Retail and restaurant companies have been hit hardest by lock-downs, so it might not be surprising that 83% of C-level executives told Cambridge Retail Advisors that their industries will be changed forever. Just 65% plan to reopen all their locations and 53% feel most consumers will exclusively shop online with in-store (BOPIS) or at-curb pickup (BOPAC).
Adventure! Drama! Comedy! You won’t find any of those in the news that Walmart has expanded its third-party Web marketplace to include Shopify merchants. But it’s still a reminder of Walmart’s continued development as an Amazon alternative.
Microsoft today joined Amazon and IBM in limiting the privacy nightmare that is facial recognition software. IBM has left the business entirely, Amazon banned use by the police for one year, and Microsoft said they won’t sell for police use until a national regulation is in place. Yes, there’s some virtue signaling involved and there are plenty of other companies still in the business. But it’s a step in the right direction.
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.