#Zara AI automation

[harshathusm]

How Zara Uses AI & Robotics To Automate Order Pickup

Zara integrates AI and robotics to enhance order pickup efficiency by automating inventory tracking and warehouse operations. AI-driven algorithms predict demand, ensuring optimal stock availability, while robotics streamline sorting and retrieval processes. This reduces wait times and improves customer satisfaction. The combination of AI and automation creates a seamless shopping experience.

[tsasocial]

VIATT 2026 unlocks broader opportunities

The Vietnam International Trade Fair for Apparel, Textiles and Textile Technologies (VIATT) is poised to return to the Saigon Exhibition and Convention Center (SECC) from 26 to 28 February 2026. Building on its second edition’s nearly 13% exhibitor growth, next year’s show floor will expand by 20%, from 15,000 to 18,000 sqm and cover the full area of Halls A and B. This includes new dedicated zones for apparel, fashion accessories, and textile chemicals and dyes, with the strategic growth underscoring Vietnam’s emergence as a vertically and horizontally integrated textile powerhouse.

Despite recent business challenges, the global industry still considers Vietnam a strategic, long-term market. The country’s signing of 17 new generation free trade agreements (FTAs) has further fuelled market and export diversification, positioning VIATT as a pivotal platform for varied industry players to capitalise on Vietnam's dynamic business landscape and foster international collaboration.

Ms Wilmet Shea, General Manager of Messe Frankfurt (HK) Ltd, emphasised VIATT's significance: “VIATT’s second edition marked a 30% increase in buyers’ internationality and a 10% rise in buyers overall, signifying the fair’s crucial role in advancing Vietnam’s textile industry. Next year’s expanded showcase and its trend-focused approach will enable suppliers across the textile spectrum, within fashion, home, and technical segments, to connect with leading global brands, supporting Vietnam's shift from volume-driven exports to value-led innovative and sustainable manufacturing.”

VIATT 2026 will further solidify its position as Southeast Asia’s premier sourcing event by introducing specialised trend forums, sustainable textile showcases, and designer fashion shows. A key highlight will be the return of the Econogy Hub, dedicated to eco-friendly materials, sustainable production, and certification. Aligning with Vietnam’s goal of establishing a closed-loop textile economy by 2050, the platform spotlights innovations such as organic fibres, recycled synthetics, and low-impact dyeing technologies.

Complementing its sustainability initiatives, the fair will continue the development of its Innovation & Digital Solution Zone. This zone features cutting-edge technologies that optimise design, production, and supply chain management – from AI-driven prototyping to automation systems. These solutions empower Vietnam’s textile sector to upgrade operations and harness new market opportunities.

Apparel Fabrics & Fashion: sustainable growth engine

Vietnam is a powerhouse in the textile and garment sector, generating over USD 44 billion in 2024 and targeting USD 48 billion this year[2], with apparel textile manufacturers now prioritising sustainable fibres, innovative fabrics, and design-driven finished products. In line with this transformation, VIATT 2026 will expand its offering to finished apparel products to better serve fashion designers, as well as garment manufacturers. The category is set to include the debut Fashion Label Zone, showcasing boutique fashion houses, while the fair will also introduce a dedicated Fashion Accessories Zone for bags, footwear, jewellery, and more, likely to appeal to brands such as Tory Burch and Zara, notable buyers in the previous edition.

VIATT 2025 attracted other global brand buyers including American Eagle, Callaway, Club Monaco, Decathlon, J.Crew, Lululemon, M&S, Nike, Puma, Target, and Wacoal. Meanwhile, Southeast Asian buyers took advantage of the international products on offer. Reflecting on the region’s fashion potential, Mr Bao Jia Cheng from Shaoxing Sunsmile Textile Co Ltd, exhibiting at VIATT 2025, said: “We have brought fashion embroidery fabrics and polyester embroidery yarns, predominantly for stylish women's wear. Southeast Asia is undoubtedly a key focal point for the future evolution of Asia-Pacific's economy, and I regard this exhibition as a crucial avenue for penetrating the Southeast Asian market. l've seen a promising visitor flow and good quality customers, and notably met interested parties from Vietnam, Thailand, lndia, and other parts of the region.”

Home & Contract Textiles: riding the urbanisation wave

Vietnam's home textile market is experiencing robust growth, driven by rising disposable income, urbanisation, and changing consumer preferences. The market is projected to grow from around USD 3 billion in 2025 to nearly USD 4 billion by 2030[3]. With many exhibitors at the fair aiming to leverage this growth, key product categories include bedding, bath linen, table linen, curtains, upholstery fabrics, and decorative textiles. The demand for these fabrics has drawn notable buyers such as IKEA, Muji, and Novotel to VIATT 2025.

Building on this momentum, the 2026 edition will feature enhanced displays of finished textile products for contract and residential applications, ranging from luxury bedding and curtains to contract-grade textiles for hotels and homes. Mr Dennis Macharia, Sourcing – Home Textiles China from Maaron International Procurements, remarked when sourcing at last year’s fair: “We are a home textiles company managing American clients’ orders in China. There have been promising leads, especially Chinese suppliers who have already opened a good number of factories in Vietnam, and in India, Myanmar, and Indonesia. I have already found OEKO-TEX and BSCI certified suppliers at VIATT 2025, which are very important for our clients.”

Additionally, VIATT's Econogy Check provides independent confirmation of eco-credentials, saving buyers time and resources while building trust across the supply chain. Exhibitors who pass the Check will be featured in the online directory, Econogy Finder, which helps buyers more easily identify exhibitors with sustainability certifications.

Technical Textiles & Technologies: innovation frontier

Driven by economic growth, adoption of Industry 4.0 technologies, and supportive government policies, the global technical textiles market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.5% from 2024 to 2032, reaching over USD 390 billion by 2032. Key segments include Clothtech (clothing), Indutech (industrial), Mobiltech (automotive), Medtech (medical textiles), Protech (protective wear), and smart textiles with moisture-wicking or UV-protection properties, many of which have been exhibited at the fair. Set to extend its technical scope, VIATT 2026 will introduce a dedicated Textile Chemicals & Dyes Zone, featuring additives for chemical recycling, fibre production, finishing & coating, pre-treatment, and weaving & knitting preparation; chemical dyes and pigments; and more.

[jerryandann]

How AI is Transforming Fashion Design: The Digital Thread We Didn’t Know We Needed

You know that moment when something just clicks? Like when you find the perfect pair of jeans or when a runway look takes your breath away? That’s what’s happening in fashion right now—with artificial intelligence. Yep, how AI is transforming fashion design isn’t just a catchphrase. It’s the reality of an industry in evolution.

🧵 The Fashion Industry’s Cry for Innovation

Let’s face it: fashion has always been glamorous on the surface and chaotic underneath. Designers sprint to meet deadlines, brands struggle to predict trends, and unsold clothes often end up as landfill. Ouch.

This isn’t sustainable. Or efficient. Or creative, really.

But now, artificial intelligence is weaving its way into the industry—and it's not here to replace anyone. It’s here to enhance everything.

🤖 What AI Really Means for Fashion

Beyond Automation: A Creative Ally

AI isn’t just about robots and code. In fashion, it’s the designer’s co-pilot. It speeds up routine tasks, suggests design options, simulates textiles, and identifies what customers actually want.

Think of it like a lightning-fast assistant with impeccable taste and no ego.

Real-Time Feedback, Real-Time Creativity

Designers used to wait months to see if a collection would sell. With AI, brands can test reactions to styles on virtual audiences. If something’s off, they pivot instantly. That’s the magic of AI-powered agility.

🎨 How AI is Transforming Fashion Design – In Every Step

Trend Forecasting with Data, Not Just Intuition

Once, fashion forecasting meant gut feelings and street style snaps. Now? AI scans thousands of posts, hashtags, purchase patterns, and even emojis. It notices rising color trends, popular cuts, and forgotten fabrics making a comeback.

Designers aren’t guessing anymore—they’re crafting with insight.

Rapid Prototyping & 3D Visualization

Want to test how a pleated skirt would flow in satin vs. cotton? AI can do that. 3D rendering software, powered by AI, lets designers simulate fabrics on digital models. Less guesswork. More accuracy. And far fewer wasted samples.

Digital Mood Boards & Concept Testing

Forget Pinterest. AI can help designers build smart mood boards that evolve based on feedback, style preferences, and even market demands. It’s inspiration with brains.

🏢 Giants Using AI to Win Big

Zara’s Data-Driven Storefront

Zara uses AI to analyze sales data in real-time. They adjust inventory, layout, and promotions based on what’s trending. If floral prints sell fast in Madrid, more get shipped there before they run out. That’s next-level logistics.

Tommy Hilfiger’s AI x Student Innovation Lab

Tommy teamed up with IBM and FIT to let students use AI tools to design collections. The results? Fresh, creative, and trend-smart pieces that wouldn’t have happened without this hybrid human-tech collaboration.

🧵 Small Designers, Big Power: How AI Levels the Field

You no longer need a fancy New York studio to break into fashion. Tools like Runway ML and Clo 3D let indie designers sketch, drape, fit, and render from anywhere.

AI doesn’t care about your budget—it just wants your ideas.

🛍️ Virtual Fitting Rooms – Try Before You Even Click Buy

Ever bought something online that looked amazing on the model—but not on you? Enter virtual try-ons.

AI lets you see how clothes will fit your exact body shape. It factors in posture, proportions, and even movement. Retailers like ASOS and Farfetch are already using it—and customers are loving it.

🧶 Fabric Simulations & AI-Fueled Textiles

AI helps textile designers create “smart fabrics” that change color, respond to heat, or biodegrade faster. Simulations show how they behave, fall, and fade over time. It’s like sci-fi, but you can wear it.

🌱 Sustainability Made Smart by Artificial Intelligence

Smarter Production = Less Waste

Overproduction is fashion’s dirty little secret. AI fixes that. It predicts demand accurately, so brands make what people actually want. That means less unsold inventory and fewer markdowns.

Eco-Conscious Design Choices

AI recommends sustainable fabrics based on availability, cost, and carbon impact. It can even optimize cutting patterns to minimize fabric waste. Every inch saved helps.

🛒 AI Meets E-Commerce and Marketing

Personalized Style Recommendations

AI learns what you like—your colors, fits, vibes—and recommends outfits that actually feel you. Not just “People also bought…” but “You might love this”.

Inventory Management That Thinks

AI tracks what’s hot and restocks it. What’s not? Discount it or shift it to a different location. It’s smarter business—and better for customers too.

🎭 Does AI Threaten Creativity in Fashion?

Nope. AI can mimic patterns and spot trends. But it can’t dream. It doesn’t get heartbreak or nostalgia. It doesn’t understand the magic of an unexpected silhouette.

Real creativity comes from chaos, emotion, and rebellion. AI just helps bring it to life faster.

🤝 Human-AI Collaboration – The Ultimate Design Team

The most stunning designs come from partnerships—human imagination paired with AI execution. It’s the future. And it’s already here.

🎓 AI in Fashion Education – A New Generation of Creatives

Fashion schools are teaching students to code alongside couture. They're training future designers to blend tech with texture. The result? A smarter, faster, braver generation.

🚀 The Future of Fashion: AI, AR, and the Metaverse

Soon, you’ll attend fashion shows in the metaverse, try on clothes using AR, and buy blockchain-authenticated couture. AI will power the styling. You’ll bring the soul.

🧵 Final Stitch: A World Where Tech and Taste Coexist

AI won’t replace designers—it’ll empower them. It’s turning the fashion world into a smarter, more sustainable, and infinitely creative space. If fashion is art, then AI is the canvas stretcher. You still paint the masterpiece.

❓FAQs

Q1. How is AI transforming fashion design right now? AI is transforming fashion design by improving trend forecasting, streamlining production, enabling virtual try-ons, and supporting sustainable practices.

Q2. Can AI really be creative in fashion? AI assists with ideas and execution but doesn’t replace human creativity. It’s a tool that enhances—not replaces—the designer’s imagination.

Q3. Are small fashion brands using AI too? Yes! Many indie designers use AI-powered tools like CLO 3D or Runway ML to design and market collections efficiently on smaller budgets.

Q4. How does AI help with sustainable fashion? AI helps by optimizing material usage, predicting customer demand, and recommending sustainable fabrics, which reduces waste and pollution.

Q5. What’s next for AI in the fashion world? Expect deeper integration with the metaverse, virtual fashion shows, blockchain for authenticity, and even AI-generated avatars with evolving style preferences.

for more visit jerry&ann

[hisevenblog]

From Typing to Talking: Rise of the Virtual Talker

You entered a site, you looking for something but it isn’t there. Then you spotted a message icon floating at the right bottom corner of the screen. Proceed to click on it then brought you to chat with AI, who patiently guiding you to what you need. Then there it is, from old school automated FAQ to a whole quality engineered AI who could answer your questions. A great brand usually comes with great services to efficiently cater all needs, one of it simply by deliver information, instantly and intelligently

What is AI Chatbot?

Like a virtual assistant, AI Chatbot is powered by NLP and machine learning. It simulate human-like conversations as been trained to deliver the information needed. Other than offering seamless experience that make it feels less robotic, it also fast enough to answer everything. As for AirAsia users, you might heard of AVA, a multi-lingual virtual assistant that able to handle so much inquiries in a day. Upholding a fast responses for reputable brand.

Why AI Chatbots Took Over

There’s a reason why every big names are onto AI Chatbots and let them takeover their workers:

24/7 availability - One of main reason and they no need break time and they available all the time!

Instant response times - Humans might need time to think, while AI? They straightaway provide answers.

Scalable support - Helpdesk insufficient manpower? Won’t happen with AI.

Consistent tone - No good mood and no bad mood. Just professionalism.

More and more businesses are going to implement AI to deliver a faster and more personalized experiences. Catching up with current trends and not to be left behind.

How It Been Used Across Industries?

Different industries applying the usages of AI chatbots differently, it’s not just novelty but it’s really a game-changer. As mentioned recently about the AVA by Airasia, yes it’s on aviation. It can manage bookings, flight rescheduling, refund requests, and even boarding passes which significantly reducing the need for human intervention while operating 24/7 in multiple languages. While for e-commerce site like Zara or Lazada, it been used to help online shoppers to find products or track orders. In healthcare sector, AI chatbots been used for offering symptom checks or scheduling appointment. It been used in banking too as it able to track transaction histories or any financial relevant questions.

Why It Seems So Smart?

What makes AI sound so smart? It’s ain’t magical when we break it down some powerful technologies behind the scene:

Natural Language Processing (NLP) - the core of the AI technology, it keeps chatbots to understand human languages even slangs, misspelling or slurs.

Machine Learning - chatbots learn from interactions over time. They get smarter on every conversation goes, even picking up the patterns.

API integrations - able to pull data from multiple systems instantly.

Yes, they’re not scripted. They able to recognized your patterns almost instantly.

Limitations? Yes it is.

Despite everything, AI chatbots aren’t perfect. They may misunderstand any more complex questions you throw at it. Where certain questions just out of scope or haven’t been asked before. It might randomly answered whatever similar or just completely reply with another. It may struggle with emotional nuance as well, as it’s.. a robot anyway. A clean and very well-structured training data required for AI chatbots to functioning well. That’s why the success of bots are still need to involves human oversight.

The Future: Voice, Emotion, and Beyond

Tech upgrade from time to time, but even quicker for AI recently. From generating weird images to even more realistic videos. Technologies advancing in fast pace. Soon even typing may become obsolete. AI could even sense the mood, predict what needs, and start typing out. It just continue evolving. Signal a new era on where AI taking over a lot on everything. And at this, AI Chatbot, always adapting and improving.

Checkout another similar post about AI here

[techiexpert]

Generative AI in Retail: From Personalized Shopping to Automated Design

The retail industry is undergoing a revolution powered by Generative AI (GenAI) — a form of artificial intelligence that can create text, images, designs, and more with minimal human input. In 2025, retail is no longer about just selling; it’s about curating deeply personalized, predictive, and creative shopping experiences at scale. From virtual try-ons to AI-generated fashion collections, GenAI is reshaping how brands design, market, and sell.

Let’s explore how Generative AI is transforming retail through real-world use cases and emerging innovations.

1. Hyper-Personalized Shopping Experiences

Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all marketing. Generative AI enables dynamic personalization by analyzing customer behavior, preferences, and past purchases in real-time.

🛍️ Real-World Use Case:

Retailers like Amazon and Sephora are using AI to generate product recommendations tailored to each individual. Imagine logging into an e-commerce app and seeing an AI-curated homepage featuring not just your favorite categories but personalized bundles, offers, and even colors you typically prefer.

🔍 How It Works:

Generative models like GPT or custom-trained LLMs ingest user data and generate highly relevant product descriptions, reviews, and suggestions. These are often more convincing than generic, human-written text, leading to improved conversion rates.

2. Virtual Try-Ons and Smart Styling

Another exciting development is AI-generated virtual styling, where users can “try on” outfits or see furniture in their space before making a purchase.

🧥 Use Case:

Brands like Zara and Lenskart have incorporated GenAI-powered try-ons. Using AI-generated images and AR tech, shoppers can see themselves wearing different clothes, glasses, or makeup shades, even if those combinations don’t yet physically exist.

🤖 The Technology:

AI models generate synthetic images or avatars that adapt to lighting, body shape, and motion. This not only improves user satisfaction but significantly reduces return rates.

3. AI-Generated Product Designs

GenAI isn’t just improving the front-end of retail—it’s transforming how products are created.

🎨 Use Case:

Brands like Nike and H&M are experimenting with AI-generated fashion lines. Designers input themes like “futuristic streetwear” or “eco-friendly boho,” and the AI produces dozens of original patterns, color combinations, and mock-ups.

🚀 Benefits:

Rapid prototyping of fashion concepts

AI suggestions based on trending Pinterest boards or Instagram styles

Reduced time-to-market and design costs

This co-creation between AI and human designers fosters innovation while maintaining brand identity.

4. Smarter Inventory and Demand Forecasting

One overlooked yet powerful application of GenAI in retail is inventory management.

🏪 Use Case:

Retailers are using generative models to simulate consumer demand and make predictive decisions. For instance, Walmart leverages AI to simulate foot traffic trends, weather impact, and festival demand to stock the right products in the right regions.

📈 Outcome:

This improves supply chain efficiency, reduces excess inventory, and minimizes losses due to unsold stock or last-minute sourcing.

5. Automated Content Creation for Marketing

From social media posts to product copywriting, generative AI is eliminating repetitive content creation tasks.

💡 Use Case:

Fashion brands like Myntra and ASOS use AI to:

Automatically generate email subject lines

Write engaging product descriptions

Create social media captions based on ongoing trends

This enables fast, scalable content deployment and keeps marketing teams focused on strategy rather than execution.

Final Thoughts: The Future is AI-Powered Retail

In 2025, Generative AI is not just a trend—it’s a strategic retail differentiator. It empowers brands to deliver personalized experiences, design faster, and operate more efficiently. The key for retailers now is to adopt responsibly, keeping customer data privacy, transparency, and human creativity in mind.

As the retail industry embraces AI further, the winners will be those who use it not just to automate, but to elevate the entire shopping experience.

[marcdavidfradelis]

Driving Business Efficiency Through Artificial Intelligence

As technological advancement accelerates, businesses are increasingly leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline operations, improve customer experience, and make data-informed decisions. By integrating AI into key business functions, companies can save time, reduce costs, and enhance productivity. AI is now a vital tool for businesses looking to stay competitive and responsive in a rapidly changing environment. Here’s a closer look at how AI solutions are reshaping the modern workplace and driving efficiency across various sectors.

Automating Routine Tasks: Boosting Productivity and Cutting Costs

One of AI’s most immediate benefits for business efficiency is its ability to automate repetitive tasks. By handling routine processes, AI allows employees to focus on higher-priority projects that add more strategic value. This shift not only improves productivity but also reduces operational costs, as fewer resources are needed for manual, repetitive work.

For example, AI-powered chatbots have become increasingly popular in customer service, where they can answer frequently asked questions, process simple requests, and even handle returns or order tracking. These chatbots operate 24/7, ensuring that customers receive quick responses without human intervention. In administrative functions, AI-powered robotic process automation (RPA) software can process invoices, schedule meetings, and complete data entry tasks, reducing the chances of errors and accelerating workflows.

With AI taking over mundane tasks, companies can reallocate human resources to projects that require creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving—skills that AI cannot replicate as effectively.

Enhancing Customer Experience with Personalized Services

In an era where customer experience is paramount, AI has become essential for businesses aiming to provide tailored and responsive services. AI-powered systems analyze customer data, preferences, and past interactions, allowing businesses to create more personalized and meaningful customer experiences.

For instance, e-commerce platforms use AI to recommend products based on a customer’s browsing history, purchase behavior, and personal preferences. Retail giants like Amazon and fashion brands like Zara employ AI to suggest products that match each individual’s style and buying habits, which helps boost sales and build customer loyalty.

Beyond product recommendations, AI-driven natural language processing (NLP) enables virtual assistants and chatbots to interact conversationally with customers. These AI tools understand and respond to customer queries with human-like precision, making customer support faster and more satisfying. The ability to quickly access information and resolve issues in real time enhances the customer journey, leaving a positive impression and increasing the likelihood of repeat business.

Data-Driven Decision-Making: Turning Insights into Action

Modern businesses generate vast amounts of data daily, but without practical analysis, this data holds little value. AI excels at transforming raw data into actionable insights, enabling businesses to make informed decisions and anticipate future trends.

AI-powered analytics tools can process large datasets in seconds, identifying patterns and extracting insights that would take humans significantly longer to uncover. In retail, for example, AI can analyze purchase patterns, customer feedback, and seasonal trends to predict demand, allowing businesses to adjust inventory and prevent stock issues. In finance, AI can help detect anomalies in transactions, identify potential cases of fraud, and save companies from financial losses.

AI’s predictive analytics capabilities allow companies to foresee market changes, customer preferences, and potential risks. This proactive approach to decision-making enables businesses to respond to changes swiftly, stay competitive, and seize new opportunities as they arise.

Optimizing Supply Chains and Logistics

Efficient supply chain management is essential for businesses across industries, from retail to manufacturing. AI is transforming supply chain logistics by enabling real-time inventory management, demand forecasting, and route optimization.

Using machine learning algorithms, businesses can predict demand based on historical data and external factors, such as economic conditions and weather patterns. This demand forecasting enables companies to manage inventory levels more effectively, minimizing waste and reducing costs. For example, AI helps large retailers anticipate product demand for different locations and seasons, ensuring stock availability while preventing overstock.

AI also optimizes logistics by calculating the most efficient delivery routes, taking into account factors like traffic patterns, fuel consumption, and delivery schedules. This reduces transportation costs and shortens delivery times, which is especially valuable in e-commerce, where fast and accurate deliveries can significantly improve customer satisfaction.

Strengthening Cybersecurity with AI-Driven Threat Detection

As businesses become more digital, cybersecurity is a top concern. AI has become a critical asset for companies looking to enhance their security measures, as it can detect and respond to threats faster than human analysts.

AI-driven cybersecurity tools analyze network behavior and flag anomalies that may indicate a breach or unauthorized access. Machine learning algorithms detect patterns associated with cyber threats, such as unusual login attempts, irregular file access, or unexpected network traffic. By alerting IT teams in real time, AI enables businesses to address security threats before they cause significant damage.

In addition to threat detection, AI can assist with compliance by monitoring data and ensuring that businesses meet industry standards and regulations. This capability is precious for sectors that handle sensitive data, such as finance and healthcare. By improving security measures, AI allows companies to build trust with customers and avoid the costly consequences of data breaches.

Enhancing Employee Productivity with AI-Driven Tools

AI is not only improving business processes but also enhancing productivity and collaboration within teams. AI-driven virtual assistants and productivity tools streamline workflow, helping employees manage schedules, track tasks, and access information quickly.

For instance, AI-powered calendar tools can schedule meetings, set reminders, and prioritize tasks based on deadlines and workload. In sales and marketing, AI-driven platforms can analyze customer data and provide sales representatives with insights into client preferences, allowing for a more targeted approach to closing deals. Additionally, AI can help customer service agents by providing real-time information during interactions, allowing them to resolve inquiries faster and more accurately.

Through these applications, AI enhances productivity by taking on time-consuming administrative tasks and enabling employees to focus on work that requires human insight, creativity, and problem-solving.

Artificial intelligence has emerged as a game-changer for businesses, offering a wide range of tools and solutions to boost efficiency, enhance decision-making, and elevate customer experiences. By automating tasks, personalizing customer interactions, and improving supply chain logistics, AI empowers companies to stay agile and competitive in a fast-evolving marketplace.

The impact of AI extends beyond operational efficiency; it transforms the way businesses strategize, adapt, and interact with customers. As AI technology continues to advance, its role in business efficiency will only grow, opening new possibilities for innovation and growth. For companies willing to invest in AI and integrate it thoughtfully, the rewards are significant—a more streamlined, customer-focused, and resilient business model well-equipped to thrive in the future.

Embracing AI is no longer just an option; it’s a necessity for companies that aim to stay ahead. The future of business efficiency is AI-driven, and organizations that recognize and act on this potential will position themselves as leaders in the digital age.

[spritlesoftware1]

AI Development Services in E-commerce: Revolutionizing Online Retail

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping the e-commerce industry by enhancing customer experience, increasing sales, and optimizing business processes. AI development services help e-commerce platforms integrate advanced technology to offer personalized shopping experiences, automate routine tasks, and streamline their operations.

Some key uses of AI in e-commerce include:

Personalized Product Suggestions: AI-driven recommendation systems analyze user behavior, past purchases, and preferences to offer tailored product recommendations. For instance, Amazon’s recommendation engine is a major driver of its sales, suggesting products that users are likely to purchase.

AI-Powered Chatbots: Chatbots provide round-the-clock customer service, helping users find products, answer their queries, and handle issues like returns. Sephora’s AI chatbot offers beauty product recommendations, enhancing customer interaction and boosting sales.

Inventory Optimization: AI uses historical data to predict demand and manage stock efficiently. Retailers like Zara leverage AI to forecast trends, ensuring popular products are in stock while minimizing excess inventory.

Dynamic Price Adjustments: AI helps e-commerce platforms adjust pricing in real-time based on factors like market demand and competitor pricing. Businesses like Amazon and Walmart use AI for dynamic pricing, staying competitive while maximizing profits.

Fraud Detection: AI analyzes user behavior and transaction patterns to detect potential fraud, protecting businesses from financial loss. PayPal uses AI to monitor transactions in real-time, identifying suspicious activities and preventing fraud.

FAQs About AI Development in E-commerce

What are AI development services in e-commerce?

AI development services create AI-powered solutions to improve customer experience, automate processes, and optimize e-commerce platforms.

How do AI chatbots improve e-commerce?

AI chatbots offer 24/7 customer support, improving response times and reducing the need for human intervention.

How does AI enable dynamic pricing?

AI uses real-time data to adjust prices based on demand and competition, optimizing revenue.

How does AI detect fraud?

AI analyzes behavior and transaction data to identify and prevent fraudulent activity.

What is the purpose of AI recommendations?

AI uses customer data to deliver personalized product suggestions, driving sales and improving user engagement.

Conclusion

AI development services are vital for e-commerce businesses aiming to improve customer satisfaction, streamline operations, and drive growth. By incorporating AI-powered tools like chatbots, recommendation engines, and dynamic pricing, companies can stay competitive and meet the demands of today’s digital shoppers.

[quynhanhphan]

Week 5: What is Digital Citizenship? Hashtag Publics, Political Engagement and Activism

PLATFORM & PLATFORMIZATION

The term "platform" is multifaceted, encompassing diverse connotations across computational, political, and architectural spheres. In computational contexts, a platform serves as a foundation upon which further innovation and development can be built. Politically, it represents a space where individuals can voice their opinions and perspectives, serving as a platform for expression and discourse. Architecturally, platforms like YouTube are characterized by their open and inclusive nature, facilitating egalitarian expression rather than enforcing elitist gatekeeping practices. Gillespie (2010) emphasizes this aspect, highlighting YouTube's design as a welcoming facilitator of diverse voices, devoid of normative and technical constraints. Thus, the notion of a platform transcends mere technological infrastructure, resonating deeply within social, political, and cultural landscapes.

Platformisation represents a significant shift from viewing "platforms'' as “things” to an analysis of ‘platformisation’ as a process” (Poell, Nieborg, & van Dijck, 2019). It involves the evolution of social network sites into expansive social media platforms, signifying the rise of platforms as the primary framework for the social web's infrastructure and economy. This shift not only democratizes websites by enabling their customization through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), thus facilitating integration with third-party services (Helmond, 2015), but also highlights the broader integration of digital platforms' business models, infrastructures, algorithms, and operational norms into various aspects of society (Chia et al., 2020). Consequently, platformisation serves as a lens through which to understand the far-reaching impact of digital platforms on contemporary socio-economic landscapes.

SHEIN CASE STUDY: IS SHOPPING PLATFORM A NEW TREND IN FASHION INDUSTRY?

SHEIN, standing as the global leader in fast-fashion and digital shopping, solidified its position by claiming nearly 28% of the U.S. fast-fashion market, surpassing even Amazon as the most downloaded shopping app, thereby presenting a formidable challenge to traditional giants like H&M and ZARA (Talenox, 2023). Unlike its counterparts, SHEIN prioritizes digital innovation over conventional brick-and-mortar strategies, significantly enhancing its digital prowess and operational efficiency.

Notably, SHEIN's adoption of cloud-based supply-chain management software has garnered acclaim from investors and suppliers alike, as it employs sophisticated algorithms to analyze consumer spending patterns and advise suppliers on optimal stocking levels, thus facilitating rapid and cost-effective production. This relentless commitment to digital transformation underscores SHEIN's forward-looking approach, facilitating automation and bolstering profitability.

Furthermore, SHEIN's ingenious incorporation of gamification elements borrowed from China's vibrant e-commerce market, notably pioneered by Taobao, has fostered an immersive and engaging platform. Through a nuanced points system incentivizing various interactions such as daily check-ins, purchases, and reviews, coupled with entertaining mini-games and live streams, SHEIN cultivates a loyal customer base and transforms the act of shopping into a delightful form of entertainment. Such strategic initiatives have not only augmented repeat purchase frequency but also propelled SHEIN to the forefront of an intensely competitive industry, characterized by fickle consumer preferences and dynamic market trends.

Jin and Shin (2020) elucidate three pivotal innovations within SHEIN's ultra-fast fashion business model, emphasizing its online-centric approach, seamless integration of AI and big data, and effective utilization of gamification strategies to enhance brand resonance and social media presence. By eschewing reliance on third-party platforms and establishing its proprietary website, SHEIN adeptly harnesses firsthand consumer insights to optimize its offerings and amplify revenue streams. This differentiated approach, coupled with SHEIN's distinctive Customer-to-Manufacturer business model, has empowered the brand to transcend traditional constraints, offering consumers unparalleled agility, affordability, and convenience (Uchańska-Bieniusiewicz & Obłój, 2023, pp. 52-53).

As a frontrunner in the cross-border e-commerce landscape, SHEIN continues to capitalize on emergent trends and technological advancements, leveraging its nimble positioning, robust data analytics, and astute market positioning to seize new opportunities and navigate evolving consumer preferences with aplomb (Yang, Li & Gong, 2023, p. 193). Looking ahead, the future of cross-border e-commerce heralds both opportunities and challenges, necessitating companies to embrace innovation, expand into new markets, fortify user experiences, and refine business models to sustain and enhance competitive edge in an ever-evolving landscape.

References

Chia et al., 2020. Platformisation in game development. Internet Policy Review, 9(4), pp. 1-28.

Gillespie, T., 2010. The politics of ‘platforms’. New Media & Society, 12(3).

Helmond, A., 2015. The Platformization of the Web: Making Web Data Platform Ready. Social Media + Society, 1(2).

Jin & Shin, 2020. Changing the game to compete: Innovations in the fashion retail industry from the disruptive business model. Business Horizons, 63(3), pp. 301-311.

Poell, Nieborg, & van Dijck, 2019. Platformisation. Internet Policy Review, 8(4).

Talenox, 2023. Inside SHEIN’s Strategy: Why H&M and ZARA are losing to the newcomer. [Online] Available at: https://blog.talenox.com/shein-business-strategy-hm-zara/ [Accessed 26th January 2024].

Uchańska-Bieniusiewicz & Obłój, 2023. Disrupting fast fashion: A case study of Shein’s innovative business model. International Entrepreneurship Review, 9(3), pp. 47-59.

Yang, Li & Gong, 2023. A Study on the Differentiation Strategy of Cross-Border E-Commerce - Taking SHEIN as an Example. Advances in Economics Management and Political Sciences, 37(1), pp. 185-194.

[and-then-there-were-n0ne]

As machine learning and robotics improve in the coming decades, hundreds of millions of jobs are likely to disappear, disrupting the economies and trade networks of the entire world. The Industrial Revolution created the urban working class, and much of the social and political history of the 20th century revolved around its problems. Similarly, the artificial intelligence revolution might create a new “unworking class,” whose hopes and fears will shape the history of the 21st century.

The social and economic models we have inherited from the previous century are inadequate for dealing with this new era. For example, socialism assumed that the working class was vital for the economy, and socialist thinkers tried to teach the proletariat how to translate its immense economic power into political clout. These teachings might become utterly irrelevant in coming decades, as the masses lose their economic value.

In order to cope with such unprecedented technological and economic disruptions, we probably need completely new models. One that is gaining increasing attention and popularity is universal basic income.

UBI suggests that some institution - most likely a government - will tax the billionaires and corporations controlling the algorithms and robots, and use the money to provide every person with a stipend covering basic needs. The hope is that this will cushion the poor against job loss and economic dislocation, while protecting the rich from populist rage.

[…] Yet the formula of universal basic income suffers from several problems. In particular, it is unclear what “universal” and “basic” mean.

When people speak about universal basic income they usually mean national basic income. For example, both Elon Musk and former President Barack Obama have spoken about the need to consider some kinds of UBI schemes. But when Musk said that “There’s a pretty good chance we end up with a universal basic income […] due to automation,” and when Obama said that “whether a universal income is the right model […] that’s a debate that we’ll be having over the next 10 or 20 years,” it is unclear who “we” are. The American people? The human race?

Hitherto, all UBI initiatives were strictly national or municipal. In January, Finland began a two-year experiment, providing 2,000 unemployed Finns with $630 a month, irrespective of whether they find work or not. Similar projects are underway in Ontario, Holland and Livorno, Italy. Last year, Switzerland held a referendum on instituting a national basic income scheme, but voters rejected the idea.

In the U.S, Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, proposes to greatly expand the Earned Income Tax Credit program, boosting the income of poor Americans by about $1 trillion. Though the plan does not promise any stipends to the unemployed, it is seen as a first step towards instituting national basic income.

The problem with such national and municipal schemes, however, is that the main victims of automation may not live in Finland, Amsterdam or the U.S. Globalization has made people in one country dependent on markets in other countries, but automatization might unravel large parts of this global trade network with disastrous consequences for the weakest links.

In the 20th century, developing countries made economic progress mainly by exporting raw materials or by selling the cheap labor of their workers and service personnel. Today, millions of Bangladeshis make a living by producing shirts that are sold to customers in the U.S., while people in Bangalore, India, earn their keep answering the complaints of American customers.

Yet with the rise of AI, robots and 3-D printers, cheap labor will become far less important, and demand for raw materials might also drop. Instead of manufacturing a shirt in Dhaka and shipping it all the way to New York, you could buy the shirt’s code online from Amazon and print it in Manhattan. Zara and Prada stores could be replaced by 3-D printing centers, and some people might even have such printers at home.

Simultaneously, instead of calling customer services in Bangalore to complain about your printer, you could talk with an AI representative in the Google Cloud. The newly unemployed workers and call center operators in Dhaka and Bangalore don’t have the education necessary to switch to designing fashionable shirts or writing computer code - so how will they survive?

Under this scenario, the revenue that previously flowed to South Asia will now fill the coffers of a few tech giants in California, leading to huge strain on developing economies. American voters might conceivably agree that taxes paid by Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. be used to give stipends to unemployed coal miners in Pennsylvania and jobless taxi-drivers in New York. However, does anyone think American voters would also agree that part of these taxes should be sent to Bangladesh to cover the basic needs of the unemployed masses there?

Another major difficulty is that there is no accepted definition for “basic” needs. From a purely biological perspective, the only thing a Homo sapiens needs for survival is about 2,500 calories of food per day. Over and above this biological poverty line, every culture in history defined additional basic needs, which change over time.

In Medieval Europe, access to church services was seen as even more important than food, because it took care of your eternal soul rather than of your ephemeral body. In today’s Europe, decent education and health care services are considered basic human needs, and some argue that even access to the internet is now essential for every man, woman and child.

So if in 2050 the United World Government agrees to tax Google, Amazon, Baidu Inc. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. in order to provide a basic income for every human being on earth, from Dhaka to Detroit, how will it define “basic”?

For example, will universal basic income cover education? And if so, what would these services include: just reading and writing, or also composing computer code? Just six years of elementary school, or everything up to Ph.D.?

And what about health care? If by 2050 medical advances make it possible to slow down aging processes and significantly extend human lifespans, will the new treatments be available to all 10 billion humans on the planet, or just to a few billionaires? If biotechnology enables parents to “upgrade” their children, would this be considered a basic human need, or would we see humankind splitting into different biological castes, with rich super-humans enjoying abilities that far surpass those of poor Homo sapiens?

Whichever way you choose to define basic human needs, once you provide them to everyone free of charge, they will be taken for granted, and then fierce social competitions and political struggles will focus on non-basic luxuries - be they fancy self-driving cars, access to virtual-reality parks, or enhanced bioengineered bodies. Yet if the unemployed masses command no economic assets, it is hard to see how they could ever hope to obtain such luxuries. Consequently, the gap between the rich (Tencent managers and Google shareholders) and the poor (those dependent on universal basic income) might become bigger and more rigid than ever.

Hence, even if universal basic income means that poor people in 2050 will enjoy much better medical care and education than today, they might still feel that the system is rigged against them, that the government serves only the super-rich, and that the future will be even worse for them and their children.

People usually compare themselves to their more fortunate contemporaries rather than to their ill-fated ancestors. If in 2017 you tell a poor American in an impoverished Detroit neighborhood that she has access to much better health care than her great-grandparents did in the age before antibiotics, it is unlikely to cheer her up. Indeed, such talk will sound terribly smug and condescending. “Why should I compare myself to nineteenth-century peasants?” she might retort. “I want to live like the rich people on television, or at least like the folks in the affluent suburbs.”

Similarly, if in 2050 you tell the useless class that they enjoy better health care than in 2017, it might be very cold comfort to them, because they would be comparing themselves to the upgraded super-humans who dominate the world.

Modern communication systems make such comparisons almost inevitable. A man living in a small village 5,000 years ago measured himself against the other 50 men in the settlement. Compared to them, he probably looked pretty hot. Today, a man living in a small village compares himself to the 50 most gorgeous hunks on the planet, whom he sees everyday on TV screens and giant billboards. Our modern villager is likely to be far less happy with the way he looks.  Will universal basic income include plastic surgery for everyone?

Homo sapiens is just not built for satisfaction. Human happiness depends less on objective conditions and more on our own expectations. Expectations, however, tend to adapt to conditions, including to the condition of other people. When things improve, expectations balloon, and consequently, even dramatic improvements in conditions might leave us as dissatisfied as before.

If universal basic income is aimed to improve the objective conditions of the average person in 2050, it has a fair chance of succeeding. But if it is aimed to make people subjectively more satisfied with their lot in order to prevent social discontent, it is likely to fail.

- Yuval Noah Harari, 21 lessons for the 21st century

[mindthump]

6 Technologies That Will Reshape Marketing In The Next Decade https://ift.tt/2SS8OeD

Augmented reality and the Internet of Things are among the defining forces going forward.

December 31, 2019 9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When the internet was beginning to be commercially adopted in the early 1990s, few predicted how it would completely overhaul the marketing industry over the next two decades. Ingenious search engines that navigate a plethora of budding websites, along with the first online display and search ads, marked a drastic turn of marketing dynamics as individuals's active search behavior allowed for much more relevant and efficient ad delivery. 

The emergence of social media represented an equally revolutionary milestone, whereby comprehensive data on user demographics, preferences and interests offered marketers unprecedented targeting options. The innovation of advertising is the foundation on which world-changing tech giants such as Google or Facebook are built upon. It has allowed them to claim a huge chunk of all ad spending and generate revenues surpassing the total GDPs of entire countries.

In a similar fashion, companies that manage to formulate the most scalable marketing ecosystems around the next wave of society-altering technology, coupling commercial with consumption intent more effectively, will experience astronomic growth and most likely become corporate superpowers -- or further cement their dominance. 

Early adopters who leverage those novel tools and unsaturated channels will gain significant competitive advantages, and new companies and agencies will emerge that build out their own tools or business models to complement the most impactful future marketing technologies.

Related: How to Market Technology in the Digital Era

Big Data, AI and Quantum Computing 

Why are these three buzzwords seemingly just lumped together? Because their development is strongly interdependent, and combined they’ll underpin most major technology advancements. The synergy of AI and big data is already deeply rooted in the core marketing activities of both large and small digital enterprises: Recommendation engines account for a staggering 35 percent of Amazon’s total sales, multi-channel sentiment analysis informs the brand strategies of companies like Samsung, and every minor e-commerce retailer can already harness the effectiveness of chatbots.

AI thrives on mountains of information to fuel its continuous learning mechanisms, and once leveraged by the mind-bending processing speeds of quantum computers to tap ever-increasing sources of big data, its capacity to deliver unique insights, automate a multitude of tasks and even take over various decision-making aspects from humans will surge exponentially.

The likes of IBM, D-Wave and Microsoft are all investing heavily into quantum computing, and Google has already modelled quantum neural networks in a race to build the first stable and commercially viable quantum computer, a force of (artificial) nature that would enable the conception of a sheer endless number of potential AI-powered applications, some which we haven’t even imagined yet. 

It’s safe to assume that the first commercial applications to emerge from the current research will serve the core functions of the companies at the forefront of their development. As a result, all pillars of online marketing -- SEO, digital advertising, price matching etc. -- will be subject to massive disruptions as they become more efficient and autonomous. 

It also means many jobs will become obsolete. Various custom services provided by agencies, especially in the realm of data analytics, will inevitably become commoditized through respective AI tools. The cannibalization will even spill over to the more creative marketing segments, given algorithms that autonomously generate personalized assets, copies and content exist already.

The technological leap driven by the development of the holy technological trinity of big data, AI and quantum computing will open a treasure chest of unprecedented opportunities for online marketers in the form of novel applications to reach and monetize customers as well as an enhancement of the current digital marketing ecosystems. Equally, those who fail to adapt will find themselves overhauled by the progress.

Internet of Things

As of now, our smartphones, laptops and some commercial machines and sensors comprise the majority of the current gateways to the internet. However, this is rapidly changing as the physical and digital realms increasingly (and somewhat frighteningly) converge. An estimated 41.6 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices will generating 79.4 zettabytes of data by 2025; a truly astronomical figure brimming with potential.

Beacon technology, 5G, sophisticated sensors, self-driving cars, smart wearables and smart homes all just mark the beginning of a world where almost anything powered by electricity may be connected to each other and with the all-encompassing web, opening up deep-reaching tracking and engagement opportunities for marketers.

CTRs of almost 100 percent will no longer be an impossibility, whereby companies and agencies shall strive for hyper relevance and aim to eliminate the interruptive commercial based on demographic and behavioral data from a limited few devices. Fridges, vending machines, shop displays, even plates; every ”thing” may serve as a touchpoint to accompany the consumer along a much richer, attributable and predictable journey in the quest to serve the right sales message at the right time.

To fully realize the potential, marketers will face the monumental technical challenge of implementing holistic, multi-device platforms that can assimilate and manage all these incredibly varied and intertwined gadgets and their associated data. Undoubtedly, this will give birth to many new entrants that take it upon themselves to deliver solutions for a new, hyperconnected cosmos.

Voice and Virtual Assistants

A promising child of AI harnesses one of the most ancient forms of human interaction: voice. The likes of Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant are slowly morphing into a ubiquitous and most seamless UI that will change the way we find information, consume media and buy things.

With 61 million people owning a digital assistant in the US alone and already 20 percent of all mobile searches being conducted orally, the value of including voice search in future marketing strategies is clear. Add to that moves like Google’s plans to integrate voice query data into the Search Console and roll out Google Actions, software that allows Google Assistant to interact with a site’s content, and the consideration of virtual assistants will no longer be advisable but instead become a must.

Businesses are already reaping the rewards of proper voice search optimization and attain significant boosts to their click-through and conversion rates, attributable to greater relevance and less competition on voice search result pages. Measures such as ensuring localized businesses are listed in the assistant-favored data-aggregators, or optimizing for semantics- -- with a greater focus on conversational interrogative phrases -- are already in the standard repertoire of forward-thinking SEO tools and agencies.

However, the new frontier revealed by virtual assistants lies beyond search. Cross-app integration and deeper access to big data are the first steps to transform them from mere search enhancers into predictors of users’s needs capable of autonomously serving highly targeted ads and carry out transactions on their behalf. In that light, it becomes self-evident that the proliferating number of IoT devices comprise the perfect ecosystem for virtual assistants to link up with. Alexa’s integration into newer BMW cars and into various Bosch home appliances pose examples that hint towards a future where VAs serve as a point of convergence for multi-device data on user’s behaviors and preferences and as the agent to deliver hyper-relevant ads at the right moment.

Right now, marketers should recognize the importance of voice search in SEO. In the future, once IoT becomes omnipresent, a whole new world opens up in which marketers can devise entirely new ways to reach consumers, leveraging stronger emotional connections enabled through voice and tapping into gargantuan reserves of big data. 

Related: 4 Major Marketing Trends for 2020 and Beyond

Augmented Reality

A scene from the Netflix series Altered Carbon presents what an augmented/mixed-reality urban landscape could look like: The main character walks along the alleys of a futuristic city, and through high-tech contact lenses sees a myriad of flashy holograms promoting mostly dubious amenities. In 2019, overlaying augmented reality through such lenses still belongs to the realm of sci-fi movies (for now). Instead, smartphones are still the marketer’s AR gateway to the consumer, and an increasingly effective one at that.

Various e-commerce niches in particular may see significant boosts in sales as the online shoppers’s hesitation is alleviated by being able to more vividly visualize the products with their smartphone from the comforts of their homes. For example, IKEA’s Place app, developed with Apple’s ARKit, allows thousands of pieces of furniture to be virtually previewed anywhere in a roomm, causing the likelihood of buying to increase 11-fold. It’s quite possible that, for some industries, offering visualizations to "try out" products pre-sale will transition from being a mere value-adding gimmick to a standard consumer expectation.

Similarly, AR is set to play a huge role in enhancing the physical shopping experience of retail stores. More engaging shop displays, like Zara’s virtual catwalk that replaced mannequins in one of its stores, allow brands to make stronger emotional connections through interaction. Walmart enhanced its mobile app with an AR scanner, allowing the product-conscious customer to easily retrieve an item’s reviews or additional information.

Most interesting for online marketing agencies, however, is the dawn of AR ads on social-media platforms. Earlier this year, Snap Inc. opened up programmatic auctions for AR Lenses to the masses, and by rolling out the complementary Lens Studio, agencies possess an additional format to offer to clients that’s more compelling than video. Facebook, too, tested AR ads in its Newsfeeds and Messenger, resulting in companies like WakeMeUp, who let customers try on new shades of makeup, to boast a sales uplift of 27.6 percent.

Furthermore, as tech behemoths open up the technology for audiences to engage with the real world through AR on a daily basis, it won’t be long for shops and amenities in proximity to promote themselves on those overlaid screens, effectively positioned between physical billboards or signs and Google Maps entries. 

Considering AR interaction is especially

appealing to younger demographics

and that the number of mobile AR devices

could exceed 2.5 billion by 2023

, it’s no wonder that the next decade and beyond will see AR ads shift from the domain of early adopters to the mainstream.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

#1yrago Not in our name: Why European creators must oppose the EU's proposal to limit linking and censor the internet

The European Copyright Directive vote is in three days and it will be a doozy: what was once a largely uncontroversial grab bag of fixes to copyright is now a political firestorm, thanks to the actions of Axel Voss, the German MEP who changed the Directive at the last minute, sneaking in two widely rejected proposals on the same day the GDPR came into effect, forming a perfect distraction (you can contact your MEP about these at Save Your Internet).

These two proposals are:

1. "Censorship Machines": Article 13, which forces online providers to create databases of text, images, videos, code, games, mods, etc that anyone can add anything to -- if a user tries to post something that may match a "copyrighted work," in the database, the system has to censor them

2. "Link Tax": Article 11, which will only allow internet users to post links to news sites if the service they're using has bought a "linking license" from the news-source they're linking to; under a current proposal, links that contain more than two consecutive words from an article's headline will be illegal without a license.

We're all busy and we all rely on trusted experts to give us guidance on what side of an issue to take, and creators often take their cues from professional societies and from the entertainment industry, but in this case, both have proven to be unreliable.

In a recent tweetstorm, Niall from the UK's Society of Authors sets out his group's case for backing these proposals. As a UK author, I was alarmed to see an organisation that nominally represents me taking such misguided positions and I tried to rebut them, albeit within Twitter's limitations.

Here's a less fragmented version.

Niall writes that Article 11 ("link taxes") will not stop you from linking to the news. That's just wrong. If you don't host your own blog on your own server, you'll going to posting your links from one of the platforms, either a multinational, US-based company like Facebook, or a smaller EU competitor. Under Article 11, you can't link to a news-site without a license.

Article 11 doesn't actually define what a "link" or a "news site" is (this is a pretty serious oversight). But Article 11 is an EU-wide version of local laws that were already attempted in Spain and Germany, and under those laws, links that included the headline in "anchor text" (that's the underlined, blue text that goes with a hyperlink) were banned. In the current amendments, Axel Voss has proposed that using more than two consecutive words from a headline would not be allowed without a license.

Niall says that memes and other forms of parody will not be blocked by Article 13's filters, because they are exempted from European copyright. That's doubly wrong.

First, there are no EU-wide copyright exemptions. Under the 2001 Copyright Directive, European countries get to choose zero or more exemptions from a list of permissible ones.

Second, even in countries where parody is legal, Article 13's copyright filters won't be able to detect it. No one has ever written a software tool that can tell parody from mere reproduction, and such a thing is so far away from our current AI tools as to be science fiction (as both a science fiction writer and a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at the UK's Open University, I feel confident in saying this).

Niall says that Wikipedia won't be affected by Article 13 and Article 11. This is so wrong, I published a long article about it. tl;dr: Wikipedia's articles rely on being able to link to analyses of the news, which Article 11 will limit; Wikipedia's projects like Wikimedia Commons are not exempted from Article 13; and commercial Wikipedia offshoots lose what little carveouts are present in Article 13.

Niall says Article 13 will not hurt small businesses, only make them pay their share. This is wrong. Article 13's copyright filters will cost hundreds of millions to build (existing versions of these filters, like Youtube's Content ID, cost $60,000,000 and only filter a tiny slice of the media Article 13 requires), which will simply destroy small competitors to the US-based multinationals.

What's more, these filters are notorious for underblocking (missing copyrighted works -- a frequent complaint made by the big entertainment companies...when they're not demanding more of these filters) and overblocking (blocking copyrighted works that have been uploaded by their own creators because they are similar to something claimed by a giant corporation).

Niall says Article 13 is good for creators' rights. This is wrong. Creators benefit when there is a competitive market for our works. When a few companies monopolise the channels of publication, payment, distribution and promotion, creators can't shop around for better deals, because those few companies will all converge on the same rotten policies that benefit them at our expense.

We've seen this already: once Youtube became the dominant force in online video, they launched a streaming music service and negotiated licenses from all the major labels. Then Youtube told the independent labels and indie musicians that they would have to agree to the terms set by the majors -- or be shut out of Youtube forever. In a market dominated by Youtube, they were forced to take the terms. Without competition, Youtube became just another kind of major label, with the same rotten deals for creators.

Niall says that Article 13 will stop abuses of copyright like when the fast-fashion brand Zara ripped off designers for its clothing. This is wrong (and a bit silly, really). What Zara did was illegal already, and since Zara's clothes are physical objects in shops (and not images on the web), web filters will have no effect on them.

Niall says that Article 13 isn't censorship. This is wrong. Copyright filters always overblock, catching dolphins in their tuna-nets. It's easy to demonstrate that these filters are grossly overblocking. When the government orders private actors to take measures that stop you from posting lawful communications, that's censorship.

Niall says that multinational companies will get a "huge victory" if Article 13 is stopped. That's wrong. While it's true that the Big Tech companies would prefer not to have any rules, they could very happily live with these rules, because they would effectively end any competition from new entrants into the field. Spending a few hundred million to comply with the Copyright Directive is a cheap alternative to having to buy out or crush any new companies that pose a threat.

I sympathise with Niall. As someone's who's volunteered as a regional director for other creators' rights groups, I understand that they're well-intentioned and trying to stand up for their members' interests.

But the Society of Authors and its allies have it wrong here. Articles 11 and 13 are catastrophes for both free expression and artists' livelihoods. They're a bargain in which Europe's big entertainment companies propose to sell Big Tech an Eternal Internet Domination license for a few hundred mil, cementing both Big Content and Big Tech's strangleholds on our ability to earn a living and reach an audience.

Don't take my word for it. David Kaye, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, has condemned the proposals in the strongest possible terms.

And Wyclef Jean from the Fugees agrees, seeing Article 13 as a measure that will get between him and his audience by limiting his fans' ability to promote his work and pay his bills.

Meanwhile, Pascal Nègre (who recently stepped down after 20 years as President of Universal Music France) agrees, saying that the deal is "a net negative for artists, for the industry and, ultimately, for the public good."

Link taxes are a bad idea. In an era of fake news, anything that limits the ability of internet users to link to reliable news sources deals a terrible blow to our already weakened public discourse.

Copyright filters are an even worse idea. Not only will these both overblock and underblock, they'll also be ripe for abuse. Because the filters' proponents have rejected any penalties for fraudulently claiming copyright in works in order to censor them, anyone will be able to censor anything. You could claim all of Shakespeare's works on WordPress's filters, and no one would be able to quote Shakespeare until the human staff at the company had hand-deleted those entries -- and you could use bots to re-add those entries more quickly than they could be taken down.

More seriously, corrupt politicians and other public figures have already made a practice of using spurious copyright claims in order to censor unflattering news. Automating the process is a gift to any politician who wants to suppress video of an embarrassing campaign-event remark and any corrupt employer who wants to suppress video of an unsafe and abusive workplace incident.

Creators in the 21st Century struggle to earn a living -- just as we have in all the centuries since the invention of the printing press -- and we will forever be busy making things, and reliant on our professional organisations for guidance on which political currents run in our favour.

But there is a simple rule of thumb we can always follow that will keep us from being led astray: creators should always, always be on the side of free expression and always, always be opposed to censorship. We should always oppose anything that makes it easier to silence legitimate speech, anything that narrows who can control our public discourse by concentrating power into a few hands.

Creators, you have three days to talk to your lawmakers. Save Your Internet is the place to go to call, write and tweet them. This travesty is being undertaken in our name and we have a duty to stop it.

https://boingboing.net/2018/09/10/not-in-our-name.html

[clarencenicholsonata]

14 Best eCommerce Marketing Tips & Strategies to Boost Sales

Starting and growing an eCommerce store is a worthy investment for any entrepreneur or brand. According to 99Firms's eCommerce Statistics for 2020, the eCommerce market is not only thriving but expected to be one of the top trillion-dollar industries.

As we know, eCommerce is now a vital part of the online ecosystem and lead funnel. Nasdaq reported that by 2040, as much as 95% of shopping would be facilitated by eCommerce. This means that more consumers will see eCommerce stores as a must-have shopping staple.

As promising as that might be, eCommerce owners, seem to forget one tiny detail. Having an eCommerce store isn't enough; you have to have a steady conversion rate from website visitors to paying customers.

One of the best ways to increase your eCommerce conversion rate is to improve your eCommerce marketing and strategies. As per Littledata, the average eCommerce conversion rate ranges between 1% and 4%, with global figures standing at 2.58% across all devices.

That means for every 10 persons visiting your store only 1-2 visitors might make a purchase. So, without the right tools and strategies, you could be at risk of going under. So today, I'll show you 14 of the best eCommerce marketing tips and strategies to boost sales.

1. Reward Your Loyal Customers

Did you know that rewarding your customers for spending more can increase sales and brand loyalty?

Bond Insight reported that around 77% of consumers say a good customer loyalty program makes them more likely to stay with the brand.

Consumers have a wide variety of brands to choose from, so any activity that can foster loyalty is the deciding factor when choosing between your eCommerce store and your competitor.

One of the main reasons rewarding loyal customers is my first marketing tip is that we spend too much effort trying to get new customers.

We don't realize that retaining customers is also a significant factor in our brand's success. Approximately 15% of loyal brand customers can generate anywhere from 55% to 70% of total sales.

HBSWK found that increasing customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. That’s a big jump.

If a customer is willing to purchase from you once, they’re far more likely to repeat another purchase if their experience was excellent, as opposed to the hard work it takes to convince a consumer who's never purchased anything from you.

They also found that loyalty programs are a proven incentive to keep customers shopping with you, especially if they can earn a reward.

eCommerce Example: Sephora

Around 53% of Americans participate in a loyalty program because of ease of use. So, if you do plan to reward loyal customers, your program should be easy to follow and use. No one likes jumping through hoops for free things, no matter how good your products.

Need help building a loyalty program that works? Let Wishpond help!

2. Optimize for Mobile Shopping

Around 51% of online shoppers conduct purchases via their smartphones. That means online shoppers make purchases on their mobile when compared to desktops or tablets.

Having an easy to navigate mobile version of your eCommerce store is an eCommerce marketing strategy you should start implementing for your business.

When an eCommerce site is mobile-friendly, a customer is 67% more likely to buy a product or service online.

With Wishpond's Canvas, you can easily optimize your website or landing page for mobile. You can choose how your landing pages should be optimized for desktop, mobile, or tablet. Canvas allows you to automatically optimize your landing page for any device to keep your landing page looking sleek and organized, every time.

eCommerce Example: Amazon

You should also consider investing in a mobile app for your products as well. Marketing Land found that conversion rates from mobile apps are three times higher than mobile sites. eCommerce brands like Zara, Wish, and Shien have created their own apps, using incentives to push downloads.

To get started to check out these E-commerce Mobile App Marketing Hacks to Improve Customer Engagement

3. Optimize your Product Pages with Personalization

Personalization always pays off. One way to boost eCommerce sales is by offering Personalization on your product page.

According to Janrain, 74% of people hate being shown irrelevant content.

Who wants to see products they're not interested in buying?

With product page personalization, you can improve your conversion rates by upselling your products without customers moving from product page to product page. Smart Insights reveals that one type of personalization ("visitors who viewed this also viewed") can generate 68% of eCommerce revenue.

But don't stop there, invest in tracking software and AI to help push recommended product categories based on each website visitor's browsing behavior. If that's too much, simply add a section on your product page with suggested complementary products viewers can add without leaving the page.

eCommerce Example: Miss Guided

If you need more inspiration for using Personalization here are 15 Times Marketers Won with Personalization

Don’t forget to download and start using your FREE eCommerce Checklist.

4. Create Local Google Ads

Google ads are one of the best eCommerce marketing tools to consider. Google AdWords allows you to boost your SEO presence.

Around 75% is the average conversion rate for Google Ads. Both SEO and Google AdWords are search engine marketing strategies to generate more traffic and leads.

eCommerce Example: Juniqe

Creating Google Ads and seeing results can be two very vast topics, to help you break this down here are some helpful Google Ad guides to help you along the way:

12 Reasons Why Google Ads Will Help You Reach New Customers

Google AdWords: 25 Glossary Terms You Need to Know

10 Avoidable Google AdWords Mistakes Only Beginners Make

How to Create a Google AdWords Plan in 10 Easy Steps

5. Leverage User-Generated Content

User-Generated Content (UGC) is online content created freely by consumers promoting or positively reviewing a brand. UGC is just as trusted as customer reviews posted on product pages.

Nielsen found that 92% of consumers trust other people's recommendations, even if it's from people they don't know.

Proving that UGC influences more people than what a brand has to say about itself. That's why 75% of consumers claim that UGC makes content more authentic. Even 84% of millennial consumers claim that user-generated content on company websites has influenced the way they do online shopping to some extent.

eCommerce Example: Super Goop

If you lack UGC for your brand, start with social listening. Take a look at who's tagging you in pictures, mentioning you on social media platforms, and sharing photos with your products.

This is called social listening; you can also use tools like Mention, Google Alerts, or manually search for your brand name in social media apps.

You can also start encouraging people to send you UGC so you can feature them on your social media pages and website.

You can add this to your caption, graphics, or bio. Letting customers know that you're open to UGC allows them to start creating content for your brand easily.

eCommerce Example: Forever21

Remember with User Generated Content you can quickly see an increase of 29% in eCommerce conversions.

Check out the 6 Best Brands That Dominate User-Generated Content on Instagram.

6. Allow Customers to Buy Anywhere

With online shopping comes more flexibility to buy products from a brand, whether you're on their eCommerce store or their social media pages; this is called multi-channel marketing.

eCommerce Example: TopShop

You're expanding your brand's reach by using mobile commerce, social commerce, and eCommerce to capture sales wherever your customers happen to find you. For example, Topshop allows its customers to shop on their website and on their Instagram.

Creating a multi-channel for your brand isn't as complicated as it looks. It's merely using the right tools and features offered by your online or social media platforms. To help here are some guides to help you successfully plan your multi-channel marketing for your eCommerce store:

The Ultimate Guide to Instagram Marketing for Retailers and Brands

How to Sell on Instagram: 21 Ideas, Strategies & Tips

10 Proven Facebook Post Types to Promote your Products (from Top Brands)

Selling on Facebook: 17 Ideas, Tips & Strategies

5 Ways to Use Pinterest to Sell Products and Grow Your Fanbase

How to Set Up an E-commerce Marketing Funnel that Gets You Customers

7. Send Follow Up Emails

Another timeless [eCommerce marketing tip]( https://blog.wishpond.com/post/115675437638/ecommerce-email-marketing) is to send follow up emails to current and potential customers.

Backlino reported that shoppers spend 138% more when marketed to through email, as compared to those who do not receive email offers.

Not sending emails to your subscribers means missing out on sales and customer retention opportunities. Instead, create an automated email campaign, after all, automated emails drive 320% more revenue than non-automated emails.

Maybe that's why welcome campaigns seem to do better than most. The average open rate for a welcome email is 50%. That makes it 86% more effective than standard newsletters.

So if you're not sure where to start with follow up emails or campaigns, having a welcome email campaign is an excellent place to start!

eCommerce Example: Harry's

Ready to take your email marketing to the next level?

Increase your email marketing campaign sales with Wishpond’s expert marketing team. But don't simply take our word for it, learn how SHOC made over $45,000 in sales with Wishpond's email marketing tool!

Plus, Supercharge your eCommerce store with Wishpond + Shopify integration. You can easily customize emails to leads based on their activity in your Shopify store.

You can now track website pageviews, email engagement, and Shopify purchases inside Wishpond's leads database.

Create newsletters, drip campaigns, and shopping cart abandonment emails using Wishpond's email editor. Plus, customers can automatically apply Shopify discount codes and more from their emails.

8. Create Eye-Catching Exit Pop-Up

As annoying as pop-ups may be, you can't deny that they do help to increase subscribers. They're one of the 5 types of pop-ups you should use on your website.

An exit pop-up can be a form or overlay that appears when a website visitor is attempting to leave your site.

The thing about good exit pop-ups is that you have one last chance to convince your visitor to stay or keep in contact with your brand.

Merely asking them to stay won't be enough, you'll have to sweeten the deal or give them an offer they just can't refuse. This means offering coupons, offers based on search history, FOMO of product availability, or alerts on how many people have purchased the product.

Feel free to get inspired by these 33 All-Star Popup Examples and 5 BIG Lead Generation Takeaways

eCommerce Example: Lush

Create entry and exit pop-ups to capture leads and help market your eCommerce store with Wishpond's pop-up builder.

Implement different pop-ups and create exit pop-ups, welcome mats, opt-in bars, and slide-in pop-ups. Plus, use Wishpond's Shopify integration to add pop-ups to your eCommerce store.

Sounds like something you'd be interested in adding to your eCommerce store? Click here to see real-life brand examples and learn how Wishpond can help you to generate more leads.

9. Host Giveaway & Contest to Push Sales

Contest and giveaways are some of the most successful sales methods to add to your eCommerce strategy. Across all industries, eCommerce and beauty contests have the highest conversions and contest entries. In 2018, the global cosmetic market grew to an estimated 5.5% in comparison to the previous year. With skincare, haircare, and make-up.

Contests aren't just about giving away free things. Contest CTA's have a 3.73% higher conversion rate when compared to other CTA's. Contest and giveaways have the power to boost eCommerce sales when done right. That's how Wishpond helped BHU Foods to increase online sales by 5% by adding social media contests to their marketing strategy.

We found six ways to promote your business with social media contest, one of them is using your bestseller as the prize to attract more eCommerce sales.

Treat social media contests like mini ads for your products, as they get so much engagement. So that contestants can see why it's your buyers' first choice and why your prize is worth winning.

If you need more inspiration, here are 50 Affordable Giveaway Ideas You Can Use Today

eCommerce Example: Fab Fit Fun

Need help with your next contest?

Book a free call to learn how our team of contest experts can help you create a high converting social media contest today.

10. Increase Customer Service with Live Chat & Chatbots

Customer service is an essential factor when it comes to your eCommerce marketing strategy. Without it, no matter how good your products are, you'll lose sales. Having live chat on your eCommerce store is your first line of defense or help for potential customers looking to make a purchase on your site.

As much as 89% of shoppers claim that they have stopped buying from online stores after experiencing poor customer service. And who can blame them? Unlike physical brick and mortar stores, customers can't feel or touch products, returns take forever, and buying from a brand involves trusting them to deliver what you purchased.

The Econsultancy, found that live chat has the highest satisfaction levels for any customer service channel, compared to 61% for email and 44% for phone.

People want to talk to customer service reps and resolve their issues and answer questions in real-time, not five emails later.

eCommerce Example: Urban Outfitters

When it comes to live chat, you can use tools like Zendesk, Crisp, or LiveChat to resolve your customers' issue.

But resolving the issues isn't the end game; it's making a happy customer. Around 70% of complaining customers responded that they would do business with your company again if you resolve the complaint in their favor.

11. Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonments

Believe it or not, this is every eCommerce store owner's worst nightmare, shopping cart abandonment. The average shopping cart abandonment rate is around 68.8%.

Shopping cart abandonment is when a visitor comes to your eCommerce store, fills up their cart with products and for whatever reason, they leave without making a purchase, which amounts to losing sales.

There are a lot of reasons shoppers abandon their carts. One of the top three reasons are due to high shipping cost, complicated purchase process, or they found a better offer from a competitor.

Try one or all of these 5 Proven Strategies to Combat Shopping Cart Abandonment to help you get back those lost sales!

12. Use Upselling Apps

If you haven't been upselling your eCommerce products, then you should start ASAP. So what's Upselling?

Upselling is the art of nudging the customers to buy something additional. Ever walk into a store to buy one item, but by the time the sales rep "helps you" find your item, she's also helped you buy five more items that go along with it.

That's the magic of upselling.

You can also upsell your products with the help of eCommerce personalization. This means showing individualized offers, product recommendations, and other content to your visitors based on their previous actions, demographics, and other personal data.

eCommerce Example:Tanner Goods

Here are the 12+ best Shopify apps for upselling you can start using today!

13. Integrate Payment & Subscription Plans

Offering customers multiple payment options when shopping on your eCommerce store is a great eCommerce marketing strategy.

Not everyone wants to use a credit card to pay for a purchase. Some people may prefer to use Apple Pay, Paypal, or even Payment plan apps like AfterPay or Klarna.

Speaking of Klarna, they found that 40% of consumers would spend more money on a purchase if they had the option to finance at the checkout.

eCommerce Example: 48th Coffee

14. Invest in a Great Lead Management Tool

Lead management allows you to gather customer interactions across all channels in one place. Taking them from point A to B successfully. Proper lead management will enable you to separate qualified leads from dead ends and turn potential customers into loyal customers.

Managing leads effectively improves customer experience, satisfaction, retention, and service. This eCommerce marketing strategy allows you to accessibly find, manage, and make the most out of your email subscription list.

But you'll need the right lead management platform, like Wishpond. Our platform includes powerful integration with your email marketing, eCommerce store orders, tickets, and lead generation campaigns.

Wishpond's Marketing Team

Need a hand implementing your marketing strategy?

Our team of dedicated experts (marketers executives, project managers, ad specialists, designers, and copywriters) will work with you to set up a custom marketing strategy made specifically for your business.

Take the Guesswork Out of Marketing With a Team of Professionals

Your marketing executive will work with you to ensure your campaign is a success. Get unparalleled support 24/7 with access to designers, ads specialists, content writers, and more. Get Started

Summary

Running an eCommerce store without a game plan will only lead to a dead end. With the right eCommerce marketing tips and strategies, you can test tools, tactics, and workflows that will help you increase sales and improve your overall brand presence.

At the end of it all, it's about finding what works best for you and your eCommerce store. Here's a quick recap of the 14 best eCommerce marketing tips and strategies that boost sales:

Reward Your Loyal Customers

Optimize for Mobile Shopping

Optimize your Product Pages with Personalization

Create Local Google Ads

Leverage User-Generated Content

Allow Customers to Buy Anywhere

Send Follow Up Emails

Create Eye-Catching Pop-Up

Host Giveaway & Contest to Push Sales

Increase Customer Service with Live Chat & Chatbots

Reduce Shopping Cart Abandonments

Use Upselling Apps

Integrate Payment & Subscription Plans

Invest in a Great Lead Management Tool

Related Articles

How to Build Customer Loyalty For Your Ecommerce Business

Maximize Your Customer Loyalty Strategy by Keeping Your Rewards Program on Track

The Ecommerce Guide to Online Marketing: How to Drive Traffic, Get More Sales, and Keep your Customers Coming Back

How to Set Up an E-commerce Marketing Funnel that Gets You Customers

8 Actionable Tips to Use Social Media for eCommerce Sales

8 Amazing Ways to Use Google Analytics for E-Commerce

10 Amazing eCommerce Instagram Accounts and Examples We Learned From

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[magzoso-tech]

New Post has been published on https://magzoso.com/tech/6-technologies-that-will-reshape-marketing-in-the-next-decade/

6 Technologies That Will Reshape Marketing In The Next Decade

Augmented reality and the Internet of Things are among the defining forces going forward.

December 31, 2019 9 min read

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

When the internet was beginning to be commercially adopted in the early 1990s, few predicted how it would completely overhaul the marketing industry over the next two decades. Ingenious search engines that navigate a plethora of budding websites, along with the first online display and search ads, marked a drastic turn of marketing dynamics as individuals’s active search behavior allowed for much more relevant and efficient ad delivery. 

The emergence of social media represented an equally revolutionary milestone, whereby comprehensive data on user demographics, preferences and interests offered marketers unprecedented targeting options. The innovation of advertising is the foundation on which world-changing tech giants such as Google or Facebook are built upon. It has allowed them to claim a huge chunk of all ad spending and generate revenues surpassing the total GDPs of entire countries.

In a similar fashion, companies that manage to formulate the most scalable marketing ecosystems around the next wave of society-altering technology, coupling commercial with consumption intent more effectively, will experience astronomic growth and most likely become corporate superpowers — or further cement their dominance. 

Early adopters who leverage those novel tools and unsaturated channels will gain significant competitive advantages, and new companies and agencies will emerge that build out their own tools or business models to complement the most impactful future marketing technologies.

Related: How to Market Technology in the Digital Era

Big Data, AI and Quantum Computing 

Why are these three buzzwords seemingly just lumped together? Because their development is strongly interdependent, and combined they’ll underpin most major technology advancements. The synergy of AI and big data is already deeply rooted in the core marketing activities of both large and small digital enterprises: Recommendation engines account for a staggering 35 percent of Amazon’s total sales, multi-channel sentiment analysis informs the brand strategies of companies like Samsung, and every minor e-commerce retailer can already harness the effectiveness of chatbots.

AI thrives on mountains of information to fuel its continuous learning mechanisms, and once leveraged by the mind-bending processing speeds of quantum computers to tap ever-increasing sources of big data, its capacity to deliver unique insights, automate a multitude of tasks and even take over various decision-making aspects from humans will surge exponentially.

The likes of IBM, D-Wave and Microsoft are all investing heavily into quantum computing, and Google has already modelled quantum neural networks in a race to build the first stable and commercially viable quantum computer, a force of (artificial) nature that would enable the conception of a sheer endless number of potential AI-powered applications, some which we haven’t even imagined yet. 

It’s safe to assume that the first commercial applications to emerge from the current research will serve the core functions of the companies at the forefront of their development. As a result, all pillars of online marketing — SEO, digital advertising, price matching etc. — will be subject to massive disruptions as they become more efficient and autonomous. 

It also means many jobs will become obsolete. Various custom services provided by agencies, especially in the realm of data analytics, will inevitably become commoditized through respective AI tools. The cannibalization will even spill over to the more creative marketing segments, given algorithms that autonomously generate personalized assets, copies and content exist already.

The technological leap driven by the development of the holy technological trinity of big data, AI and quantum computing will open a treasure chest of unprecedented opportunities for online marketers in the form of novel applications to reach and monetize customers as well as an enhancement of the current digital marketing ecosystems. Equally, those who fail to adapt will find themselves overhauled by the progress.

Internet of Things

As of now, our smartphones, laptops and some commercial machines and sensors comprise the majority of the current gateways to the internet. However, this is rapidly changing as the physical and digital realms increasingly (and somewhat frighteningly) converge. An estimated 41.6 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices will generating 79.4 zettabytes of data by 2025; a truly astronomical figure brimming with potential.

Beacon technology, 5G, sophisticated sensors, self-driving cars, smart wearables and smart homes all just mark the beginning of a world where almost anything powered by electricity may be connected to each other and with the all-encompassing web, opening up deep-reaching tracking and engagement opportunities for marketers.

CTRs of almost 100 percent will no longer be an impossibility, whereby companies and agencies shall strive for hyper relevance and aim to eliminate the interruptive commercial based on demographic and behavioral data from a limited few devices. Fridges, vending machines, shop displays, even plates; every ”thing” may serve as a touchpoint to accompany the consumer along a much richer, attributable and predictable journey in the quest to serve the right sales message at the right time.

To fully realize the potential, marketers will face the monumental technical challenge of implementing holistic, multi-device platforms that can assimilate and manage all these incredibly varied and intertwined gadgets and their associated data. Undoubtedly, this will give birth to many new entrants that take it upon themselves to deliver solutions for a new, hyperconnected cosmos.

Voice and Virtual Assistants

A promising child of AI harnesses one of the most ancient forms of human interaction: voice. The likes of Alexa, Siri or Google Assistant are slowly morphing into a ubiquitous and most seamless UI that will change the way we find information, consume media and buy things.

With 61 million people owning a digital assistant in the US alone and already 20 percent of all mobile searches being conducted orally, the value of including voice search in future marketing strategies is clear. Add to that moves like Google’s plans to integrate voice query data into the Search Console and roll out Google Actions, software that allows Google Assistant to interact with a site’s content, and the consideration of virtual assistants will no longer be advisable but instead become a must.

Businesses are already reaping the rewards of proper voice search optimization and attain significant boosts to their click-through and conversion rates, attributable to greater relevance and less competition on voice search result pages. Measures such as ensuring localized businesses are listed in the assistant-favored data-aggregators, or optimizing for semantics- — with a greater focus on conversational interrogative phrases — are already in the standard repertoire of forward-thinking SEO tools and agencies.

However, the new frontier revealed by virtual assistants lies beyond search. Cross-app integration and deeper access to big data are the first steps to transform them from mere search enhancers into predictors of users’s needs capable of autonomously serving highly targeted ads and carry out transactions on their behalf. In that light, it becomes self-evident that the proliferating number of IoT devices comprise the perfect ecosystem for virtual assistants to link up with. Alexa’s integration into newer BMW cars and into various Bosch home appliances pose examples that hint towards a future where VAs serve as a point of convergence for multi-device data on user’s behaviors and preferences and as the agent to deliver hyper-relevant ads at the right moment.

Right now, marketers should recognize the importance of voice search in SEO. In the future, once IoT becomes omnipresent, a whole new world opens up in which marketers can devise entirely new ways to reach consumers, leveraging stronger emotional connections enabled through voice and tapping into gargantuan reserves of big data. 

Related: 4 Major Marketing Trends for 2020 and Beyond

Augmented Reality

A scene from the Netflix series Altered Carbon presents what an augmented/mixed-reality urban landscape could look like: The main character walks along the alleys of a futuristic city, and through high-tech contact lenses sees a myriad of flashy holograms promoting mostly dubious amenities. In 2019, overlaying augmented reality through such lenses still belongs to the realm of sci-fi movies (for now). Instead, smartphones are still the marketer’s AR gateway to the consumer, and an increasingly effective one at that.

Various e-commerce niches in particular may see significant boosts in sales as the online shoppers’s hesitation is alleviated by being able to more vividly visualize the products with their smartphone from the comforts of their homes. For example, IKEA’s Place app, developed with Apple’s ARKit, allows thousands of pieces of furniture to be virtually previewed anywhere in a roomm, causing the likelihood of buying to increase 11-fold. It’s quite possible that, for some industries, offering visualizations to “try out” products pre-sale will transition from being a mere value-adding gimmick to a standard consumer expectation.

Similarly, AR is set to play a huge role in enhancing the physical shopping experience of retail stores. More engaging shop displays, like Zara’s virtual catwalk that replaced mannequins in one of its stores, allow brands to make stronger emotional connections through interaction. Walmart enhanced its mobile app with an AR scanner, allowing the product-conscious customer to easily retrieve an item’s reviews or additional information.

Most interesting for online marketing agencies, however, is the dawn of AR ads on social-media platforms. Earlier this year, Snap Inc. opened up programmatic auctions for AR Lenses to the masses, and by rolling out the complementary Lens Studio, agencies possess an additional format to offer to clients that’s more compelling than video. Facebook, too, tested AR ads in its Newsfeeds and Messenger, resulting in companies like WakeMeUp, who let customers try on new shades of makeup, to boast a sales uplift of 27.6 percent.

Furthermore, as tech behemoths open up the technology for audiences to engage with the real world through AR on a daily basis, it won’t be long for shops and amenities in proximity to promote themselves on those overlaid screens, effectively positioned between physical billboards or signs and Google Maps entries. 

Considering AR interaction is especially appealing to younger demographics and that the number of mobile AR devices could exceed 2.5 billion by 2023, it’s no wonder that the next decade and beyond will see AR ads shift from the domain of early adopters to the mainstream.

[teenageflower]

Get Here - Skiing and she lived happily ever after poster and canvas Link buy: https://moteefe.com/store/skiing-and-she-lived-happily-ever-after-poster-and-canvas See more post here: https://www.gearbubble.com/skiing-and-she-lived-happily Homepage: https://www.hitstylist.com/ Global AI in Fashion Market accounted for US$ XX Mn. in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 41.7% over the forecast period, to account for nearby US$ 2,160 Mn. REQUEST FOR FREE SAMPLE REPORT: https://ift.tt/2XWfPMh Role of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and its Impact on the Fashion Industry: AI in fashion is changing the fashion industry by playing a vital role in the many key divisions. From design to manufacturing, marketing, and logistic supply chain, AI in fashion is playing a big role in transforming this industry. Artificial Intelligence-enabled applications and systems are enhancing the consumer’s experience that goes beyond personalized ads, notification alerts on chatbot assistance or cost drops. Market Trends of AI in the Fashion industry: The report covers all the trends and technologies playing a major role in the growth of the AI in the fashion market during 2020-2027. The patterns and designs with a suitable color combination are the key point to design a costume to make it attractive among the clients. AI can detect the new trends with demand in projecting the new trend reducing the estimating error. Trends in the fashion industry change rapidly with new patterns or designs come every day in the market. Designers must keep pacing with new styles. And AI algorithms can study designs through images to copying popular styles. The report study has analyzed revenue impact of covid-19 pandemic on the sales revenue of market leaders, market followers and disrupters in the report and same is reflected in our analysis. Market Dynamics: The MMR report contains a detailed list of factors that will drive and restrain the growth of the AI in fashion market. The fashion industry has implemented the newest AI (Artificial Intelligence) technology which enhances the consumer experience and upsurges the sales in the industry by growing customization by signifying related clothing patterns according to client needs. Similarly, the use of AI has transported in automatic operations in ordinary tasks such as calculations, data entry, and many more. Also, clients demand a personalized experience, a growing need for inventory management and the rising influence of social media in the fashion industry has led to the adoption of AI in Fashion during the forecast period. DO INQUIRY BEFORE PURCHASING REPORT HERE: https://ift.tt/2z0CZbM However, data security and privacy concerns through the sector would pose a stern challenge to the growth of the global market for AI in fashion during the forecast period. Despite these restrictions, the introduction of NPL (Natural Language Programming) to the fashion industry is a huge opportunity for Artificial Intelligence in fashion vendors are anticipated to provide ample growth opportunities for the companies operating in the AI in fashion market during the forecast period. Manufacturing process: Fashion brands using AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) tools are now able to find fast-changing fashion trends and supply the latest fashion accessories to retail defers faster than the “traditional” fashion retailer. Consequently, prominent fashion brands such as Top Shop, Zara, and H&M are faster in providing instant satisfaction to retail customers by recognizing seasonal demands and developed the right supply of modern clothing. Market segmentation: The report provides an in-depth segment analysis of the Global AI in Fashion Market, thereby providing valuable insights at the macro as well as micro levels. Based on end-users, fashion stores segment held the largest market share of XX% in 2019 and is projected to grow at the highest CAGR of XX% to reach US$ XX Mn by 2027. Fashion stores contain offline fashion stores and online fashion stores that have started deploying Artificial Intelligence technologies into their operations. Growing deployment of cloud-based AI-powered solution by fashion retailers has aided brands to gain a competitive benefit over other players. AI helping to promote and sell fashion goods: The fashion industry is just as much about making demand and brand awareness as it is about the manufacturing of fashion products. Clothing and apparel brands are always looking for new ways to get their goods in front of buyers and generate awareness and demand in the market. Progressively, fashion brands are using AI and ML to exploit users’ shopping experience, improve the efficiency of sales systems through intelligent automation, and boost the sales processes using predictive analytics and conducted sales processes. Regional Analysis: North America AI in fashion market was valued at US$ XX million in 2019 and is expected to reach a value of US$ XX million by 2027, with a CAGR of XX% during the forecast period. The North American economies are developing many policies and outlining best practices to implement AI for helping innovation in various industry sectors. AI technologies like self-adapting machine learning, deep learning or Natural language processing(NLA) are expected to transform the way businesses work. Governments of several North American economies are working on drafting a robust and comprehensive set of regulations and policies for the holistic development of AI in this region. Besides, the inclination of the Asia Pacific economies toward emerging technologies like 3G and 4G is also expected to drive the growth of the AI in the fashion market. However, privacy issues, the lack of technological awareness, and limited technical expertise in advanced technologies remain major hurdles in the AI in fashion adoption across the APAC. The objective of the report is to present a comprehensive analysis of the Global AI in Fashion Market including all the stakeholders of the industry. The past and current status of the industry with forecasted market size and trends are presented in the report with the analysis of complicated data in simple language. The report covers all the aspects of the industry with a dedicated study of key players that includes market leaders, followers and new entrants by region. PORTER, SVOR, PESTEL analysis with the potential impact of micro-economic factors by region on the market have been presented in the report. External as well as internal factors that are supposed to affect the business positively or negatively have been analyzed, which will give a clear futuristic view of the industry to the decision-makers. The report also helps in understanding Global AI in Fashion Market dynamics, structure by analyzing the market segments and project the Global AI in Fashion Market size. Clear representation of competitive analysis of key players by Application, price, financial position, Product portfolio, growth strategies, and regional presence in the Global AI in Fashion Market make the report investor’s guide. Scope of the Global AI in Fashion Market Global AI in Fashion Market, by Components • Solution Software Tools Platforms • Services Training and Consulting System Integration and Testing Support and Maintenance Global AI in Fashion Market, by Applications • Product Recommendation • Product Search and Discovery • Supply Chain Management and Demand Forecasting • Creative Designing and Trend Forecasting • Customer Relationship Management • Virtual Assistants • Others (Fraud detection, fabric waste reduction, and price optimization) Global AI in Fashion Market, by Deployment Mode • Cloud • On-premises Global AI in Fashion Market, by Category • Apparel • Accessories • Footwear • Beauty and Cosmetics • Jewelry and Watches • Others (eyewear, home decor) Global AI in Fashion Market, by End-User • Fashion Designers • Fashion Stores Global AI in Fashion Market, by Region • North America • Europe • Asia Pacific • Middle East & Africa • South America Key players operating in the Global AI in Fashion Market • Microsoft • IBM • Google • AWS • SAP • Facebook • Adobe • Oracle • Catchoom • Huawei • Vue.AI • Heuritech • Wide Eyes • Findmine • Intelistyle • Lily AI • Pttrns.AI • Syte • Mode.AI • Stitch Fix • Alibaba. • Amazon. • H&M. • Tommy Hilfiger. • ASOS.

http://www.hitstylist.com/2020/06/get-here-skiing-and-she-lived-happily.html

[nothingman]

The European Copyright Directive vote is in three days and it will be a doozy: what was once a largely uncontroversial grab bag of fixes to copyright is now a political firestorm, thanks to the actions of Axel Voss, the German MEP who changed the Directive at the last minute, sneaking in two widely rejected proposals on the same day the GDPR came into effect, forming a perfect distraction (you can contact your MEP about these at Save Your Internet).

These two proposals are:

1. "Censorship Machines": Article 13, which forces online providers to create databases of text, images, videos, code, games, mods, etc that anyone can add anything to -- if a user tries to post something that may match a "copyrighted work," in the database, the system has to censor them.

2. "Link Tax": Article 11, which will only allow internet users to post links to news sites if the service they're using has bought a "linking license" from the news-source they're linking to; under a current proposal, links that repeat more than two consecutive words from an article's headline could be made illegal without a license.

We're all busy and we all rely on trusted experts to give us guidance on what side of an issue to take, and creators often take their cues from professional societies and from the entertainment industry, but in this case, both have proven to be unreliable.

In a recent tweetstorm, Niall from the UK's Society of Authors sets out his group's case for backing these proposals. As a UK author, I was alarmed to see an organisation that nominally represents me taking such misguided positions and I tried to rebut them, albeit within Twitter's limitations.

Here's a less fragmented version.

Niall writes that Article 11 ("link taxes") will not stop you from linking to the news. That's just wrong. The Article calls for new rights for publishers to block even very short quotations of articles and headlines. Those pushing the Article have suggested that quoting a "single word" might be acceptable to them, but not more.

Article 11 doesn't actually define what level of quotation is permitted (this is a pretty serious oversight). But Article 11 is an EU-wide version of local laws that were already attempted in Spain and Germany, and under those laws, links that included the headline in "anchor text" (that's the underlined, blue text that goes with a hyperlink) were banned. In the current amendments, Axel Voss has proposed that using more than two consecutive words from a headline would not be allowed without a license.

Niall says that memes and other forms of parody will not be blocked by Article 13's filters, because they are exempted from European copyright. That's doubly wrong.

First, there's no EU-wide exemption for parody. Under the 2001 Copyright Directive, European countries get to choose zero or more exemptions from a list of twenty permissible ones. And as you can see from this patchwork map of those exceptions, there are plenty of countries where you can still be sued for infringement for a parody. Which means that a site operating in that country will be liable.

Second, even in countries where parody is legal, Article 13's copyright filters won't be able to detect it. No one has ever written a software tool that can tell parody from mere reproduction, and such a thing is so far away from our current AI tools as to be science fiction (as both a science fiction writer and a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at the UK's Open University, I feel confident in saying this).

Niall says that Wikipedia won't be affected by Article 13 and Article 11. This is so wrong, I published a long article about it. tl;dr: Wikipedia's articles rely on being able to link to analyses of the news, which Article 11 will limit; Wikipedia's projects like Wikimedia Commons are not exempted from Article 13; and commercial Wikipedia offshoots lose what little carveouts are present in Article 13.

Niall says Article 13 will not hurt small businesses, only make them pay their share. This is wrong. Article 13's copyright filters will cost hundreds of millions to build (existing versions of these filters, like Youtube's Content ID, cost $60,000,000 and only filter a tiny slice of the media Article 13 requires), which will simply destroy small competitors to the US-based multinationals.

What's more, these filters are notorious for blocking lawful uses, blocking copyrighted works that have been uploaded by their own creators (because they are similar to something claimed by a giant corporation), and even missing copyrighted works.

Niall says Article 13 is good for creators' rights. This is wrong. Creators benefit when there is a competitive market for our works. When a few companies monopolise the channels of publication, payment, distribution, and promotion, creators can't shop around for better deals, because those few companies will all converge on the same rotten policies that benefit them at our expense.

We've seen this already: once Youtube became the dominant force in online video, they launched a streaming music service and negotiated licenses from all the major labels. Then Youtube told the independent labels and indie musicians that they would have to agree to the terms set by the majors -- or be shut out of Youtube forever. In a market dominated by Youtube, they were forced to take the terms. Without competition, Youtube became just another kind of major label, with the same rotten deals for creators.

Niall says that Article 13 will stop abuses of copyright like when the fast-fashion brand Zara ripped off designers for its clothing. This is wrong (and a bit silly, really). Zara's clothes are physical objects in shops (and not files that Zara posts to user-generated content sites), so web filters do not address any infringement of this type.

Niall says that Article 13 isn't censorship. This is wrong. Copyright filters always overblock, catching dolphins in their tuna-nets. It's easy to demonstrate that these filters are grossly overblocking. When the government orders private actors to take measures that stop you from posting lawful communications, that's censorship.

Niall says that multinational companies will get a "huge victory" if Article 13 is stopped. That's wrong. While it's true that the Big Tech companies would prefer not to have any rules, they could very happily live with these rules, because they would effectively end any competition from new entrants into the field. Spending a few hundred million to comply with the Copyright Directive is a cheap alternative to having to buy out or crush any new companies that pose a threat.

I sympathise with Niall. As someone's who's volunteered as a regional director for other creators' rights groups, I understand that they're well-intentioned and trying to stand up for their members' interests.

But the Society of Authors and its allies have it wrong here. Articles 11 and 13 are catastrophes for both free expression and artists' livelihoods. They're a bargain in which Europe's big entertainment companies propose to sell Big Tech an Eternal Internet Domination license for a few hundred mil, cementing both Big Content and Big Tech's strangleholds on our ability to earn a living and reach an audience.

Don't take my word for it. David Kaye, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, has condemned the proposals in the strongest possible terms.

And Wyclef Jean from the Fugees agrees, seeing Article 13 as a measure that will get between him and his audience by limiting his fans' ability to promote his work and pay his bills.

Meanwhile, Pascal Nègre (who recently stepped down after 20 years as President of Universal Music France) agrees, saying that the deal was "a net negative for artists, for the industry and, ultimately, for the public good."

Link taxes are a bad idea. In an era of fake news, anything that limits the ability of internet users to link to reliable news sources deals a terrible blow to our already weakened public discourse.

Copyright filters are an even worse idea. Not only will these both overblock and underblock, they'll also be ripe for abuse. Because the filters' proponents have rejected any penalties for fraudulently claiming copyright in works in order to censor them, anyone will be able to censor anything. You could claim all of Shakespeare's works on Wordpress's filters, and no one would be able to quote Shakespeare until the human staff at the company have hand-deleted those entries.

More seriously, corrupt politicians and other public figures have already made a practice of using spurious copyright claims in order to censor unflattering news. Automating the process is a gift to any politician who wants to suppress video of an embarrassing campaign-event remark and any corrupt employer who wants to suppress video of an unsafe and abusive workplace incident.

Creators in the 21st Century struggle to earn a living -- just as we have in all the centuries since the invention of the printing press -- and we will forever be busy making things, and reliant on our professional organisations for guidance on which political currents run in our favour.

But there is a simple rule of thumb we can always follow that will keep us from being led astray: creators should always, always be on the side of free expression and always, always be opposed to censorship. We should always oppose anything that makes it easier to silence legitimate speech, anything that narrows who can control our public discourse by concentrating power into a few hands.

Creators, you have three days to talk to your lawmakers. Save Your Internet is the place to go to call, write and tweet them. This travesty is being undertaken in our name and we have a duty to stop it.

via Deeplinks

[neptunecreek]

Not In Our Name: Why European Creators Should Oppose the EU's Proposal To Limit Linking and Censor The Internet

The European Copyright Directive vote is in three days and it will be a doozy: what was once a largely uncontroversial grab bag of fixes to copyright is now a political firestorm, thanks to the actions of Axel Voss, the German MEP who changed the Directive at the last minute, sneaking in two widely rejected proposals on the same day the GDPR came into effect, forming a perfect distraction (you can contact your MEP about these at Save Your Internet).

These two proposals are:

1. "Censorship Machines": Article 13, which forces online providers to create databases of text, images, videos, code, games, mods, etc that anyone can add anything to -- if a user tries to post something that may match a "copyrighted work," in the database, the system has to censor them.

2. "Link Tax": Article 11, which will only allow internet users to post links to news sites if the service they're using has bought a "linking license" from the news-source they're linking to; under a current proposal, links that repeat more than two consecutive words from an article's headline could be made illegal without a license.

We're all busy and we all rely on trusted experts to give us guidance on what side of an issue to take, and creators often take their cues from professional societies and from the entertainment industry, but in this case, both have proven to be unreliable.

In a recent tweetstorm, Niall from the UK's Society of Authors sets out his group's case for backing these proposals. As a UK author, I was alarmed to see an organisation that nominally represents me taking such misguided positions and I tried to rebut them, albeit within Twitter's limitations.

Here's a less fragmented version.

Niall writes that Article 11 ("link taxes") will not stop you from linking to the news. That's just wrong. The Article calls for new rights for publishers to block even very short quotations of articles and headlines. Those pushing the Article have suggested that quoting a "single word" might be acceptable to them, but not more.

Article 11 doesn't actually define what level of quotation is permitted (this is a pretty serious oversight). But Article 11 is an EU-wide version of local laws that were already attempted in Spain and Germany, and under those laws, links that included the headline in "anchor text" (that's the underlined, blue text that goes with a hyperlink) were banned. In the current amendments, Axel Voss has proposed that using more than two consecutive words from a headline would not be allowed without a license.

Niall says that memes and other forms of parody will not be blocked by Article 13's filters, because they are exempted from European copyright. That's doubly wrong.

First, there's no EU-wide exemption for parody. Under the 2001 Copyright Directive, European countries get to choose zero or more exemptions from a list of twenty permissible ones. And as you can see from this patchwork map of those exceptions, there are plenty of countries where you can still be sued for infringement for a parody. Which means that a site operating in that country will be liable.

Second, even in countries where parody is legal, Article 13's copyright filters won't be able to detect it. No one has ever written a software tool that can tell parody from mere reproduction, and such a thing is so far away from our current AI tools as to be science fiction (as both a science fiction writer and a Visiting Professor of Computer Science at the UK's Open University, I feel confident in saying this).

Niall says that Wikipedia won't be affected by Article 13 and Article 11. This is so wrong, I published a long article about it. tl;dr: Wikipedia's articles rely on being able to link to analyses of the news, which Article 11 will limit; Wikipedia's projects like Wikimedia Commons are not exempted from Article 13; and commercial Wikipedia offshoots lose what little carveouts are present in Article 13.

Niall says Article 13 will not hurt small businesses, only make them pay their share. This is wrong. Article 13's copyright filters will cost hundreds of millions to build (existing versions of these filters, like Youtube's Content ID, cost $60,000,000 and only filter a tiny slice of the media Article 13 requires), which will simply destroy small competitors to the US-based multinationals.

What's more, these filters are notorious for blocking lawful uses, blocking copyrighted works that have been uploaded by their own creators (because they are similar to something claimed by a giant corporation), and even missing copyrighted works.

Niall says Article 13 is good for creators' rights. This is wrong. Creators benefit when there is a competitive market for our works. When a few companies monopolise the channels of publication, payment, distribution, and promotion, creators can't shop around for better deals, because those few companies will all converge on the same rotten policies that benefit them at our expense.

We've seen this already: once Youtube became the dominant force in online video, they launched a streaming music service and negotiated licenses from all the major labels. Then Youtube told the independent labels and indie musicians that they would have to agree to the terms set by the majors -- or be shut out of Youtube forever. In a market dominated by Youtube, they were forced to take the terms. Without competition, Youtube became just another kind of major label, with the same rotten deals for creators.

Niall says that Article 13 will stop abuses of copyright like when the fast-fashion brand Zara ripped off designers for its clothing. This is wrong (and a bit silly, really). Zara's clothes are physical objects in shops (and not files that Zara posts to user-generated content sites), so web filters do not address any infringement of this type.

Niall says that Article 13 isn't censorship. This is wrong. Copyright filters always overblock, catching dolphins in their tuna-nets. It's easy to demonstrate that these filters are grossly overblocking. When the government orders private actors to take measures that stop you from posting lawful communications, that's censorship.

Niall says that multinational companies will get a "huge victory" if Article 13 is stopped. That's wrong. While it's true that the Big Tech companies would prefer not to have any rules, they could very happily live with these rules, because they would effectively end any competition from new entrants into the field. Spending a few hundred million to comply with the Copyright Directive is a cheap alternative to having to buy out or crush any new companies that pose a threat.

I sympathise with Niall. As someone's who's volunteered as a regional director for other creators' rights groups, I understand that they're well-intentioned and trying to stand up for their members' interests.

But the Society of Authors and its allies have it wrong here. Articles 11 and 13 are catastrophes for both free expression and artists' livelihoods. They're a bargain in which Europe's big entertainment companies propose to sell Big Tech an Eternal Internet Domination license for a few hundred mil, cementing both Big Content and Big Tech's strangleholds on our ability to earn a living and reach an audience.

Don't take my word for it. David Kaye, the UN's Special Rapporteur on Human Rights, has condemned the proposals in the strongest possible terms.

And Wyclef Jean from the Fugees agrees, seeing Article 13 as a measure that will get between him and his audience by limiting his fans' ability to promote his work and pay his bills.

Meanwhile, Pascal Nègre (who recently stepped down after 20 years as President of Universal Music France) agrees, saying that the deal was "a net negative for artists, for the industry and, ultimately, for the public good."

Link taxes are a bad idea. In an era of fake news, anything that limits the ability of internet users to link to reliable news sources deals a terrible blow to our already weakened public discourse.

Copyright filters are an even worse idea. Not only will these both overblock and underblock, they'll also be ripe for abuse. Because the filters' proponents have rejected any penalties for fraudulently claiming copyright in works in order to censor them, anyone will be able to censor anything. You could claim all of Shakespeare's works on Wordpress's filters, and no one would be able to quote Shakespeare until the human staff at the company have hand-deleted those entries.

More seriously, corrupt politicians and other public figures have already made a practice of using spurious copyright claims in order to censor unflattering news. Automating the process is a gift to any politician who wants to suppress video of an embarrassing campaign-event remark and any corrupt employer who wants to suppress video of an unsafe and abusive workplace incident.

Creators in the 21st Century struggle to earn a living -- just as we have in all the centuries since the invention of the printing press -- and we will forever be busy making things, and reliant on our professional organisations for guidance on which political currents run in our favour.

But there is a simple rule of thumb we can always follow that will keep us from being led astray: creators should always, always be on the side of free expression and always, always be opposed to censorship. We should always oppose anything that makes it easier to silence legitimate speech, anything that narrows who can control our public discourse by concentrating power into a few hands.

Creators, you have three days to talk to your lawmakers. Save Your Internet is the place to go to call, write and tweet them. This travesty is being undertaken in our name and we have a duty to stop it.

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