The Biden administration has secured voluntary commitments from executives at seven technology companies that they would take steps to ensure safe development and deployment of generative AI systems, in response to various concerns that have been raised since ChatGPT’s release last fall. The commitments include calls for security testing and watermarking content produced by AI.
Bold Commerce, provider of a headless, composable commerce checkout solution, has a new offering that lets brands and retailers enable checkout directly from a video or email without the intermediate step of visiting a product page, where cart abandonment can happen. The so-called accelerator uses API calls to integrate a checkout link directly into any shopper engagement.
Newegg is adding enhancements to its livestream shopping program in an effort to attract more creators who can earn commissions by selling tech products on eight different social media channels plus its own website and app, using the company’s upgraded production studios in California for free.
The recent Cyber Weekend was a boon for online mining of consumer data, with major social media players using cookies to track users’ activity across the internet, including of course ecommerce websites, often without permission, then sell the data to advertisers.
Amazon is launching a TikTok-like feature called Inspire that lets users scroll through short-form videos and hopefully buy stuff from brands, but industry observers don’t seem too inspired by the company’s latest venture into social commerce, an area that hasn’t really exploded. It’s the latest in a decade of social commerce experiments.
Livestream commerce became more popular during the pandemic lockdowns, and there are new reasons why it’s seeing some pickup. Some high-profile shakiness in the U.S. (see Facebook, TikTok) means brands need to understand what their audiences want and need, instead of trying to apply here what worked in other markets.
Retailers should consider the impact their social strategy elements have on customer trust. This includes your choice of social platforms, the payment methods you accept, how you screen orders for fraud and how you safeguard your brand presence on social media. Identify the platforms your customers trust the most.
Are there any instances where it’s not advisable to spend in search? Sure, if you’re a brand-new product with no organic ranking, and it’s going to cost you $10 per click to get to the first page of the keyword to sell a $4 product, you might be better off moving those dollars elsewhere. But spend wisely and don’t go entirely dark.
A study sampling 5,000 DTC sellers in Q2 found ad spend on TikTok was up 53% from the previous quarter, as brands flock there based on lower costs relative to Facebook and Instagram, as well as the short-form video platform’s younger audience being their lifeblood for the future.
Facebook is shutting down its livestream shopping venture two years in, putting its efforts behind the popular Reels short-form video platform as livestream shopping has yet to catch on here in a big way as in China, and retailers, brands and platforms need to rethink their approach. Experts weigh in on what they need to do.