Pieces on a chess board or deck chairs on the Titanic? Either way, lots of marketing assets are being rearranged. We’ll start with Pitney Bowes’ purchase of Newgistics, which specializes in parcel shipping for online and offline retailers. It’s a natural extension of Pitney Bowes’ postal and customer data technology businesses, and a reminder that grand changes in the retail economy create opportunities for supporting services.

Maybe consumers aren’t as demanding as we all thought. A survey from the CMO Council found that by far the most commonly attribute mentioned for exceptional customer experience was fast response time (52%). Recognizing the customer’s history at every touchpoint trailed far behind at 12%. One quarter of customers said every touchpoint is already relevant and personalized while another 38% said brands are “almost there”. Happy campers indeed.

Procrastinators of the world can throw a party whenever they get around to it: Google has once more pushed back complete third-party cookie deprecation.  The new target is “early next year.” Reasons for the delay include concerns expressed by U.K. data regulator Information Commissioner’s Office, an ongoing inquiry by the U.K. Competition and Markets Authority, and widespread discontent in the advertising ecosystem.