This week in brief

• Greener, lighter washing machines
• Priceline and Airbnb fight for the vacation rental market
• US government customer experience: a mixed bag
• The semiconductor industry gets even more competitive
• GrubHub gobbles up yet another competitor

Numbers of the week:

Lean, green washing machines: how reducing weight could cut 45k tons of carbon dioxide

It sounds simple, but replacing a concrete block with a plastic container that can be filled with water during installation can save fuel, significantly reduce carbon emissions, and cut injuries. Washing machines usually contain one or two concrete blocks to act as counterweights to stop them from moving during spin cycles (a big reason why they are so heavy). A student in the UK discovered that he could reduce the weight by a third with an ingenious plastic device.

If widely adopted, this could have a huge impact, making the supply chain greener and saving money. Lighter machines reduce the cost of transportation and may alter where companies place manufacturing sites.

THE ANGLE:

• Around 3.5 million washing machines are sold annually in the UK. If each was fitted with the new lightweight device, the carbon savings would equate to around 44,625 tons of CO2 and a reduced fuel consumption of 183,750 liters over a 31-mile (50km) delivery route a year.
• More than half of the executives IBM interviewed for a Global Supply Chain study had “modified product design or packaging to address environmental considerations, incorporated sustainability initiatives in supply chain strategies and set carbon management goals” as part of their manufacturing targets.
• Concrete is significantly damaging to the environment due to the CO2 released when it’s produced.

Priceline and Airbnb battle for vacation rental market

As the popularity of the vacation rental market skyrockets, big travel sites such as Expedia and Priceline are boosting their inventory of home rental options and enabling consumers to book a room in a home as easily as a hotel. And even though the home rental market’s revenue is around one-fifth the size of that of hotels, it’s grown far faster since 2015, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

While Airbnb is great at telling its story and has disrupted an industry, it has faced numerous regulatory challenges around the world. It’s also, despite perception, not the largest purveyor of hotel alternatives — Priceline has a few million more. Data from SimilarWeb found that Airbnb site traffic in Q1 2017 was up 31% from 2016, surpassing Booking.com, which is owned by Priceline. And research commissioned by Airbnb revealed that Millennials account for 60% of all guests who have ever booked on Airbnb.

But both companies believe in the value of providing a complete customer experience. For example, Priceline’s six core properties could cover an entire vacation, including the booking of flights (Kayak), accommodations (Booking.com), and restaurant reservations (OpenTable). Airbnb has invested in both brand campaigns to make people feel like they live where they travel and services such as Guidebooks, which are host-generated recommendations of restaurants or attractions.

The vacation rental market continues to mature. One reason for this is likely due to improvements in mobile and digital technology, including more seamless browsing and booking experiences on smartphones and improved mobile payment options.

How U.S. states rank in customer experience maturity

Recent research conducted by the Governing Institute shows widespread differences in each state’s ability to deliver consistent digital services to citizens, prospective employees, and businesses. Only two states, Utah and Tennessee, met three key customer experience indicators:

1. Is the website customer-centric?

2. Is it operationally efficient?

3. Does it have a mobile-first design?

Gaps included outdated website design that made it impossible for constituents to quickly find specific information. For example, one state with a large rural population listed regulations for septic tanks under the label of “underground waste receptacles” — a term only an engineer would love. States that lagged behind also heavily used paper and required business owners and citizens to mail in forms. And just 20% of states offer two-factor authentication and 10% had tax sites that were mobile-responsive.

Because states aren’t directly capturing important information — on job seekers, business, or taxes — they’re unable to analyze data that could help personalize their services and communications. Coupled with ineffective digital experiences, states are missing a prime opportunity to save time and resources through operational efficiency, reduce friction for their citizens, and build trust in government.

The new nationalistic competition: the semiconductor industry

About 90 percent of the $190 billion worth of chips consumed in China today are imported or produced by foreign owned entities. That fact has spurred China to invest 20 billion annually in a national chip financing fund so it can expand its efforts to become internationally competitive by 2030.

Semiconductors are computer chips that spark the digital age and power the international economy. According to McKinsey, “Semiconductor companies, perhaps even more than other industry players, might benefit from the IoT’s expansion.” Billions of devices are expected to be connected to the Internet by 2020, and the growing IoT market would drive the IoT chip market.

And the automotive and industrial markets also offer significant growth potential. For example, as cars become even more complex, demand for automotive semiconductors will continue to rise steadily and provide a major new long-term growth engine.

GrubHub gobbles up Eat24 from Yelp

The proposed deal creates the largest network of online and mobile food ordering in the U.S. According to a USA Today article, once the deal closes, Yelp’s large user base of 83 million will have access to GrubHub’s extensive network of approximately 55,000 restaurants. Together, diners will be able to order from 75,000 restaurants from either platform. This acquisition will help prevent competitors such as UberEats and Amazon from invading too far into its territory — at least, for now. And it will keep alive the Eat24 brand, which appeals to younger users.

GrubHub is the market leader, at 34%. UberEats has 20% and Amazon is at 11%, according to financial firm Cowen & Company. Bloomberg says the upside for GrubHub could be more leverage in its relationship with restaurants, which could mean that restaurants pay higher fees for the service.

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