Finally, in-person experience vendor AnyRoad reports that live events are back: 75% of brands have relaunched live experiences and the percentage of consumers attending an in-person experience jumped from 4% in May 2020 to 68% in May 2021. It turns out that people got bored with online experiences pretty quickly: online experience attendance peaked in July 2020.
This pair of retail studies packs in a month’s worth of obvious. Retail Touch Points and Euromonitor agree that ecommerce increased during the pandemic, free shipping became even more important, and supply chain issues were a big headache. You knew that. But did you know that Euromonitor found 20% of consumers would implant a microchip in their finger to making buying easier?
Martech mergers & acquisitions, stock prices, and private financing all increased hugely in the second quarter of 2021, both compared with pandemic-depressed year ago levels and the first quarter. So says this comprehensive LUMA report. Martech M&A grew 214% year-on-year, average stock prices rose 28% since January, and there were more than 40 major private financings announced during the quarter. Download for details.
The U.S. Senate has passed a bill that could potentially ban TikTok in the U.S. if its Chinese owner, ByteDance, does not sell its holdings within a year. The bill now goes to the President Biden, who has said he will sign it. Court challenges are likely to follow.