Artificial Intelligence

Consumers are constantly in search of convenience, particularly in the form of timesaving. In the past 12 months, numerous direct-to-consumer (D2C) meal plan services have emerged, offering consumers an alternative solution to home cooking without paying a dreaded visit to the grocery store—or spending time trying to figure out a recipe.

China has proven to be a hotbed for digital innovations, especially in the past few years. During this time, marketers worldwide have observed the latest trends coming out of the country, applying what they learn to their own markets.

Though social commerce conversions will remain a challenge, the mid-funnel opportunity is growing. Instagram’s continued rollout of shoppable content features is helping brands and influencers spotlight product content and forge a better path to purchase. Pinterest has also introduced features to make it easier for retailers to upload and promote product content. And video-first platforms Snapchat and TikTok are both testing shoppable content features.

More retailers are investing in biometrics, including behavioral tracking and facial and voice recognition to not only improve store security—and potentially catch shoplifters—but to also target consumers with promotional content.

eMarketer principal analyst Victoria Petrock explains what life will look like when voice assistants are everywhere: How will driving to work change? How will retailers and advertisers communicate with you? How would you like the voice of Samuel L. Jackson telling you what you have planned for the day?

Though most are loath to admit it, retailers already make extensive, behind-the-scenes use of biometrics to track employees, nab shoplifters and improve store security.

eMarketer executive editor Rimma Kats and principal analyst Andrew Lipsman explain how grocery stores will evolve, how many people could replace in-store shopping with voice commerce, a partnership between Alphabet’s drone arm Wing, FedEx and Walgreens and more.

eMarketer forecasting analyst Eric Haggstrom explores our smart speaker usage figures for Canada and the Canadian French language rollout on Amazon’s Alexa.

eMarketer forecasting director Shelleen Shum shares our smart speaker usage estimates for the UK vs. the US.

eMarketer principal analyst Nicole Perrin discusses Facebook’s plan to give publishers more curation control over how their articles look on the platform. She also talks about the implications of letting Yelp users personalize their homepage experience and how effective the BBC’s new voice assistant can be in a competitive digital market.

According to an August 2019 survey conducted by eMarketer and Bizrate Insights, 58% of US internet users have neither used nor are interested in using smart speakers to make purchases. While 4% of respondents said they have made a purchase using a smart speaker at least once, just 2% did so regularly.