10 Things We Learned At C-Commerce Summit, 2018 Napa, CA
Are You Prepared for Consumer-centric, Contextual, Crypto, Collaborative and Connected Commerce?
Over 40 CXOs and investors along with other attendees commenced in Napa for C-Commerce Summit, the Davos of consumer-centric and blockchain-based retail. Innovators discussed contextual and connected commerce and the ability of bringing transparency and control to today’s shopper experience with blockchain as well as GDPR effect and inherently compliant advertising. Technologies like mCart allow for organic shoppable content and user-generated advertising that also reward influencers and even shoppers for their role in establishing a democratized and decentralized ecosystem for commerce.
- Current affiliate models ignore “micro & macro” influencers
Mavatar CEO Susan Akbarpour explained how much advertisers are losing by not having the ability to track sales dollars with influencer marketing. 60% of advertising dollars go to waste according to a Google Study. She emphasized that the industry is only tapping into a fraction of influencers (midtier) not even in full fledge, while mCart allows them to leverage micro to macro influencers that have never been part of any affiliate sales models.
2. Blockchain halts gaming the affiliate sales models
Shayan Zadeh, Mavatar Executive Chairman and Trustroot CEO explained how mCart leverages blockchain and allow mCart marketplace operators to leverage millions of influencers for helping their retail partners to track every advertising dollars to sales dollars that ultimately is an sound method for validating the authenticity and efficiency of different channels in real time.
He also said how the smart contract on blockchain is immutable and there’s no way for a marketplace operator, retailers or influencer to change their actions or game the system. He calls blockchain a ‘trustless’ decentralized environment that doesn’t require trust because everything is out in the open.
3. Faulty affiliate marketing networks’ technologies are outdated
The mCart Protocol demo video showcased how influencers and advertisers are losing money due to faulty affiliate marketing networks and their outdated technologies that never truly pay out. The video demonstrated the state of-the-art and next generation of mCart affiliate sales blockchain based model in a turnkey and end-to-end sophisticated platform with multiple innovative and easy user interfaces for marketplace operators, retailers, influencers and shoppers that removes the need of using multiple apps, platforms and middlemen.
4. The importance of the blockchain economy of scale
Blockchain architect Drew Rasmussen wowed the crowd with his extensive knowledge on the early days (yes, earlier than the past couple years) of blockchain and crypto. One of the most interesting thing was how important is the blockchain economy of scale and increasing the limit of number of transactions per second. For example, today a mere four transactions per second can be processed by Bitcoin and that’s why it’s too early to it or other cryptos for purchasing products. He extensively went through the three applications of the blockchain in Retail: Inventory Management, Advertising and Identity verification which was well received by audience with numerous follow up questions.
5. €20 million or %4 of global revenues for non-compliance with GDPR is real
CEO of Compliance.ai, Kayvan Alikahani, broke down GDPR and ePrivacy, stressing the importance of data collected in a compliant way after May 27 deadline. He also explored the topic of ePrivacy, which is the regulation of what a company or publisher is doing with data after it’s collected while GDPR focuses on what data is being collected from users and giving them the right to be forgotten. He pressed that fines of up to €20 million or 4 percent of global revenues for noncompliance are real and unpreventable.
6. Macro influencers need a sustainable content monetization model and technologies like mCart
FX Group President, Kristian Kremple joined a panel led by Susan, Mavatar CEO, along with Nima Oberoi, Lunares founder and world known designer. Oberoi’s home accessories have been featured on The O List and Oprah’s Favorite Things multiple times, while Kremple with over 104,000 followers in Instagram and his team at award winning marketing partner & advisory firm, FX group manage Hollywood’s most iconic brands in the award show space including the Emmy Awards, Grammy Awards, American Music Awards, Billboard Music Awards, Miss America & United States Polo Association. The group discussed authentic content, the rise of the micro influencer and the need of a sustainable content monetization model and technologies for macro influencers which until mCart never had an easy way to monetize and track the influence of their content on product sales.
7. Importance of presenting context for the most effective commerce
Mavatar President, Brom Mahbod, led the panel discussion over C-Commerce and contextual content. Joined by Virtual Visions CEO, Mo Malek and Convetit CEO, Tom O’Malley, the group talked about the importance of presenting context for the most effective commerce. The prediction is Generation Z will crave an organic experience and the same for recommendations from real people or micro influencers who they know actually used the products they’re promoting on social media channels.
8. The best ways AI can change the technologies used in commerce
Amar Saigal, Mavatar VP of Oprations, was joined by Prahbjot Singh, CEO of Pyze and Mark Friedler, CEO of Gigex to discuss secure data and commerce. Pyze is an again inherently GDPR compliant technology already layered behind countless app games and other technologies including mCart.
Singh presses, “It’s harder today for retailers to engage with consumers than it ever has been before. The growing number of channels spanning web, mobile, television and kiosks make it difficult to get a unified view of the customer. AI-based innovations in Data Analytics enable holistic understanding of user behavior and drive increased conversions and retention.
The panelists discussed:
- How can we make data serve retailers and advertisers in a better way without crossing GDPR and ePrivacy-type regulations?
- The best ways AI can change the technologies used in commerce?
- How VR different from AR when it comes to commerce, and which is better suited for mainstream shoppers (especially digital shoppers, i.e. those shopping in-store and online in equal parts)?
- Channel conversion is key stressed Singh. Friedler added to the conversation stating that AR is much more likely to happen to enhance commerce versus VR.
9. Blockchain integration and tokenization of the platforms can make or break an investment deals
Candou Ventures founding partner, Shahin Hedayat, discussed technology investments with Shayan Zadeh in an interesting fireside chat. Hedayat says why his firm has been most interested in self driving vehicles and their undeniable impact in introducing a paradigm shift in people’s life style Commerce and especially blockchain driven commerce is increasingly becoming one of the trendiest investment opportunities for his firm as well as other investors as blockchain integration and tokenization of the platforms can make or break an investment deal.
One of the best nuggets was when Hedayat said that as an investor his partners and himself always make sure that they offer their prospect entrepreneurs with a constructive criticism and why they don’t think they passed on investing in their venture and how in their views they can improve their technologies, business model or other aspects of their business rather than just giving them a flat “NO.”
10. C-Commerce 2018- Fall is on its way
#CCommerce is the way retailers and advertising industry can succeed and keep up with the changing behavioral habits of shoppers. Adapting to their digital lifestyle, merging online and offline experiences is the ideal way retailers can gain an edge. The next C-commerce is currently scheduled for fall 2018. Stay tuned and engage with us for planning yet another informative and interesting forum, keeping in touch with us and send us your views and inputs at https://convetit.com/s477/the-future-of-the-retail-commerce-landscape
