Needless to say, there are plenty of companies eager to sell retailers the technology they need. Cart.com, just founded in September 2020, is a new option, offering end-to-end ecommerce software, services, and infrastructure. They just raised $45 million over five months.
Any retailers hoping they can avoid improving their online experience by waiting for customers to resume in-store shopping are taking a big risk. This Sitecore study of Gen Z consumers found that 64% want to keep buying almost everything online. They’re a demanding bunch: 83% see shopping as an experience, not a transaction, 71% expect highly personalized treatments, and 38% will switch brands after a second bad experience.
The European Commission is working on draft legislation that would ban “high risk” AI applications or limit others that don’t meet criteria they establish. This would be first-of-a-kind legislation to regulate AI and is meant to protect against outside companies that have systems that could harm people by manipulating their behavior.
In a follow-up to their January report, the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority raised the number of concerns they have with Privacy Sandbox to 79. Among other issues, they adopted the privacy concerns raised by another U.K. regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office. Google’s recent decision to shift third-party cookie deprecation to next year might mean they saw this coming.