Meta will launch Meta Movie Gen, an AI-generation multimedia tool, offering creators tools to generate, customize, and edit videos and produce audio, all in high quality and with text descriptions. Specifically, Meta Movie Gen is the third generation of Meta's foundational models, which the company targets content creators and filmmakers as a tool to help drive their creativity rather than replace it.

As the company explains on its official blog, the models it includes have been trained with licensed and other publicly available datasets to offer four capabilities: video generation, custom video generation, precise video editing, and audio generation.

Regarding video generation, the model uses a 30 billion parameter transformer to produce high-quality videos of up to 16 seconds at a rate of 16 frames per second from a text description.

As Meta notes, “the model can reason about object motion, subject-object interactions, and camera motion, and can learn plausible motions for a wide variety of concepts.” Meta Movie Gen models also generate personalized videos based on an image of a person and a description. This is coupled with the ability to edit with localized or more general actions and accurate results.

Meta Movie wants to be a multimedia ‘total solution’ 

Meta Movie Gen also generates audio; it is Meta’s vision to turn this into a full multimedia ‘total solution’. Specifically, it uses a 13 billion parameter model that produces high-quality video from either a base video or a text description. The output is up to 45 seconds long and includes ambient sound, sound effects, and instrumental background music. This model can also generate coherent audio for videos of arbitrary lengths.

In addition, the company stresses that as they continue to improve their models and move closer to a possible future release, “we will work closely with filmmakers and creators to integrate their feedback.” “By taking a collaborative approach, we want to make sure we create tools that help people enhance their inherent creativity in new ways they never dreamed possible. Imagine animating a 'day in the life' video to share on Reels and editing it using text messaging, or creating a personalized animated birthday greeting for a friend and sending it to them via WhatsApp,” adds Meta.

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Netflix aims to strengthen its advertising business and has announced that it will launch its own ad tech platform by the end of 2025. This platform will provide advertisers with new ways to offer their services and measure the impact of their campaigns.

The technology company has organized this Wednesday the second presentation of its Upfront event for advertisers. It suggests that advertisers who choose Netflix to offer their services can "reach the most engaged audience in the world," which currently reaches 270 million subscribers.

Netflix has a plan that displays advertising, which it implemented in 2022. In Spain, it is available for €5.49 per month and, in addition to embedding advertising during playback, it suppresses some of the most watched titles in its catalog. However, it plays them in Full HD quality and supports two devices.

This standard subscription model with ads now registers 40 million monthly active users worldwide, compared to five million a year ago, as explained by Amy Reinhard, president of Netflix Advertising, stressing that more than 40% of users in countries where the plan with advertising is present are subscribed precisely to this mode, which introduces ads both at the beginning and during the playback of series and movies.

Netflix bet on marketing 

With all this, Netflix has announced the launch of the aforementioned internal advertising technology platform, which will arrive by the end of 2025 and will give advertisers "new ways to buy, new knowledge, and ways to measure the impact" of their campaigns. In this way, Netflix will be able to create targeted and personalized ad experiences, as TechCrunch is nuanced.

"Bringing our ad technology in-house will allow us to drive the ad plan with the same level of excellence that has made Netflix the leader in streaming technology today," the executive said.

Reinhard also emphasized that this development comes after "in-depth consumer research and is designed to make Netflix even better for customers." "We are being incredibly strategic about how we present ads because we want our members to have a phenomenal experience," Reinhard emphasized.

Similarly, he has announced that this summer, Netflix will expand its buying capabilities to include The Trade Desk, Google's Display & Video 360 and Magnite, which will join Microsoft as the leading programmatic partners for advertisers.

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Pull&Bear is launching PBShuffle, a new shopping experience focused on vertical video, and offering video purchasing. This platform will be available on Pull&Bear's iOS and Android app. 

From now on, with this novelty, the company will offer its users two parallel experiences: the usual navigation through the home, menus, and product grids with entertainment and an innovative shopping experience from short videos.

With this new service, Pull&Bear aims to stay connected to Generation Z, as they can see how the clothes adapt to the movement and different bodies of the models. In this way, they will get a greater perspective than a photo. They will also be able to visualize various possible looks and discover exclusive garments from the chain or hauls from content creators.

Pull&Bear is pushing a global ‘video fashion’ strategy 

On the other hand, this environment will be updated weekly with new products. This might prove to be a challenge, considering the vast array of regions and cultures in which the video marketing platform is set to operate. 

To use this new feature, users will only need to download the app. PBShuffle is already available in sixteen countries, including Spain, Portugal, France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany, Turkey, and Mexico

Also, the new functionality will allow for engagement strategies, such as allowing visitors the option to save their favorite looks in their product wish list, create an inspiration map, or go directly to the product to purchase it.

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Waitrose, Eve Sleep, Oliver Bonas, Screwfix & Trustpilot are among the big brands spearheading the conference and workshop programmes at IRX (InternetRetailing Expo) & eDX (eDelivery Expo) taking place on 11 & 12 May 2022 at the NEC, Birmingham. 

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Industry leaders will share their insight in a dedicated programme of learning taking place throughout the two days of the show – attendees can expect to hear first-hand experience and robust debate around current and future challenges.  

Customers & current trends – at the heart of a comprehensive conference

Visitors to the UK’s number one digital retail event can mix and match the conference strands to suit their current needs with sessions covering marketing, growth, delivery, customer engagement, omnichannel innovation, and fulfillment. 

Topicality is the watchword here with all sessions tailored to address the current and forthcoming needs of retail professionals. Steve Davies, COO - Eve Sleep, is part of a panel session looking at what’s next for the sector in ‘Exploring today and tomorrow's delivery trends: challenges, opportunities & initiatives. He’ll also deliver a fireside chat on ‘Towards a sustainable delivery network: innovation, technology & customer choice’.

Customer experience sits front and center of many sessions, beginning with a keynote by Laura Burbedge, Online Director at Waitrose & Partners, outlining her company’s strategy for ‘Aligning purpose with growth: enabling ethical decision making in a growing digital business.’ Laura explains: “Our purpose encompasses people, business, and the planet. To deliver benefits in all three sectors we’re challenging ourselves to push boundaries and innovate across areas including sustainability, inclusivity, social impact, and the supply chain.”

Engaging customers in a way that’s genuine and in keeping with company values is at the core of a panel discussion with Camilla Tress, Connected Commerce Lead at Oliver Bonas – ‘Keeping it real: Developing an authentic dialogue with the customer’.  Sanjay Aggarwal, founder of the Spice Kitchen, who will join Camila in her session explains: "As we look to the next 12 months, we are seeing customers looking for experiences, not just products, and for them to be able to make genuine connections and community with the businesses they buy from. This is now more important than ever and eCommerce businesses need to find ways to deliver the sort of experience that customers are looking for since the pandemic.”

Google deep-dive & value-led marketing – covered by practical workshops

A series of practical, training-focused workshop sessions beginning with Ben Thoy, UK Sales Manager at Trustpilot. Ben will highlight key results from his company’s latest research into the growing number of consumers driven by political, environmental, or sociological issues in ‘Purpose-driven marketing: Am I doing it right?’

Want to know the most common mistakes holding many retailers back on Google Shopping? Liam Patterson, CEO of Bidnamic, takes a deep dive into the true value of data in overcoming these obstacles in ‘Why Google Shopping doesn’t work for many retailers’. Imran Choudhary from Attraqt sheds light on the latest in e-commerce tactics in The art of leveraging AI in product discovery.

Alongside the opportunities to update their skillset, retail professionals can meet with the full A to Z (well, A to W!) of leading suppliers – from Adobe, Amazon, Huboo, Mastercard, Salesfire, and Worldline – all with cutting-edge technology and innovative services to enhance customer experiences, increase sales and deliver efficiencies across online and in-store operations. 

IRX & eDX 2022 takes place on 11 & 12 May at the NEC, Birmingham.  Register – for free – here.  

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Google has launched a new feature and tool called Performance Max, and it is aimed at supporting online entrepreneurs. This new tool is actually a new Google ads campaign type, on its own. And is designed to improve your advertising strategy through the power of automation and machine learning. 

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The format of “Performance Max (PMax)” campaigns was introduced at Google Marketing Live in 2021 with a primary objective to increase lead generation, and drive online sales, and in-store visits without using the Google Merchant Center product feed.

Google's Performance Max: Next level automation 

According to a Google case study, PMax campaigns grew qualified leads for MotorK, an automotive sales, and marketing technology company, by 24%. In addition, Click-Through Rate (CTR) was improved by +30% compared to existing search and display campaigns.

The way Performance Max works is using heavy automation and IA mix. The machine learning component of this equation is aimed at helping entrepreneurs who have neither the time nor the money to hire or develop in-house, an entire online marketing division. 

In that sense, Pmax helps advertisers who have zero to non-experience using paid online marketing campaigns, to reach their specific conversion goals. 

The campaign types in which PMax offers support have a broad reach across Google’s Network, reaching customers on:

• Display
• Search
• Maps
• Discover Feed
• YouTube
• Gmail
• Shopping Ad Inventory

How does Performance Max work? 

The core of how Performance Max works is based on the idea of machine learning used to serve audiences a relevant ad with an optimal bid to maximize campaign performance.

An advertiser selects a marketing objective and then chooses the conversion goals that support the objective. 

To ensure that your campaigns are optimized to drive the best ROI through automation, assign more than one goal and different values to conversion to a single campaign. 

With a focus on goals, PMax campaigns use automated bidding and targeting technology to help you invest your budget more efficiently to spend where the highest-ROI opportunities are.

More information, as well as a tutorial, can be found directly from Google here!

Will you trust automation and IA criteria to run the marketing campaigns for your e-commerce? Let us know in the comments! 

The post What are Google's Performance Max Campaigns? appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Blidz, a social shopping app from Finland, has managed to raise 6 million euros in seed funding. The company combines social shopping with gamification in a very odd yet - so far - successful mix that Blidz wants to bring to the Western European markets.  

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Additionally, the funding will also be used to expand the product suite and supply chain. Blidz currently has had a base growth of 1500% a year, for the last three years. 

Blidz: games and sales for the Gen-Z

Launched in 2018, the company aims to a very specific buyer persona: Gen-Z and students. In that sense, the app is remarkably different from other e-commerce oriented apps, because of a - sometimes odd - combination of social selling, live shopping, and games. The games are used in the same fashion as the popular Gatcha mobile games from Japan and combine the “Daily reward login” systems of the mobile MMORPGs. 

To topple all that, the app puts in place a powerful recommendation system, that provides a different customized experience for each buyer, if your friends and family are also using the app because it gives prominence to their recommendations above the general poll of reviews and ratings. 

How does Blidz use social shopping?

The way Blidz uses social shopping, primarily, is that users buy a product of their choice and then share that on social media in order to get acquaintances to buy the same thing. If someone does, the user gets the item for a discounted amount. If no one buys the same product, the user will receive store credit from Blidz.

This way of shopping is not very popular in the West yet, but there are numerous apps using these mechanics in China. “Western online shopping is behind the curve on social adoption. Our goal is to liberate consumers from expensive and boring shopping experiences by letting them leverage their own activity and social networks to get the best value-for-money products anywhere”, said co-founder Lasse Diercks.

All in all, it seems Blidz will launch in the European market at full force before Summer 2022. But, will it work? We will surely keep track of them!

The post Blidz raises 6 million euros for its launch in the European market appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Covid or no Covid, e-commerce has been growing fast for at least the last two decades. And alongside e-commerce, cross-border commerce has increased as a natural development of the e-commerce capabilities: mainly, the fact that you are no longer bound to a specific physical location. 

Online sales in Europe have been growing steadily in recent years, a trend that is likely to continue into 2022. According to eMarketer's survey, total e-commerce sales will be $5 trillion in 2022 –  $1 trillion more than in 2020 –  rising to $6 trillion by 2024. These staggering numbers are enough to explain why more and more sellers are starting cross-border e-commerce projects.

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Selling online offers the opportunity to address a worldwide pool of potential customers, which not only ensures the company's viability but also its continued growth. However, mere presence is not enough to sell. If you want to improve your cross-border e-commerce, you need to take a global view of the market, with a focus on the countries in which you decide to sell and plan an effective e-commerce strategy.

Knowing what makes what you sell unique, emphasizing the strengths, and being able to address the weaknesses is the first step. Even with the best marketing strategy, no one will buy (or buy again) a bad product. The second step is to identify the target customer, towards whom you should direct your efforts. "Shooting in the dark" is a useless waste of time and resources. 

Get to know your customers, what they want and what latent needs they might have. Finally, the third step is to create an e-commerce strategy that allows you to sell across national borders, bearing in mind that each country has its own rules when it comes to e-commerce and that it is good to know them well before jumping into the adventurous world of cross-border.

10 key factors for planning your cross-border e-commerce strategy

To improve your cross-border e-commerce sales in 2022, it's always a good idea to start drawing up a sound online sales strategy. 

To get started, we recommend you follow these 10 points, a sort of guideline for better market positioning and more profits. A word of advice before you start: to further optimize your results, it may be useful to identify benchmarks and evaluate them on a quarterly basis. This will allow you to identify any strategic or product errors and correct them in time.

1. Choose the right platform for your cross-border 

It is important to sell on highly optimized web platforms to maximize conversions. Having your own e-commerce store is obviously important, and it is a good idea to choose a platform that is sufficiently scalable and customizable to integrate third-party activity. 

????  Among the features that the platform must have is the possibility to upload multilingual pages because if you want to expand beyond national borders, you need to communicate in the language of potential local customers. ???? 

To find the best approach, do an A/B test –  i.e. try two versions and analyze the results on the basis of predefined parameters to see which one performs better. If you are looking to sell in different countries, it is advisable to do an A/B test for each of them. Each market responds differently.  

Also, pay attention to graphics and how text and images are distributed. Try to make your e-commerce inclusive. This means, for example, taking into account color shades that are not perceived by color-blind people and writing the main information in such a way that it can be read by visually impaired people. 

For cross-border trade, it is also very important to rely on marketplaces in the various countries in which you choose to sell because they allow you to make your brand known more widely and quickly. Furthermore, in some countries, such as China, it is possible to avoid complex authorization procedures with local authorities through marketplaces, which we have to go through if we sell through our own website.

2. Localized content is key for a global e-commerce

Texts and multimedia content are the calling card for online sales. Study your competitors' websites, identify keywords and build your texts on them. Use clear and direct language, check for errors and typos. Do not limit yourself to simply translating the description of the products you are selling, but always bear in mind the culture and characteristics of the population you are targeting. 

????For example, if you want to attract a German customer, you need to use different characteristics to those that would attract a French or Spanish customer. ???? 

Communication not only has to do with language but also includes technical components such as design, layout, and colors. When customers are looking for information, it should not only be presented in their native language, but also in a way that is familiar to them. An error such as the wrong color can have a negative effect, especially if it has negative connotations in the customer's culture. 

???? A good e-commerce strategy must also include the use of photos and videos, naturally in the languages of the target countries or, at most, in English. ????

This content allows the product to be seen from various points of view as if the customer were in the shop and could almost touch it. The latest trend is to include augmented reality content that simulates a visit to your physical shop.

???? Salesupply and Go Global Ecommerce: Partners for an optimized cross-border e-commerce experience 

Precisely to help you optimize your international expansion, Salesupply and Go Global Ecommerce entered into a partnership to help you guarantee the ultimate customer experience! 

Together these specialists in cross-border e-commerce enable online retailers and - brands to deliver an optimal customer experience all around the globe.  

Combined, Salesupply and Go Global Ecommerce master the full journey of a cross-border e-commerce operation, before and after checkout. Go Global Ecommerce offers a pre-check-out cross-border solution including tax positions and payments, while Salesupply specializes in the post-checkout phase with native customer care in 36 languages and global fulfillment services.

This partnership is designed to fully support online shops cross-border by helping them create a perfect customer experience, from start to finish.

"Providing a perfect customer experience during the e-commerce journey is the most important and complex challenge for web stores that (plan to) operate internationally,'' says Jeroen Leenders. "Go Global Ecommerce and Salesupply have the knowledge and the services to help these stores to minimize complexities and maximize their cross-border revenue", adds Daniel Viniegra, Chief Global Expansion Officer of Go Global Ecommerce????

3. Offer as many payment options as possible 

The issue of payments can determine the success or failure of an e-commerce store.

Payment security is a prerequisite, but it is also good to allow for multiple payment options and to understand which ones to use in a given country: from PayPal, to credit or debit cards, to local payment systems. 

???? In Germany, for example, Sofort is very strong, while in Italy it is Satispay that took off in 2021. Knowing these trends is essential for integrating your e-commerce into the country in which you choose to sell. Some countries are already heavily using cryptocurrencies for online payments. ????

In Russia, Sweden, the UK, and the Netherlands, cryptocurrency payments are widespread and NFTs and their derived technology is far more common and used.

4. Logistics and shipping are vital for cross-border! 

Logistics is one of the pillars of e-commerce, and knowing which solution is best for your case (but also for your country) is essential. 

First of all, it is good to know whether to choose to open a warehouse in the country where you choose to sell online or whether, instead, to have a centralized warehouse in your country and then turn to a local distribution network. Each of these solutions has its pros and cons, and often these have to do with the volume of business of the brand in that particular country. 

One feature that everyone agrees on is free shipping: no matter whether you are doing cross-border e-commerce in China or Germany, "free shipping is always a good idea".

Most users will switch sites or choose not to buy if they see that shipping costs money, so include this option wherever possible. 

Other ideas for rewarding your customers could be to send them their favorite product as a subscription with a set frequency and automated payment or to give them the opportunity to get discounts, try a preview of new products or receive gifts for their birthday or other special occasions. 

????  It is good to know if there are specific holidays or peak times for each country: sales, for example, do not start everywhere on the same day, and knowing this in advance will allow for adequate logistical organization, avoiding bottlenecks. ???? 

5. Merchant of Record: A way to boost sales! 

If you want to improve your e-commerce sales, especially if you sell to different countries, it may be a good idea to use a Merchant of Record (MoR).  A Merchant of Record is an intermediary between the seller and the end customer, who is responsible for all legal matters, taxes, and handling all forms of payment. 

???? Each country has specific regulations and taxes, which you should know in order to avoid penalties. By relying on an MoR, you will not have to deal with these issues yourself, and you will be free to focus on other strategic aspects instead. ????

In addition, the Merchant of Record will manage the transport and delivery of the product. This is a very important service for cross-border e-commerce, as it saves the seller from having to make agreements with couriers for each country they sell to, and from having to deal directly with any unforeseen delivery issues.

6. Keep track of regulatory changes: privacy, consents, and VAT

Here are some of the new laws that will come into force in 2022 that we need to keep an eye on if we don't want our online store to make any legal missteps:

DMA and DSA

The European Parliament has given the green light to the Digital Markets Act (DMA), while the Digital Services Act (DSA) is on the home stretch. The DSA and DMA have two main objectives: to create a safer digital space where the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected, and to establish a level playing field to promote innovation, growth, and competitiveness – both in the European single market and globally. At the heart of the measures are clear and transparent communications, new provisions on targeted advertising, restrictions on 'killer takeovers', and controls on reviews.

Omnibus Directive

The aim of the directive –  to be implemented from 28 May 2022 –  is to modernize EU consumer protection rules. In particular, the aim is to ensure transparency for consumers, remove excessive burdens on businesses, and adequately inform users about the criteria for ranking offers on platforms.

EPR Directive

The EPR (Extended Producer Responsibility) directive for packaging waste is common throughout the EU, but France is the first European country to introduce specific obligations for textiles, banning the destruction of unsold items from 1 January 2022. With this directive, online sellers are also responsible for the disposal of products. Sweden and the Netherlands will implement it by 2023.

UK

A separate chapter for the United Kingdom and in particular for wine sellers. From 2022, the VAT applied to the sale of wine may have a different rate from that of other European countries, as is already the case for excise duties. In addition, anyone selling wine in the UK in 2022 will need an importer or bottler (FBO) physically based in the UK, and from 1 October 2022 will have to declare their name and address on the label of each bottle. 

7. Multi-channel and multi-lingual customer service is a must! 

In order to give the customer greater security, it is important to have customer service that is easily accessible. This implies clearly written contacts visible on the home page, the possibility of contacting support through different channels (phone, email, WhatsApp, social media, chatbots...), and with a time slot that goes beyond traditional office hours and includes at least Saturdays.

If you are looking to sell online across borders, it is a good idea to provide support in English but also in all the languages of the countries concerned. But there is more to it than language. The tone of voice with which a customer-care professional addresses their customers vary from country to country: Americans, for example, tend to be informal while in some Eastern cultures a more formal approach is preferred. This is very important to integrate your e-commerce within a given country. 

Another thing to look out for if you have cross-border e-commerce is your customer care channels: in some countries, WhatsApp may be a good solution, while in others Facebook is the best or even just traditional email. The right thing to do is to first know which channels are most popular for each country and to put in place an integrated strategy, including more than one.

8. Multichannel e-commerce and faster distribution 

The longer you wait to receive goods, the less likely it is that people will order from you. Make agreements with companies that guarantee faster delivery or, if you sell on marketplaces, rely on those who allow you to receive your order in a short time. If you can't guarantee fast delivery with your website, focus on multi-channel e-commerce strategies, including selling on channels such as Amazon, at least for those countries where you can't guarantee fast delivery times.  

???? Remember that many users go directly to these platforms when they need to make a purchase, and there are also those who only buy if delivery is within 48 hours, regardless of whether the product arrives from another country. ????

Better to use a multi-channel sales approach than to give up on the customer, don't you think?

9. Machine learning to optimize sales

Try to acquire information about your customers, assess the way they interact with your site, how they got there, try to intercept their needs, and understand their tastes. Make separate analyses for each country you sell to, assessing some standard parameters that you will use for all markets and others differentiated for each of them. 

???? This will allow you to create more targeted and increasingly effective marketing campaigns and identify the markets where your offer is most enthusiastically received. Today, many e-commerce platforms give you the opportunity to carry out this analysis and have the results live.???? 

10. Ethics and sustainability are key for your brand perception 

Consumers are more aware and demanding nowadays than ever before. They don't just consume a product, they want to know its ethical and environmental impact. Adopt a code of ethics and make it public on your website. Choose suppliers and partners on the basis of their ethical conduct and what they do for the environment, and choose shipping companies with a low environmental impact. If you want to reduce your impact, a good idea is to buy carbon credits. 

????This is good for the environment, but it is also good for your reputation, as it will ensure that you are better positioned in the market and that you will be chosen by more consumers????

10 starting points for your strategy 

These 10 points are a good starting point for planning an effective cross-border e-commerce strategy that will help you increase your customer base and maximize sales and profits. But you must keep track of the current e-commerce trends, to evolve accordingly and remain relevant. And this is vital because e-commerce is exponentially growing: by 2022 there will be at least 3.20 billion e-consumers worldwide. This is why it is so important for your brand to become a virtual shopping destination!

The post Complete checklist for planning your cross-border in 2022! by GoGlobal Ecommerce appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

How Augmented reality (AR) is used to improve e-commerce? That's a pretty common question nowadays. Since Covid struck us, there is a massive hype around AR as a sales solution. But the truth is that this technology has been with us for quite some time. And still, for many e-commerce brands, it remains unclear how to take advantage of it. 

That's why we want to review five examples of things that AR can do for your e-commerce. And give you some clues about what you can do, and what you should not do with it. 

Join us!

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What is augmented reality? 

Augmented reality is not a recent technology, it is not a consequence of the pandemic - as some mistakenly believe - nor is it something "thought up by Mark Zuckerberg, for his Metaverse" nothing could be further from the truth. In truth, AR has been there for the better part of almost 60 years. 

????The first AR technology was developed in 1968 at Harvard when computer scientist Ivan Sutherland (named the “father of computer graphics”) created an AR head-mounted display system. ????

And it makes all the sense in the world because the natural evolution of the digital environment is to mingle with the real environment. 

That has always been the dream of programmers. And countless generations of coders have relentlessly pushed towards this utopia where the real and the virtual coexist in an environment without visible barriers between the binary and the “ordinary”.

Sadly, AR capabilities until at least 2010, did not allow for this goal to be achieved. Not even close. High definition 3D rendering was taking its first baby steps and was barely used even on high-end pc monitor screens, not to mention smartphone screens or tablet screens. 

But in the past 10 years, we have improved a lot regarding two crucial elements for a successful AR: 

• High definition 3D rendering technology
• LCD and Oled Screens - the ones truly capable of HDR and henceforth, of rendering accurately a 3D model.  

For AR to have commercial applications, it needs to be rendered so well that it actually becomes indistinguishable from real life.  And even though we are far from that point, we can claim that current AR is enough to start doing the trick of making us believe that the 3D rendered model is real. This is crucial for the e-commerce application of AR. 

How is AR used for e-commerce? 

There are several ways in which AR is used for e-commerce. The first and most obvious is to present the potential buyer with a 3D rendering of the product they wish to purchase. This rendering is done using a virtual reality device, normally through a virtual reality headset like Meta Quest, a product created by the former Facebook Inc. 

???? Facebook - now Meta - has been steadily pushing towards the Metaverse by buying or creating companies that produce or develop virtual reality headsets, like the former pioneers of the technology, Oculus ???? 

The second way is perhaps more simple to use - although not necessarily the easiest to make from a technical point of view - and it is to render the 3D of the product by "virtually projecting it" at home, in the workplace, or on ourselves, using our mobile device cameras. 

Let’s check out 5 examples of successful AR implementation. 

1. Audi’s ZeroLigth Proyect: Design your own virtual car 

During the peak of the Covid lockdown, Audi launched ZeroLigth, an AR application for their e-commerce, meant to allow potential customers to build and experience  

Audi’s 3D rendered car can be interacted by the potential customers through the use of a virtual reality headset. 

???? The potential buyer can check the car on a real-life scale, confirm the color, the customization options, and the different kinds and qualities of the interior, and even get inside the car, turn it on, and virtually drive it, like in a video game. ????

2. Ikea Place App: A bit more to the left, please

Ikea's approach is different from Audi: they want you to be able to project the product in your house, office, or any other location  - using your smartphone camera - so you can actually see the size, color matching, and form of the piece of furniture you want to buy, and how it will fit in the place you want to place it. 

Ikea Place approach is a pretty simple and straightforward application of AR for e-commerce. 

3. Dulux Visualizer: Paint it black 

Dulux has closely followed the recipe of Ikea, by creating an app called Dulux Visualizer - a no-brainer, really - that allows you to precisely do that: visualize how your wall will look, if you paint them with one color or the other. 

The way this is achieved is the same as Ikea Place, but with some added functionalities smartly implemented to increase virality and the play-factor of this app.

For example, you can try out different colors by recording a video of the walls you want to paint, and later send that video to your friends using the app, for them to offer new color ideas and send you back a customized painted version of your 3D rendered walls. 

???? Also, the app has the capacity of using your phone camera to “capture” a specific color, by using the smartphone camera to target any object or painting in the real world, that has a color. Think of it like the Photoshop eyedropper tool. This color can later be made by Dulux, if you so desire. ????

4. BIC DrawyBook: Draw your reality 

BIC has taken a different approach to AR. Instead of using it to showcase the product, they have decided to use AR as an added value to their product. To achieve it, BIC has created a mobile game called DrawyBook. 

The app allows kids to bring their drawings on paper “to life with” using AR. The kids can then bring their drawings back into the app as part of an interactive story which places the child and their creativity at the center of this unique digital experience. 

???? BIC has also done something pretty smart here: They have allowed this mobile game to be accessible for anyone, regardless of if the person bought a BIC product or not. Thus, turning the game into a marketing operation for the brand. ????

5. Sephora Virtual Artist: You are the star 

The final form of AR application for e-commerce is precisely the one developed by Sephora: to apply the 3D rendering unto ourselves. 

This is perhaps, the one form of AR that will yield better results and the highest acceptance. A combination of factors - commodity, ease of use, the playfulness of trying out things o ourselves but without having to interact with other humans - makes the use of AR for trying products of fashion and cosmetics, a perfect match. 

Sephora Virtual Artist allows you to virtually try different makeup combinations on your face, using your mobile phone. 

???? The app scans your face, after which you can virtually try out different kinds of makeup. Besides the try-on, there are options for pictures, full-face looks, and even virtual makeup tutorials.????

6. The entire fashion industry: Let’s try it on! 

If there is one industry that has welcomed AR with open arms, it is the fashion industry. According to research done by ABI, over 120.000 stores will be using AR in their e-commerce by 2022. 

And most of these stores will be fashion related. This is due to a combination of factors: firstly, current AR technology is pretty efficient at rendering clothes and other complements - shoes, jewelry, hats, and the like - to be virtually projected in your body using your smartphone.  

Secondly, the fashion industry is the perfect place for trying things on. Most of the fashion-related products are bought as “impulse buying” and the need to see how it looks on us, is a key factor to close the deal. Now, during the Covid pandemic, the opportunity to try things on has been diminishing a lot. Many traditional brick and mortar stores have had to close their fitting rooms due to sanitary concerns and AR solutions have become a lifeline for the industry.  

Add to this the viral power of social media and the immersive experience of AR and you get a winning combination. A combination that has already been implemented by several major brands like: 

✔️ Saks Fifth Ave: With Project Saks Fifth Ave, an AR app that allows customers to view all the collection of Saks clothing and accessories either at the store using virtual reality glasses or at home via their smartphones, and can use the same app to buy any item from the store. 

✔️ Ralph Lauren’s Fifth Avenue: Also in the famous Fifth Avenue, Ralph Lauren's bet on AR is to use their fitting room mirrors to allow the potential customer to virtually try on any product they bring into the fitting room. The technology has been developed by Oak Labs and the fashion brand claims that has increased engagement by over 90 percent, since its implementation. 

???? The same idea is currently being developed by different fashion-related companies - like Nike with is Nikeland Metaverse - to allow potential customers to virtually try out their products, and have an idea of how these products will look on themselves. ????  

✔️ Balenciaga's “Afterworld”: Balenciaga's approach to AR is a bit different. The brand used AR not to provide the customers with access to a virtual version of their product, but instead, as a means to provide brand-exclusive content: a fashion show. Under the name of Afterworld: The Age of Tomorrow, Balenciaga hosted a virtual reality runway show for its autumn/winter 2021 collection. The show was broadcasted live to 300 guests all over the world, who received from Balenciaga each one a pair of Oculus virtual reality headsets. 

The future looks bright for AR, and it is quite sure that more and varied forms of using AR will be developed during this year, always with the same goal: to gap the real and virtual world and allow customers to have a deeper understanding and higher engagement with the products or services of their interest. 

If you want to know more about AR, the Metaverse, and the current and future trends of e-commerce, we would love to share with you our E-commerce trends and standards for 2022!

The post 6 examples of how AR is used to improve e-commerce appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Walmart's Metaverse adventure could start this year. It seems that the brand is creating its own cryptocurrency as well as a collection of NFTs, according to multiple media outlets in the USA. 

The news went public after Walmart filed for several trademarks licenses, specifically mentioning that these licenses will be used for the creation of new “financial services, a digital currency and a digital token of value for its members” 

Do you want to know more about international commerce, eCommerce, and also get all the tips and news that might give your company an edge? Subscribe to Cross-Border Magazine and get your digital copy now for free! 

According to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Walmart filed three applications on Dec. 30, for a financial service composed of digital currency and digital tokens of value, an online store capable of selling - among other things - virtual merchandise, and the third application for ‘downloadable software to be used in managing portfolios of digital currency’ among other things. 

These three applications are Walmart’s first legal steps into a future representation of the brand in the Metaverse. 

Walmart Connect will be the core of Walmart’s Metaverse

In total, Walmart filed 7 applications on Dec. 30, including three under “Walmart Connect”, the current digital advertising venture of the company, for a financial exchange for virtual currency and advertising. 

Other applications filed were “Verse to Store,” “Verse to Curb” and “Verse to Home” for shopping services. 

These applications are meant to fulfill a double purpose: protect the brand in case of intellectual property theft inside a permanent online environment - the three trademarks will be legally Walmart’s property - and also set a roadmap for the brand to transfer its real-world identity into any permanently online environment, allowing Walmart to legally use these trademark for virtual currency and NFT technologies. Something indispensable in the Web3 future scenario. 

Walmart is not alone in the Metaverse fever

Recently, many major brands have expressed interest in participating in the future Metaverse: Nike, Gucci, Coca-Cola, Wendys, Taco-Bell, and Asics, among others, have joined the Metaverse. 

The idea of being able to create your own digital currency or a token system that would allow brands to develop new forms of marketing and customer retention is extremely attractive. 

If we add to this the security advantages provided by the framework on which the Metaverse will operate - Web3 with its blockchain technology  - we have a future of secure, attractive, and addictive virtual ecosystems - enhanced by social networks - that become the ideal scenario for brands to develop their marketing strategies.

Do you want to learn more about the Metaverse and its implications for e-commerce and business in general? Check out our article concerning the Metaverse here! 

The post Walmart's Metaverse will bring its own currency and NFTs appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.

Last year the “NFT fever” took the world by storm with news outlets reporting the auction of artist Beeple NFT work entitled 5000 EVERYDAYS: THE FIRST 5000 DAYS at Christie’s, where it was “sold” for a record price of $69.3m. 

And from that point onward, multiple NFTs have reached prices over $10m. But, truth be told, most people still do not know what on earth an NFT is, and more importantly, if the NFTs will impact e-commerce or not? Or if the NFT could be used as a powerful marketing tool for e-commerce? 

Today we want you to have all the answers to these two questions, so you will enter 2022 with a keen grasp of what is trending in the e-commerce scenario. Let’s start!

Do you want to know more about international commerce, e-commerce, and also get all the tips and news that might give your company an edge? Subscribe to Cross-Border Magazine and get your digital copy now for free! 

What is an NFT and why are they so valuable?  

A non-fungible token (NFT) is a unique and non-interchangeable unit of data stored on a blockchain, a form of digital ledger.

Technically, an NFT could be anything that could be transformed into data, because almost anything can be transformed into data. The NFT phenomena have spurred a wide range of things: from works of art to videos, music, images, economic reports, political surveys, companies reports, sports statistics… you name it. 

The only defining characteristic of NFT is the fact that it's not an interchangeable bit of information. This concept, although a bit obscure for the general public, is pretty important to NFT value. 

We could explain this non-interchangeability of NFT by saying that fungible cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin can be interchanged without actually changing the - copy-pasting - bit of information. This means that one Bitcoin is exchangeable for another Bitcoin. NFT can not be “duplicated”, at least in theory. This makes them the perfect canvas for works of art. Due to the underlying guarantee that the original piece of art will always remain the same. 

The impossibility of duplication - or at least the fact that if you duplicate it, everybody will be able to tell the difference between the copy and the original - creates a scarcity that in turn, is one of the reasons why the NFTs have become so valuable: they are an immutable public record of ownership & transactions. 

Can NFTs be used as marketing tools? 

These first iterations of NFTs have proven so profitable and reliable that many big brands are getting in the game, with companies like Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Pringles coming out with their own NFTs for selling and in the future, as a form of payment. 

These first NFTs offered by Pizza Hut and Pringle, for example, are works of art: digital images, gifs, and other multimedia representations of their real-world products, or even in some cases, special “limited” designs of their brand logos, icons, and other merchandising material. For example, Taco Bell “Blockchain Tacos” are the Taco Bell tacos represented as drawings or photos, in GIF format. 

Even Visa bought an NFT for $150,000 this year, and Adidas forked over another $156,000 for a digital piece of art.

✔️ Some of the Taco Bell “blockchain tacos” originally sold for $1 have reached prices over $1000 in later actions. ✔️

Because these NFTs are totally traceable, the information contained inside them can be traded without losing the chain of buyers, meaning that at least in theory, NFTs can not be used for any illegal means. 

All in all, it seems that NFTs will become an accepted payment option in 2022, due to the highly secure and traceable of its nature. This could in turn allow e-commerce owners to operate with a single and universal payment option, once a payment gateway for NFTs becomes fully functional for all the different e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento, Prestashop, or for the big marketplaces like Amazon or Alibaba. 

NFT used as pieces of art and publicity stunts 

NFT technology nature makes it unique and traceable this, in turn, makes NFT technology the perfect place for launching exclusive collections, unique designs, and limited editions.

And that is precisely what many brands are aiming for: they can double down on creating an exclusive collectible, that is at the same time, a great marketing action. 

Asics NFT Sunrise Red Collection is another great example of marketing using NFTs. The NFTs auctioned by Asics are digital video representations of their shoes. Yes, they are selling virtual shoes. 

This collection of 9 virtual pairs of shoes by Asics, was sold exclusively on OpenSea.io, as a way of further improving the exclusivity of the NFTs, propelling its value, and turning the “collectible” into a powerful symbol of prestige for the owners. 

Using the NFTs to break into new markets 

The NBA is also pushing into the NFT movement with the TOP SHOT NBA NFTS. The TOP SHOT NFTs are short videos of remarkable plays during official NBA games. Making them not only highly collectible, and “fan lovable”, but also a piece of sports history. 

In their case, the NBA is using the NFT craze for promotion in the normally hostile-for-them European markets. The brand, although global, has always had a tough time in Europe, where Basketball is not so highly regarded as football, or “soccer” if you live in America. 

The NBA NFTs are part of their “digital-first outreach” program for the European markets and also, are meant to launch a global campaign featuring its stars from around the world. And it makes all the sense in the world to use NFT short videos to promote the NBA style of basketball in Europe, where the game has been traditionally less flamboyant and far more tactical. 

✔️ Rapper Quavo recently teamed up with the NBA for exclusive finals packs. Quavo’s Quest includes Top Shot moments from some of his favorite players including Trae Young, LeBron James, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry.✔️ 

Is there an exclusive e-commerce market for NFTs? 

Yes, we already have e-commerce platforms committed to the trade and auction of NFTs. And perhaps one of the best examples of that is ClubRare. Which also happens to be a magnificent example of the possible interactions between NFT markets and general e-commerce. 

ClubRare is the world's first physical goods-based NFT e-commerce marketplace, offering rare items in hard-to-find categories as Redeemable NFT. 

Successful bidders, inside the platform, can receive real items or “hold them” - the property of such items - on the blockchain for an increase in value. Another example is Zora, a crypto marketplace that uses NFTs as a form of both currency and goods. 

All in all seems that NFT technology is slowly becoming a pretty useful tool for e-commerce marketing, especially with limited or collectible products.

The post Can NFT be used for e-commerce marketing? appeared first on Cross-Border Magazine.