Will Al Maktoum Airport surpass Changi Airport, which has held the number one position for best airports for years?
AI will optimise operations, particularly managing passenger transfers between the nodes, by strategically positioning aircraft to minimise walking distances and the need to travel extensively within the airport.
“So, if you’re arriving on one node and you’re transferring to another flight, what we want to try and do is put all the aircraft that are going to be exchanging customers across those transfer flows onto a single concourse,” Griffiths said.
AI will play a crucial role in managing passenger flow, logistics, and real-time operational efficiency. From predictive baggage handling to personalized wayfinding projected onto transparent canopy domes, the terminal will offer a futuristic experience grounded in practical application. The approach is a marked departure from legacy airports burdened by outdated infrastructure.
🖊️Repurposing B2B content with
Pierre is a great substacker on B2B, I regularly read his newsletter for his practical advice. Take this one, on repupurposed content. It’s different from reposting content. Piere drills down on it, I think it’s worth a read and if suitable embed it in a content process.
When you have an unshakeable repurposing system, you no longer need to scramble to come up with new content.
Step 1: Create new content. As dense and valuable as possible.
Step 2: Publish and learn. Observe what resonates with your audience and refine your positioning.
Step 3: Repurpose. Turn the content into multi-format assets to distribute your messaging at scale.
That’s it for this edition, thank you for reading, liking and subscribing
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