Our forecast says Elon Musk’s Twitter concerns are valid: The Twitter acquisition’s on hold on account of fake and spam accounts, which the platform has had issues with for some time now.
Noncard crypto payments are increasingly available to consumers and may also be attractive to merchants.
China’s zero-COVID policy hinders retailers at home and abroad: The mitigation measures put the brakes on both retail sales and manufacturing, which could have long-term implications.
In a world of ubiquitous robocalls, brands need to differentiate themselves if they want consumers to pick up. One option could be logos. Some 69% of US adults ages 18 to 24 say they would answer a call if their phone displayed a recognizable brand logo. This figure decreases with age, and just 46% of US adults ages 55 to 62 say they'd pick up if they recognized a brand logo.
Twitter has started a gentle decline in US users. The social media app peaked in 2021 with 57.8 million monthly US users. This year, that figure will flutter downward by 0.5%, hitting 57.5 million by year-end. But it's not all a decline for the platform.
Consumers report gas, groceries, and dining as their top inflation pain points: A new report finds that price increases in those three sectors affect shoppers the most.
Brands are unsure how—or if—to speak out about abortion: Some firms have taken strong stances, while others consider how to respond.
Asian consumers remain an opportunity for brands: A new Nielsen study suggests on-screen representation is on the rise but remains lacking.
Even fast fashion isn’t immune to the ecommerce slowdown: Shein, the largest fast-fashion player in the US, is seeing growth slow as shoppers revert to pre-pandemic behaviors.
An underdog’s cloud effort: Google gives expanding its cloud market share another try with its AlloyDB database service that’s priced to sell. Its other cloud products could reap benefits too.
Social work with a tech salary: Schmidt Futures helps pair tech workers with higher-paying nonprofit positions. With a two-year time limit, the jobs could benefit from a bit more longevity.
On today's episode, we discuss Elon's pitch deck plans for Twitter, lululemon athletica betting on the future of connected fitness, how to best augment our reality, how fast online checkout should be, what kind of power video podcasts hold, an unpopular opinion about 15-minute grocery delivery, and where Nobel prizes come from. Tune in to the discussion with our analysts Evelyn Mitchell, Blake Droesch, and Paul Verna.
The new offering connects online shoppers with in-store retail associates and can help attract merchants to Klarna.