Miller Solutions

Fewer Shop Visits Due To Digital. But More Spending

Posted on by Andy Miller

British Retail Consortium (BRC) figures show that footfall in retail stores fell by 3.3% in April 2018 compared to last year, marking a further shift in consumer behaviour towards digital adoption.

Two Consecutive Months

The drop in footfall numbers for April was the second consecutive month where the trend away from visiting the physical high street could be observed, and in comparison to this time last year when footfall was on the up, it is seen by analysts as being significant.

Visiting Even Less – But Still Spending

The last time such a significant drop in footfall occurred (3.8%) was recorded was in 2009 when the UK was in recession and consumers were spending less as a result. Even compared to that, this year’s drop in the numbers of people visiting physical store locations is larger at 4.8%.

Despite the apparent fall in physical store visits, Barclays bank data shows that consumer spending is still on the increase.

What’s Happening?

Retail experts have noted a shift in consumer behaviour towards digital shop visits rather than physical ones, based on a number of benefits including flexibility (in what goods they purchase and when), product / service ranges available, convenience, digital innovations enhancing customer experiences, and a predisposition towards leisure rather than retail spend.

This changing consumer behaviour is forcing the retail industry to evolve and re-structure.

Increased Leisure Spending

One key trend that has been noted by analysts is the increase in leisure rather than retail spending by consumers. For example, a report by Deloitte based on the quarterly survey of more than 3,000 UK adults found that 2017 (last quarter) ended positively for the leisure sector, with consumer spending increasing in 7 out of 11 leisure categories compared to the previous year.

The areas that have shown an increase include experience-led activities, short break holidays, going to the gym, drinking in pubs and bars and attending live sporting events.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

For retail businesses, these figures mean that the digital retail environment is posing many challenges, but the changes can also be embraced as part of a restructured strategy to remain competitive.

Many retailers understand that they now need to rebalance investment in physical and digital infrastructure, and change the way stores are used e.g. by adopting technology to engage people, and to make stores more like centres for experiences rather than just places for purchasing goods. This is particularly important for younger consumer groups.

Retailers can embrace technology as an opportunity to deliver more value to customers whether in store, at home or on the move. Retail commentators frequently talk about the importance of the need to create a seamless customer experience between online and offline, and to develop an omni-channel platform. Improving and optimising the current experience that retailers offer customers, and replicating these as effectively as possible across all channels could be the key to staying competitive in the evolving retail business environment.

Tech Tip – Play Almost Any File Format

Posted on by Andy Miller

If you sometimes have trouble opening and playing certain file formats e.g. for videos, free and open-sourced VLC software makes it easy to play almost any file format you throw at it.

To download the app, which works with Mac, PC, Linux, Android, and iOS, and states that it doesn’t deliver ads or engage in user tracking:

– Go to https://www.videolan.org/vlc/features.html

– Click on the appropriate Operating System.

– Read the details and click on the orange download button.

Facebook Loyalty Intact Says Survey

Posted on by Andy Miller

Even after all the publicity surrounding Facebook’s selling of the personal data of 87 million users to Cambridge Analytica, a Reuters/Ipsos survey has found that most users are still loyal to the social media giant.

Just A Public Relations Problem

The survey conducted April 26-30 was based in the US, the home country of Facebook and the place where the vast majority of those whose data was sold live. Far from indicating that any users have been outraged by the selling of their personal data property without their permission, the survey appears to show that Facebook has so far suffered no ill effects from the scandal, other than a public relations headache.

A Quarter Using Facebook More!

The survey showed that half of US Facebook users said they had not recently changed the amount that they used the site, and, incredibly, a quarter of those surveyed said they were using it more!

The remaining 25% said that they were using it less recently, had stopped using it, or deleted their account.

64% of those surveyed said they still used Facebook at least once a day, down only slightly from the 68% recorded in a similar poll in late March.

The results appear to show, therefore, that the numbers of those using Facebook more has balanced out the numbers of any respondents who said they used the platform less, meaning that, according to the survey, Facebook appears to have suffered no real damage other than a PR hit from the scandal.

Wait Until 2nd Quarter

Facebook actually showed a near 50% increase its sales in the first quarter of this year, with profits up to $4.9bn from $3bn last year. Some commentators have stressed, however, that any of the financial effects of the scandal are likely to be evident in the second quarter.

Cambridge Analytica Closed

While Facebook, a social media giant, appears to have suffered no real damage other than a PR hit, Cambridge Analytica has been forced to go into liquidation blaming negative media attention. Some commentators have pointed out that Cambridge Analytica portrayed themselves as victims of unwarranted press activity, thereby deflecting blame from their activities involving the use of the personal data of millions to influence election and referendum outcomes.

Trusted With Dating Information?

It may appear that customer loyalty is still intact to a large extent now, but the next test for Facebook could be whether customers will trust them with their privacy when Facebook rolls out its dating service app later this year.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This story shows what many tech commentators had predicted – that the fact that Facebook was so much a part of peoples’ daily routine with no real alternative among the other social media platforms, that it could weather the storm and come out the other end with little real impact on its user numbers. It seems strange that, even though customers personal details were harvested and sold to a third party, without the permission of users, and then used to potentially influence how they voted in the US election (and in the Brexit referendum in the UK) that very few people appear to be prepared to see that as grounds to reject Facebook and the service and value that it offers in their lives.

People actively use Facebook as an integral part of their friendship networks and as a source of news, thereby allowing it unprecedented access to their personal lives and interests, as well as allowing it to help shape their view of the world, and it may be this investment and yes, loyalty, that has allowed them to apparently forgive Facebook for its part in the scandal, and to allow the value that Facebook offers in their lives to outweigh Facebook’s indiscretions.

From a business point of view, this shows how powerful loyalty can be, especially if a service can offer value that links strongly to ‘self’ and things that have emotional and personal connections and importance, and allow and enable real engagement.

Cambridge Analytica Ordered To Turn Over All Data On US Professor

Posted on by Andy Miller

The UK data watchdog, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has ordered the consulting firm Cambridge Analytica to hand over all the personal information it has on US citizen Professor David Carroll, or face prosecution.

Demand Made in May 2017

The consulting firm, which is reported to have ceased operations and filed for bankruptcy in the wake of the recent scandal involving its access to and use of Facebook users’ details is facing the Enforcement Notice and possible legal action (if it doesn’t comply) because it has not fully met a demand made by Professor Carroll early last year.

Who Is Professor David Carroll?

David Carroll is a professor at the New School’s Parsons School of Design. Although Professor Carroll is based in New York and is not a UK citizen, he used a subject access request (part of British data protection law) to ask Cambridge Analytica’s branch in the UK to provide all the data it had gathered on him. With this type of request, organisations need to respond within 40 days with a copy of the data, the source of the data, and if the organisation will be giving the data to others.

It has been reported that Professor Carroll, a Democrat, was interested from an academic perspective, in the practice of political ad targeting in elections. Professor Carroll alleges that he was also concerned that he may have been targeted with messages that criticised Secretary Hillary Clinton with falsified or exaggerated information that may have negatively affected his sentiment about her candidacy.

Sent A Spreadsheet

Some weeks after Professor Carroll filed the subject access request in early 2017, Cambridge Analytica sent him a spreadsheet of information it had about him.

It has been reported that Cambridge Analytica had accurately predicted his views on some issues, and had scored Carroll a nine 9 of 10 on what it called a “traditional social and moral values importance rank.”

What’s The Problem?

Even though Carroll was given a spreadsheet with some information, he wanted to know what that ranking meant and what it was based on, and where the data about him came from. Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix told a UK parliamentary committee that his company would not provide American citizens, like David Carroll, all the data it holds on them, or tell them where the data came from, and Nix said that there was no legislation in the US that allowed individuals to make such a request.

The UK’s Information Commissioner, Elizabeth Denham, sent a letter to Cambridge Analytica asking where the data on Professor Carroll came from, and what had been done with it. Elizabeth Denham is also reported to have said that, whether or not the people behind Cambridge Analytica decide to fold their operation, a continued refusal to engage with the ICO will still potentially breach an Enforcement Notice, and it will then become a criminal matter.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Many people have been shocked and angered by the recent scandal involving Facebook and its sharing of Facebook user data with Cambridge Analytica. The action by Professor Carroll could not only shed light on how millions of American voters were targeted online in the run-up to the 2016 election, but it could also lead to a wider understanding of what data is stored about us and how it is used by companies and organisations.

The right to request personal data that an organisation holds about us is a cornerstone right in data protection law, and this right will be brought into even sharper focus by the introduction of GDPR this month. GDPR will also give EU citizens the ‘right to be forgotten’, and has already put pressure on UK companies to put their data house in order, and prepare to comply or face stiff penalties.

This story also shows that American citizens can request information from companies that process their data in the UK.

Google Driverless Car Involved In Smash

Posted on by Andy Miller

A self-driving vehicle owned by Google’s Waymo has been involved in a smash in Arizona when it was hit by a car that swerved across multiple lanes.

Driverless Mode – But With Person On Board

The Google car was in autonomous / driverless mode at the time of the crash, but had a test driver in the driver’s seat. The lady occupant is reported to be recovering from the incident.

A discussion is now underway as to whether the driverless car system or the test driver on board could have done anything more to avoid being hit by the other vehicle.

Waymo and Jaguar

Waymo is the self-driving car company that is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, and has been testing driverless vehicles since 2009. It has been reported that Waymo wants to purchase 20,000 Jaguar electric vehicles as part of its plans to launch a robotic ride-hailing service in the US.

It is understood that Waymo’s link-up with Jaguar will mean that from 2020 to 2022, UK-based (owned by India’s Tata Motors ) Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) I-PACE electric cars will be providing up to one million rides per day in the service. It is thought that Jaguar cars will appeal to more upmarket customers, thereby already showing the possibilities for segmentation in driverless ride-hailing services.

The ride-hailing service will be launched on a small scale in Phoenix, Arizona, first in the coming months.

Not The First Autonomous Vehicle Accident

Although the Google car did not cause the crash, this is not the first time an autonomous vehicle has been involved in a serious incident. Back in March, Uber suspended all self-driving car tests in all North American cities after a fatal accident a 49-year-old woman was hit and killed by one of its autonomous vehicles as she crossed the street in Tempe, Arizona.

This was the second time that Uber has pulled its self-driving cars from the roads after an accident. A year earlier, also on Arizona, an Uber Volvo SUV in self-driving mode ended up on its side after another vehicle “failed to yield” to the Uber car at a left turn.

Autonomous Lorry Convoys on UK Roads This Year

Last year, the UK government announced that ‘platoons’ (mini-convoys) of self-driving, partially autonomous lorries are to be tested on British roads before the end of 2018. The so-called ‘platoons’ will take the form of several lorries driving closely together in a line in the inside lane, with the lead lorry wirelessly controlling the acceleration and braking for all the lorries, and with the following lorries responding to the changes in speed.

It is understood that for the tests which have been promised since 2014 and will be carried out by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL), a human driver will be in the cab of the lead lorry, and will be able to take control if things don’t go entirely to plan.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Autonomous vehicles and vehicles with autonomous elements are already being tested and used in commercial environments and as part of the transport system in the US and the UK. The combination of driverless vehicles powered by electricity and using AI technology could provide a more environmentally-friendly solution to a variety of different transportation and delivery challenges, and to hopefully reduce traffic accidents.

The accidents involving driverless vehicles to date have, however, prompted some commentators to warn that the technology is being deployed before it is ready. Clearly, it is still early days for autonomous vehicles which means that there are still many untapped opportunities to use autonomous vehicles commercially, and there are of course many challenges and issues to consider around safety, insurance, regulations and reliability.

Autonomous vehicles are likely to be adopted more quickly on closed sites first, but operators who decide to adapt such sites to work for autonomy could expect significant improvements in productivity and safety.

Despite any bad press from the unfortunate crashes involving test autonomous cars in the US, having an emerging industry such as autonomous vehicles, with all its talent, technology and development centres here in the UK represents a huge opportunity for UK businesses as potential suppliers, beneficiaries of the technologies and products, and spin-off market opportunities. It also represents an opportunity for UK insurers.

Whereas the UK has a skills gap in many areas of the technology market, with the right amount of support and backing from the government and other investors, the testing, developing, and production of autonomous vehicles and the necessary technologies could be one area where home-grown talent is tempted to stay in what could become a world-centre of excellence for autonomous vehicle / AI technology.

Tech Tip – Get More Value From Your Gmail Account

Posted on by Andy Miller

If, like many people, you have a Gmail account that you regularly use and you want to improve the value you get from your Gmail setup, try features such as ‘Canned Responses’ and ‘Gmail Offline’ (ahead of Google’s planned updates).

If you frequently have to send out the same email message each time to multiple persons, your ‘Canned Responses’ feature lets you prepare a stock message that you can send out when you need it, thereby saving time. To operate ‘Canned Responses’ in your Gmail account:

– When logged in, go to ‘Settings’.

– Select ‘Labs’.

– Look for ‘Canned Responses’ and click on ‘Enable’.

– Type out your stock message and send it when required.

The Gmail Offline feature allows you to read, write and send messages when you’re out of touch, and when you log back in, all your activity will is pushed through Google’s system. Here’s how to set it up:

– When logged in, go to ‘Settings’.

– Select ‘Offline’.

– Click on ‘Install Gmail Offline’.

Amazon Challenges Google and Facebook For Ad Dominance

Posted on by Andy Miller

Reports that Amazon.com Inc has doubled its ad profits, is growing its ad business fast, and may be outselling ads on Twitter Inc and Snapchat, may soon see it in serious contention for ad dominance with its bigger rivals : Google and Facebook.

Multi-Billion Dollar Program

Reports that Amazon has achieved around $2 billion advertising revenue and with predictions by eMarketer last October that Amazon would hit $3.19 billion in net U.S. digital ad revenues by 2019 (which is 3.0 percent of digital ad spending), show that Amazon clearly has a multi-billion dollar program underway that is growing fast.

How?

Some commentators put the rapid and impressive rise in ad revenues down to the fact that Amazon has two non-retail businesses that are experiencing fast growth, and are profitable.

Firstly, Amazon’s fastest-growing business segment, which hit $2.0 billion in the first quarter, and showed a 72 % increase from a year earlier, and 100% growth in the last quarter is its “other” section. This segment is mainly Amazon’s growing advertising business which is experiencing strong demand from advertisers that spend money to highlight their products over competitors’ in Amazon’s catalogue. The ad business now generates multiple billions in revenue. For example, the world’s largest advertising company, WPP, directed $200 million of its clients’ ad budgets to Amazon in 2017, and has also predicted that this number could rise to $300 million this year.

Secondly, Amazon’s other key profit driving non-retail business is Amazon Web Services (AWS). This leases computing power and data storage to companies large and small, and has just experienced a 40% growth. The fact that AWS has earned $17.5 billion in 2017 compared to its $9.2 CapEx spending means that it is even making a profit from a business that typically requires a huge amount of investment. For example, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google collectively spent $35 billion on data centres to power their cloud businesses in 2017.

One key thing that both of these important business segments have in common is that they deliver big profit margins. For example, AWS’s operating profit margin is consistently over 20% and Amazon’s ad business also contributes big profits to the company’s main bottom line.

Some commentators have said that Amazon’s strong position in the Cloud market, search and advertising, and the voice assistant market with Alexa are boosting the competitive position of the company as well as its profits.

In Competition With Google and Facebook?

This huge surge in advertising profits is still not quite in the same ballpark as Google and Facebook’s Internet duopoly, with Google and Facebook accounting for more than 60% of global online ad revenues, although Amazon is now on the right trajectory to start taking more of their business.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Amazon has expanded and diversified in recent years and the big advantages of its advertising that are attracting more business customers are its reach, the fact that Amazon has users’ purchase data and knows what shoppers need, and the fact that advertising on Amazon is delivering results for customers in terms of driving brand awareness, discovery or/and purchases.

These recent ad revenue figures show that although Amazon isn’t seriously challenging Facebook and Google just yet, it is generating significant profits from non-retail parts of its business, and is certainly going in the right direction to challenge the current duopoly. For businesses, this gives them more choice, and another potentially effective advertising platform that could drive more potential buyers their way.

Fake Online Reviews Investigation

Posted on by Andy Miller

A recent investigation as part of a BBC 5 Live programme has led to the underground trade in fake online reviews coming under the spotlight.

What Reviews and Why Does It Matter?

The kinds of reviews of products and services that can allegedly be purchased and displayed online in order to influence purchasing decisions are reported to be those on sites such as Trustpilot and Amazon.

Three quarters of UK adults use online review websites, and the government’s Competition and Markets Authority estimates that such reviews potentially influence £23 billion of UK customer spending every year.

Younger consumers are thought to be particularly influenced by the reviews of others / their peers when it comes to purchasing decisions.

The key motivator for businesses buying fake reviews is, orf course, to rank top for your product because this can lead to a lot of extra sales.

How Bad Is The Problem?

A Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) Study shows that almost half of UK adults believe they have seen fake reviews, and according to US analysts, as many as half of the reviews for some products posted on international websites like Amazon may be potentially unreliable

What’s Been Happening?

According to the recent BBC investigation of the problem, buyers are offered full refunds on products bought on Amazon in exchange for positive reviews. This practice is believed to be something that was driven underground back in 2016 after Amazon introduced measures designed to prohibit ‘incentivised reviews’ i.e. businesses offering customers free goods in exchange for positive reviews.

The BBC 5 Live team investigators have reported that they were offered deals for Amazon reviews, and were able to use eBay to purchase a false 5-star review on Trustpilot.
Denied

In response to the findings of the BBC investigation, Amazon has stated that it does not permit reviews in exchange for compensation of any kind and that customers and Marketplace sellers who don’t follow review guidelines are subject to action including potential termination of their account.

Trustpilot has said that it uses specialist software to screens reviews against 100’s of data points around the clock in order to automatically identify and remove fakes, and that it has a zero-tolerance policy towards any misuse.

E-bay has also stated that the sale of fake reviews is banned from its platform, and that any listings will be removed.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

The potential rewards of more sales an profits, getting a competitive edge, and boosting brand awareness are powerful motivators for some businesses who may feel that when weighed up against the lack of any serious penalties, buying fake reviews may appear to be worth the risk. For the vast majority of review-reading customers, however, this is a deceptive practice that may cause them to purchase products that do not meet their needs or expectations.

The proliferation of fake reviews also undermines public trust in reviews, and this can be particularly unfair for those companies who have worked hard to get genuine positive reviews through simply providing superior products and service levels.

There is an argument that more preventative action needs to be taken by these platforms to stop fake reviews being published in the first place, and that stronger penalties are needed for those caught selling fake reviews.

Sadly, many commentators believe that we are currently in a ‘post-truth era’ where many people get their news from social media and where we are becoming conditioned to put less emphasis on the need for objective facts. It is with this backdrop that the trade in fake reviews has been allowed to grow.

There is still a strong argument, however, that there is no substitute for striving to provide quality products and great customer service as these strengthen a business anyway, ensure that reviews are positive, and should ultimately win over short-term deceptive practices.

Online Dating Via Facebook

Posted on by Andy Miller

Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, has announced that Facebook, the world’s largest online social network, will soon be providing an online dating service, thereby putting it in competition with the likes of Match Group Inc.

On The Cards

Bearing in mind Facebook’s origin as a college dating website and Mark Zuckerberg’s early ‘Facemash’ program, and the fact that Facebook is known to have been wanting to move into online dating for at least 10 years, this move has been on the cards.

Why Now?

There are several key reasons why Facebook has chosen to actually make the move into the online dating world. These include:

  • The need to make people spend longer on the Facebook platform (and not on other platforms). For example, time spent by Facebook users on the platform fell by 50 million hours a day in 2017.
  • The need to attract more young people to the platform.
  • The commercial attractiveness of the booming and growing dating market.
  • The fact that there are 200 million people on Facebook that list themselves as single.
  • The fact that Facebook already holds many facets of information about users that could be used for matching and dating purposes e.g. interests, local events they could attend.

How Will It Work?

The proposed platform is an optional feature that users will be able to use by clicking on a heart shape at the top-right corner of the Facebook app, and setting up a dating profile. The profile will be based on a first name, won’t be visible to friends and users who aren’t on the dating feature, and won’t show up in the News Feed.

Once set up, users can browse events in their local and groups that match their interests, select ‘unlock’ for dating, and then be able to see the profiles of other potential dates who have unlocked that surface. These profiles will show a few photos plus some basic information about potential dates.

The system will not work using the “swipe” left or right on potential matches like Tinder, but there will be two buttons for “pass” and “interested.”

Users will be able to start a conversation with a potential match by commenting on one of their photos, but the conversations will be text-only, thereby eliminating the risk of unsolicited nude photos being sent. Conversations will take place in a special inbox that’s separate from Messenger and WhatsApp.

Security

In the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook has been quick to stress that the service has been built and will operate with an emphasis on privacy.

Not Just Hook-Ups

Facebook has also said that the new dating service is intended to be a standalone feature that will focus on legitimate long-term relationships, rather than just hook-ups. There are already many stories of couples who have met via the normal Facebook platform.

Dating Service Competitors – Stock Value Falls

Shortly after Mark Zuckerberg announced the move into the dating arena, and even though Match Group CEO Mandy Ginsberg said that she was flattered by Facebook’s entrance into its space, Match’s stock traded down about 22%. Match is the owner of mobile dating apps Tinder and OkCupid and describes itself (on its website) as the “global leader” in online dating.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

If it wasn’t for the recent scandal about data sharing with Cambridge Analytica and the lack of trust that it has created, Facebook would be almost perfectly position to seriously and quickly take on the current online dating giants such as Match. It remains to be seen, therefore, how quickly Facebook users forget or are willing to throw caution to the wind with the promise of powerful motivators and positive reinforcement in the form of dates and possibly, a love match.

Some competitors, such as Bumble, have seen Facebook’s move as an opportunity rather than just a threat, and Bumble has reportedly reached out to Facebook to explore ways to collaborate.

Google Chrome Leads Digital Certificate Clean Up

Posted on by Andy Miller

The Google Chrome Browser is being equipped with transparency logs that are designed to prevent potentially costly digital certificate errors by Certificate Authorities (CAs) and to guard against cyber-criminals issuing their own certificates.

Stopping Misuse

The move has been designed to improve all-round transparency, and to better protect both users and companies from becoming victims of certificate misuse.

Triggers A Warning Message If Not Logged

The change means that all CAs must now log every digital certificate they issue in certificate transparency logs so that any website with a secure socket layer (SSL) or transport layer security (TLS) certificate that isn’t logged will trigger a browser warning. The warning will tell users the website’s certificate doesn’t comply with Google Chrome’s transparency policy, and therefore, may not be safe.

In fact, any part of a website that’s served over an https connection that doesn’t comply with Google’s policy will not load and will display an error in Chrome DevTools.

The change applies to all TLS server certificates issued after 30 April, 2018.

Driving Positive Change

With Google Chrome reportedly being used by 60% of web users, this move is being seen by some as Google using its market dominance to drive better practices. It is expected, therefore, that most other major browsers will follow Google’s example.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

This is really just an industry change that primarily affects parties issuing the certificates e.g. a Certificate Authority. The change isn’t retroactive and so isn’t going to affect SSL certificates that were issued but not logged before April 30, 2018. This change will not (immediately) directly affect end users, although the clean-up effect that it may have on the whole business around certificates, and in thwarting some of the activities of cyber criminals could contribute towards a more secure internet generally. For example, cyber-criminals have been able to target internet users by finding ways to issue their own certificates.

The change should also give businesses a way to take action to protect themselves and their customers against any potential damage done to their business by mis-issuance of certificates.

This story should also be a reminder that from June, if your website doesn’t have a secure certificate i.e. if it doesn’t have https in the URL, Chrome will post a security warning to visitors which could mean that you lose enquiries and sales. Not having a secure certificate could also potentially mean that your website could suffer in the search engine rankings.