tag:theconversation.com,2011:/africa/topics/internet-shopping-5026/articlesInternet shopping – The Conversation2022-03-11T11:20:17Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1775022022-03-11T11:20:17Z2022-03-11T11:20:17ZFast grocery deliveries are likely to get more expensive – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448129/original/file-20220223-15-1xhaji2.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C998%2C621&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Tricky_Shark/Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>COVID rapidly accelerated the overall trend towards internet ordering of all retail sales with UK online purchases approaching <a href="https://www.statista.com/statistics/281241/online-share-of-retail-trade-in-european-countries/">30% in 2021</a>. With a strong trend towards home delivery this has also created an opportunity for “quick” grocery delivery services via apps such as Gorillas and Getir. </p>
<p>Online purchases from food stores in the UK reached an all-time high of <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/3144/online-grocery-shopping-in-the-united-kingdom/#:%7E:text=Online%20grocery%20shopping%20behavior&text=In%202019%2F2020%2C%20an%20estimated,never%20bought%20food%20products%20online.">over 15.4% in February 2021</a> during the pandemic. This drove the big four grocers in the UK – Tesco, Sainsbury, Morrisons and Asda – to invest in internet deliveries simply to retain trade. Online grocery sales have since reduced to <a href="https://www.statista.com/topics/3144/online-grocery-shopping-in-the-united-kingdom/#:%7E:text=Online%20grocery%20shopping%20behavior&text=In%202019%2F2020%2C%20an%20estimated,never%20bought%20food%20products%20online">13% of total grocery sales</a>, although 30% of adults still make some online grocery purchases.</p>
<p>But online delivery services are not all good news for the supermarkets. Margins are <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/b985249c-1ca1-41a8-96b5-0adcc889d57d">far lower</a> as they have to take in extra elements. For instance, staff must walk down supermarket aisles and select items for online orders before adding them to crates. This is a more expensive model than in-store sales in which the customer does most of the work, choosing items and taking them to the checkout. </p>
<p>A consequence of rising internet sales is that the big grocery chains must continue to pay the costs for their shops around the country where dwindling numbers of purchases are being made. They are also working in increasingly competitive markets. Over the last ten years, profits of the big four supermarket chains have <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco">more than halved</a> as a consequence of increased low-margin internet sales and the growth of the German stores Aldi and Lidl. </p>
<h2>Fast turnaround times</h2>
<p>Fast home grocery <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/tesco/tesco-and-gorillas-extend-rapid-delivery-partnership-to-manchester/664830.article">delivery firms</a> continued to pop up during the pandemic. As well as Gorillas and Getir, other operators include GoPuff, Jiffy, Zapp, Dija and Weezy. They all operate from local “dark” stores (distribution centres for online shopping) with a <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/blakemorgan/2020/04/25/dark-stores-are-the-future-of-post-pandemic-retail/">limited range of groceries</a>, offering delivery times ranging from ten minutes to under an hour. </p>
<p>The objective is to cater to impulse buyers with small, spur-of-the-moment deliveries such as eggs or beer. These are picked up locally and delivered by fleets of cyclists, electric scooters or motorbike riders. </p>
<p>This market has already rapidly become crowded and <a href="https://www.strategy-business.com/article/14886">hyper-competitive</a>, with many providers offering highly discounted introductory offers. One issue is that an individual customer can probably exist on incentives over many months by rotating between suppliers. </p>
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<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-cost-of-living-crisis-will-put-more-pressure-on-shoppers-than-covid-174568">The cost-of-living crisis will put more pressure on shoppers than COVID</a>
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<p>It is also difficult to tell whether such services will generate profits in the long run. Like much of the gig economy, the jury is still out. Ride-hailing firms such as Uber and Lyft have been running for 13 years and are still not even threatening to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/52257bc3-c26c-4e1c-9480-548abcde6f85">break even</a>. Takeaway delivery food firms such as Deliveroo and Uber Eats continue to experience similar economics. </p>
<p>Strategically one problem with the industry is its <a href="https://hbr.org/1979/03/how-competitive-forces-shape-strategy">low-entry barriers</a> which mean it is easy for new competitors to keep down the profits. </p>
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<img alt="A woman at a supermarket till with food items." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/448287/original/file-20220224-23-1l9yo2v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=490&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Will people go back to supermarket shopping in person if delivery prices go up?</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photobac/Shutterstock</span></span>
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<p>Some early investors are looking for for these fledgling grocery delivery companies <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/getir-turkish-delivery-startup-valuation-7-billion-ipo-2021-5">to float</a> on the stock market so that they can cash out before it is known whether the model will ever make money as was the case with Uber, Lyft and Deliveroo. </p>
<p>Clearly providers are attempting to maximise their customer base and buying power with suppliers to try and build a long-term operation. Yet once customers have to pay the prices necessary to make such a business profitable, in view of all the costs involved, it remains to be seen whether it will be viable, especially with inflation putting pressure on shoppers to cut back. </p>
<h2>Groceries and the environment</h2>
<p>Home delivery of <a href="https://academic.oup.com/cdn/article/5/Supplement_2/224/6293256?searchresult=1">online market orders</a> has generally resulted in far more single-item deliveries by vans to where people live.</p>
<p>The main source of carbon emissions are <a href="https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/WorldGBC-embodied-carbon-report-published">buildings and indeed shops</a>, which if replaced by larger scale distribution and warehouses (which are not heated) may well reduce. However both are in operation currently, although there has been some recent reduction in the number of shops. </p>
<p>Some operators, like Getir, claim to use <a href="https://www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2021/10/19/green-growth-getir/">electric scooters or bikes</a> to pick up stock from their local “dark” stores and to make deliveries. But because of the small size of these stores, there have to be frequent deliveries from a larger warehouse, which adds an extra layer to the distribution structure. </p>
<p>Most of these new entrants are unlikely to survive the next couple of years due to the extent of competition and high levels of inflation.</p>
<p>Once consumers have to pay the full cost of the services, they may reconsider ordering and do a bigger shop instead. Wage rates for unskilled workers are also rising rapidly, driving up the cost of <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/hiring-and-firing/muller-seeking-more-than-150-new-production-and-distribution-staff-in-recruitment-drive/664062.article">the service</a>. </p>
<p>As a result, these services are only likely to work in areas with high-density affluent populations in big cities like London and Manchester, they are <a href="https://www.thegrocer.co.uk/tesco/tesco-and-gorillas-extend-rapid-delivery-partnership-to-manchester/664830.article">only just starting</a> to be trialled more widely.</p>
<p>Currently these services are largely funded by venture capital. But without profits, funders may quickly find these operations less appealing. Overall there are numerous challenges to the long-term future of fast grocery deliveries.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177502/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Colley does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Fast grocery delivery services are expanding quickly, but their long-term survival is being questioned.John Colley, Professor of Practice, Associate Dean, Warwick Business School, University of WarwickLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1214992019-08-07T20:03:08Z2019-08-07T20:03:08ZDeath of the department store: don’t just blame the internet, it’s to do with a dwindling middle class<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287130/original/file-20190807-84221-bc73tw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Barneys, Madison Avenue, New York. Department stores that were once the pinnacle of middle-class aspiration are losing out to discount shops and luxury retailers.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Barneys, the iconic chain of upscale New York department stores established in 1923, has just filed for <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/06/business/barneys-new-york-bankruptcy.html">bankruptcy protection</a>. Another of America’s great department store brands, Chicago’s Sears (dating from 1925), <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/01/09/sears-kmart-bankruptcy-liquidation-deadline/2523857002/">did the same</a> a year ago.</p>
<p>Times are tough for department stores all over. In Britain, Debenhams – whose origins go back to the 18th century – <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/debenhams-administration-store-closures-jobs-a8861336.html">went into administratio</a>n in April. It has closed about a third of its stores in the past year or so, and will close more in the next, including its only <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/uk-department-store-debenhams-to-shut-only-australian-store-20190702-p523g4.html">store in Australia</a>. </p>
<p>Meanwhile Australia’s once dominant Myer and David Jones chains are in a “<a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/death-spiral-will-david-jones-and-myer-still-be-around-in-10-years-20190802-p52d6k.html">death spirals</a>”, according to retail experts.</p>
<p>The internet is a big part of the problem faced by these once mighty retail empires. Foot traffic has declined as people’s fingers do the browsing and shoppers buy direct from online retailers.</p>
<p>But there’s another reason also, indicative of a social shift just as profound. The rise of the department store symbolised the rise of middle class. Its collapse mirrors the hollowing out of the same.</p>
<h2>Shifting centre of gravity</h2>
<p>In May the OECD published a major report on <a href="https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2019/04/apo-nid230216-1351436.pdf">the state of the middle class</a> around the world. It defines “middle-income households” as those with incomes between 75% and 200% of median household income. </p>
<p>In emerging economies this is where one-third to half of households fall. In OECD nations it’s an average of 61%. But it was 64% in the mid-1980s, the report says.</p>
<p>Thus the economic “centre of gravity” is tilting away from the middle: “Income growth in the middle has been much weaker than at the top. In the mid-1980s, the combined income of all middle-income households was four times the aggregate income of all upper-income households. Currently, it is less than three.” </p>
<p>The report notes in particular the reduced chances of families with children and young adults having middle incomes: “In contrast to 30 years ago, most single-parent families are today in the lower-income class and young adults are the least likely of all age groups to be in middle-income households.” </p>
<p>Though these percentage changes might seem comparatively small, the trend fits a retail phenomena grandly labelled “<a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/retail-distribution/future-of-retail-renaissance-apocalypse.html">the great retail bifurcation</a>”.</p>
<p>What this means is that retailers are succeeding by focusing on either the luxury end of the market or on the bargain-basement end. Retailers in the the middle are falling away. </p>
<h2>The discount market</h2>
<p>In the US, for example, this bifurcation effect has seen a boom in discount stores such as Dollar General, which sells cheap consumable items. Its revenue in the first quarter of 2019 <a href="https://coresight.com/research/dollar-general-nyse-dg-1q19-results-revenues-and-comps-beat-consensus-estimates/">was US$6.62 billion</a>, up 8.3% on the previous year. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287136/original/file-20190807-84235-13dvs16.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A Dollar General store in Leesport, Pennsylvania.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>The company now has more than 15,000 stores in the US. Bucking general retail industry trends, it opened 900 stores in 2018 and plans <a href="https://www.retaildive.com/news/coresight-12k-stores-could-shutter-in-2019/555130/">to open 975 more</a> in 2019. Other discount store chains – Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, Aldi, Five Below, Ross Stores and Ulta – are also expanding. </p>
<h2>The luxury market</h2>
<p>At the other end of the spectrum are retailers such as French high-fashion luxury goods brand Hermès. This company sells things like $500 t-shirts, $750 beach towels and $1,000 sweaters. Its 2018 profit was <a href="https://fashionunited.uk/news/business/hermes-posts-rise-profits-for-2018/2019032142289">up 15% to US$1.6 billion</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287145/original/file-20190807-84205-d9c1i4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">An Hermès store in Lisbon, Portugal.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span>
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<p>While the proportion of households that are upper-income (earning 200% or more of the median income) has increased only marginally since the 1980s, the incomes of those households has increased more than those on middle incomes. OECD figures show upper-income households now comprise, on average, 10% of households and 18% of spending.</p>
<p>The chart below indicates increases in discretionary spending in the United States over the past decade has occurred only among the top 20% of households by income.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=226&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/287144/original/file-20190807-84199-s2xjmo.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=285&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">US cumulative increase in discretionary spending money 2007-2017.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www2.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/industry/retail-distribution/the-consumer-is-changing.html">Deloitte Insights</a></span>
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<h2>A model on its last legs?</h2>
<p>Arguably, the discount and premium retailers having success also happen to be stores, brands and categories more resistant to what’s going on in e-commerce. </p>
<p>For instance, many discount retailers supply the type of goods consumers want quickly. A packet of chips, for example, or toilet paper. The convenience factor means these shops are more immune to digital disruption. </p>
<p>Luxury brands are likely even more immune from online competition. If money is no object, you’re unlikely to spend your nights browsing eBay looking for the cheapest price. </p>
<p>What is indisputable, though, is that the department store model is struggling globally, particularly in the Anglophone world of the United States, Britain and Australia, where there have been significant falls in the upper-middle and middle-income classes. </p>
<p>Groups like Myer in Australia have embraced a strategy of downsizing as an alternative to store closures, but that may be simply delaying the inevitable.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/121499/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Department stores are collapsing. The internet is part of the problem, but so too is the hollowing out of the middle class.Jason Pallant, Lecturer of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologySean Sands, Associate Professor of Marketing, Swinburne University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1190592019-06-24T13:36:51Z2019-06-24T13:36:51ZFake drugs that could kill are on the rise in Western countries – here’s why<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280183/original/file-20190619-171252-1i2jet7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/woman-buying-medicines-online-198039323?src=F-0q_ZABfeuQ-11lng_jTA-1-23&studio=1">Image Point Fr/Shuttestock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fake medicines – illegal and substandard pharmaceuticals – have until now largely been a problem in low and middle-income countries. Ranging from lifestyle products to lifesaving medicines, such products are now also on the rise in the Western world. The spread is concerning, as fake medicines can be completely ineffective or extremely toxic. </p>
<p>Part of the problem is that many people are unaware of the risks of such drugs – and they often don’t know they are taking them in the first place. Our recent survey of doctors in Sweden, for example, shows that 36.5% had met patients who they <a href="https://academic.oup.com/jpubhealth/article/41/1/e95/5026281">suspected had taken fake medications</a>. The numbers may be similar in other European countries.</p>
<p>As fake medicines are made in several different places worldwide, it is hard to trace their production. What’s more, such pharmaceuticals are usually so well faked – they may look, taste and smell exactly like the original drug – that only lab tests can determine their content. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280896/original/file-20190624-97777-vzi2yx.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Fake vs authentic viagra.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>According to a WHO report published in 2017, about 1-10% of all medicines in low and middle-income countries <a href="https://www.who.int/medicines/regulation/ssffc/publications/GSMS_Report_layout.pdf?ua=1">are estimated to be falsified</a>. A study in Africa showed that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1473309906705813?via%3Dihub">up to 70%</a> of medicines against infection in the region were fake. Today, such drugs are <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/feb/12/fake-cancer-drug-made-from-paracetamol-world-health-organization">increasingly present</a> in high-income countries too, according to the WHO. But exactly how prevalent the phenomenon is becoming is <a href="https://www.who.int/medicines/regulation/ssffc/publications/SE-Study_EN_web.pdf?ua=1">extremely difficult to quantify</a>. </p>
<p>There are increasing reports of fake drugs in Western countries though. A falsified cancer drug, Avastin, <a href="https://www.lakemedelsvarlden.se/98612-2/">was recently discovered</a> by a wholesaler in the Netherlands. And in Germany, both falsified cancer and HIV medicines have <a href="https://www.securingindustry.com/pharmaceuticals/falsified-cancer-drug-votrient-found-in-germany/s40/a3263/#.XNUfZS-HKi4">ended up in the legitimate supply chain</a> in recent years.</p>
<p>Not all Western countries have been affected by fake medical products <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdy092">in formal healthcare</a>, though, Sweden being one exception. Although regulation of the pharmaceutical market in Sweden and many other European countries is effective, illicit products are increasing in the legal market so it may just be a matter of time before they do if no effective measures are taken. </p>
<p>This is clear from a recent <a href="https://www.interpol.int/en/Crimes/Illicit-goods/Pharmaceutical-crime-operations">Interpol operation</a>, which included 123 different countries. During one week in 2018, Interpol confiscated over 10m fake medications that had spread via post with equivalent value of US$14m. As a result, 3,671 illegal websites selling such drugs were closed – including <a href="https://lakemedelsverket.se/Alla-nyheter/NYHETER---2018/Stora-mangder-av-lakemedel-har-beslagtagits-/">175 sites</a> in Sweden.</p>
<h2>Convenience and privacy</h2>
<p>So how do we best tackle this problem? The first thing we need is knowledge. Researchers from medicine, law and public health focus on the supply side and advocating international legal frameworks. Information about the demand side is lacking, however, as shown in <a href="https://journals.lub.lu.se/medhum/issue/view/2223">our review of the literature</a> . </p>
<p>People can get exposed to fake drugs unknowingly in many different ways. Our pilot study on the Swedish public’s attitudes towards the purchase of medicines that is soon to be published suggests that this includes through sharing medicines, such as prescribed antibiotics, or buying drugs online. Others may take the opportunity of buying cheap medicines on holiday abroad. Some said they would even consider planning their medical trips “if I had a sickness and for some reason could not get drugs for it in Sweden”. The same factors are likely to be at play in many other Western countries.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=506&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/280848/original/file-20190623-61747-1whuc0s.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=635&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Logo.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">European Commission</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We also discovered that the awareness of risk appears to be low. This applies not least to the consumption of medicines on the internet. The majority of people we asked did not know that the EU requires all legally authorised internet pharmacies to display a <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/health/human-use/eu-logo_en">common logo</a> certifying the legal status of stores for the sale of prescription medicines. Instead some people who buy drugs online get it from the first seemingly best website without doing much research into it.</p>
<p>It’s important to understand that, while people obviously do not want to expose themselves to the risk of buying illegitimate medicines, online purchases are convenient. That’s why online sales of medicines are nevertheless rising in countries including Sweden, <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319744841">the UK</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs12117-017-9304-9">the Neherlands</a>, becoming a common alternative to a prescription from the doctor. </p>
<p>Understanding the demand side means that it is crucial to map social conditions and health-seeking behaviours of consumers. Why does, as a British study reports, a young man prefer buying potency medicines such as Viagra <a href="https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783319744841">at an obviously illegal internet pharmacy</a> instead of going to a high street pharmacy? And what leads a young woman to act in a similar way to get slimming pills rather than go to a doctor? </p>
<p>Clearly, this could be down to people feeling ashamed to openly admit sexual dysfunction or problems with losing weight. But there is more to take into account. In Sweden, as in many other countries, we are seeing a shift of identity from care-seeking patients to care-competent consumers. As suggested in our survey, many people read up on what drugs they want before they go to a doctor and ask for it. If the doctor refuses, people may end up buying it from an illicit place. </p>
<p>There are great efforts to tackle the problem though. Europe put in place a new regulatory directive to prevent falsified medicines from entering the pharmaceutical distribution chain in February 2019. <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/health/human-use/falsified_medicines">The Falsified Medicines Directive</a>, among other things, requires that each package must have a unique barcode to trace the products and check its contents. This is an important political intervention to regulate the EU pharmaceutical supply chain. </p>
<p>But the global spread of fake medical products does not happen in a vacuum. We think it coincides with a reorientation of a person’s relationship with the formal healthcare system and medical professionals. This shift has eroded trust in the system and led to a rise of self-diagnosis and self-prescription that has boosted the market for unregulated websites with access to fake medical products.</p>
<p>Ultimately, societies must act on different interfaces – from broad international cooperation between researchers, police, legislators and the pharmaceutical industry to understanding social issues and identity patterns.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119059/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Susanne Lundin receives funding from Erik Philip Sorensen Foundation 2017 H2016-015</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Rui Liu receives funding from Erik Philip Sorensen Foundation 2017 H2016-015. </span></em></p>People are increasingly considering themselves experts on drugs.Susanne Lundin, Professor of Ethnology, Lund UniversityRui Liu, PhD Candidate, Lund UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/992372018-07-04T09:08:53Z2018-07-04T09:08:53ZDepartment stores are not doomed – take a look at who’s doing it right<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225986/original/file-20180703-116114-1s2ilfa.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Famous dome in Galeries Lafayette, Paris. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingridt/8605451571/in/photolist-atV5yz-atV7Be-e7rbWF-8P29MF-pYX3Mt-9jwcwp-pYXB3F-FcPTBZ-pSQew7-q87ZYL-pSR7vo-qapkPc">A. Wee</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Department stores were once seen as innovative. They stocked wide ranges of goods – Noel Coward <a href="https://www.questia.com/newspaper/1G1-356086097/harrods-closes-pet-shop-that-sold-lions-elephants">once bought</a> an alligator from Harrods. It was Harry Gordon Selfridge who <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/culture/bespoke/story/20150326-a-history-of-the-department-store/index.html">coined the phrase</a> “the customer is always right”. Stores rewarded customer loyalty by providing exclusive credit via store cards. Little by little, all this eroded. </p>
<p>To the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44394948">news that</a> House of Fraser is closing half its stores, we <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-44627031">can add</a> a profit warning from John Lewis. Times are tough for retailers, to be sure, with <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/mar/14/toys-r-us-to-shut-all-uk-stores-resulting-in-3000-job-losses">Toys R Us</a> and <a href="http://www.channelpro.co.uk/maplin-stores-closure">Maplin</a> going under, and mainstays like <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/may/22/marks-spencer-close-stores">Marks & Spencer</a> and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/jun/01/mothercare-to-close-50-stores-as-part-of-rescue-package">Mothercare</a> closing stores. The threat to department stores is perhaps especially troubling, since they act as “anchors” for entire high streets and shopping centres. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=640&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225984/original/file-20180703-116114-ks9n0t.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=804&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Harry Gordon Selfridge.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ingridt/8605451571/in/photolist-atV5yz-atV7Be-e7rbWF-8P29MF-pYX3Mt-9jwcwp-pYXB3F-FcPTBZ-pSQew7-q87ZYL-pSR7vo-qapkPc">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Debenhams <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/debenhams-issues-new-profit-alert-as-trading-remains-tough-11409269">recently announced</a> job cuts and store closures, while the last BHS <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37207481">disappeared</a> just two years ago. Worse, the trend looks global: those reporting either sales declines and/or store closures in recent years include <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/myer-profits-slump-as-stocktake-sale-flops-shares-hit-all-time-low-20180209-p4yzsi.html">Myer</a> in Australia; <a href="https://global.handelsblatt.com/companies/too-much-space-too-little-time-745272">Karstadt</a> and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/article-hudsons-bay-posts-first-profit-in-eight-quarters-but-misses-2/">Kaufhof</a> in Germany; <a href="https://eu.usatoday.com/story/money/2017/05/11/macys-sales-profit-plunge-and-so-does-shares-price/101543670/">Macy’s</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2017-retail-debt/">Sears</a> in the US; and <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/business/retail-and-services/brown-thomas-turnover-and-profit-fall-in-wake-of-store-closures-1.3270377">Brown Thomas</a> in Ireland. (Some, such as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-macy-s-results/macys-lifts-forecast-says-every-week-was-good-in-first-quarter-idUSKCN1IH1KV">Macy’s</a> and <a href="https://global.handelsblatt.com/companies/karstadt-turns-fortunes-around-901691">Karstadt</a>, look like turning around.) </p>
<p>The challenges are numerous. Bank credit cards let customers shop wherever, while cut-price specialists offer deeper selections at cheaper prices. People shop online with much less effort. Yes, physical stores let you handle goods, but a <a href="http://adage.com/article/news/rude-pushy-salespeople-top-list-consumer-gripes/228019/">recent major survey</a> found 64% of customers leaving a store due to poor customer service. </p>
<p>So are we talking terminal decline? I am <a href="https://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/westburn/tmr/2010/00000010/00000003/art00006">involved</a> in <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/e/9781136480058/chapters/10.4324%2F9780203133859-15">research</a> that <a href="http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.517458">strongly</a> suggests otherwise: we may just be seeing a shakeout of weaker offerings. Here are five ways for department stores to ensure an optimistic future:</p>
<h2>1. Offer an experience</h2>
<p>The whole of retail <a href="https://hbr.org/1998/07/welcome-to-the-experience-economy">has shifted</a> from a purely transactional focus towards giving customers experiences. Some department stores do this better than others. Macy’s <a href="https://venturebeat.com/2018/03/19/macys-will-use-vr-to-sell-furniture-in-50-stores-by-summer/">virtual reality showrooms</a> in New Jersey and Florida, for example, invite customers to work with a “concierge” to build a 3D replica of their own living room. They then preview furniture and home decor options in virtual reality. Macy’s is rolling this out to 50 stores this summer. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.cauldermoore.co.uk/whats-next-for-department-stores/">next step</a> is to make experiences transformational – challenging customers’ preconceptions about themselves and the world around them. In-store art installations and exhibitions have the power to do this. The <a href="http://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/articles/radical-luxury/the-flipside">Selfridges Flipside</a> exhibition in London was all about challenging the meaning of luxury: the store invited seven brands including Louis Vuitton to create installations that pinpointed what true luxury is now. </p>
<p>Le Bon Marché in Paris has used its space for art exhibitions featuring contemporary artists like <a href="https://theculturetrip.com/europe/france/paris/articles/ai-weiwei-at-le-bon-marche/">Ai Weiwei</a>, <a href="https://www.designboom.com/art/chiharu-shiota-le-bon-marche-paris-where-are-we-going-white-boats-01-24-2017/">Chiharu Shiota</a> and <a href="https://www.dezeen.com/2018/02/06/leandro-uses-visual-trickery-bon-marche-paris-installation/">Leandro Erlich</a>. Erlich, of Argentina, created an installation that made the escalator look like it was tied in knots, for example. Using global artists has the added advantage of raising a store’s profile in the international press. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=369&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225961/original/file-20180703-116123-jkvfxj.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=464&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Leandro Erlich’s installation in Paris.</span>
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</figure>
<h2>2. Build a community</h2>
<p>Department stores are more likely to succeed if they build a community around themselves. Major art exhibitions are one option; Liberty London has achieved something similar with a <a href="https://www.libertylondon.com/uk/liberty-life/what%27s-on/">sewing school</a>. Fortnum & Mason of London runs <a href="https://www.fortnumandmason.com/events/christmas-workshops">Christmas workshops</a> for things like the perfect New Year’s dinner party and, for children, Christmas cupcake decorating. </p>
<p>Department stores are also building virtual communities, typically around the brand and specific interests. US department store Nordstrom was among the first luxury brands to create its <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/Nordstrom1901/">own Reddit</a> username and community. Galeries Lafayette and Selfridges are good at using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to have dialogues with customers. </p>
<h2>3. Encourage socialising</h2>
<p>The longer someone stays in a store, the more likely they are to make a purchase. One way of increasing “dwell time” is to encourage socialising in store. Retailers often do this to encourage shopping with friends and family: craft tables for children, or pampering services like nail, brow and blow bars. It’s wise to make this fit with the store’s brand – or a particular element. It is no accident that Selfridges’ <a href="http://www.hemsleyandhemsley.com/home/cafe/">Hemsley + Hemsley</a> clean eating restaurant is in the London flagship store’s <a href="http://www.selfridges.com/GB/en/features/articles/content/discover-the-bodystudio">Body Studio</a>. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bAc7TcTE-tk?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Encourage customers to socialise and they’re also more likely to get involved in the store’s brand. Marketing expert Michael Solomon’s <a href="https://store.bookbaby.com/book/marketers,-tear-down-these-walls">new book</a> talks about “return on involvement” (a play on <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/terms/r/returnoninvestment.asp">return on investment</a>) – get them more involved and the cash tills ring louder. </p>
<h2>4. Be unique</h2>
<p>Innovative retailers offer “only at this store” experiences – Bergdorf Goodman of New York’s exclusive distribution deals with emerging designers, for example. Mitsukoshi of Tokyo boasts a famous <a href="https://tokyobling.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/mitsukoshi-roof-top-garden-ginza/">rooftop garden</a>, while the world’s largest department store, <a href="http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/ATR/SI_EN_3_1_1_1.jsp?cid=769156">Shinsegae, Busan</a> in South Korea has an ice rink, spa, indoor golf space and cinema. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/225963/original/file-20180703-116117-1spbt4c.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mitsukoshi’s roof garden.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/61709246@N08/14347099090/in/photolist-nRNCHq-nRNDVq-oJowtn-he2M7E-ob5pha-o9d8FL-234A6QB-b3t8Mp-H6Su2E-5gW2LM-qCn6kS-ekjyjw-eudoT6-m4rEyj-btq5iy-okJBhm-a48MnW-omcga2-21daSt-b3t9ct-b3t7Kv-2CctSw-7p1427-cbeNPh-e3ceAL-5gW5ZV-Jda67F-nqyQNk-ohPMFc-5gW4Ze-5dVyrb-9MJVyP-5gW6f8-5h1qDG-5gW3Xe-6B4B5C-ozhE39-g5erjU-eudmJz-9MoGNh-9MJVAr-9PbX8G-oz7mf7-9PbX5q-eugtvU-b3t79x-eufxmj-9MKrPr-fLhHdB-9N1e8a">Zoe</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
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<p>The concept store has emerged in recent years: department store variety, but on a smaller scale. Many are seen as destination stores. For instance <a href="https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/Attraction_Review-g1066456-d13273896-Reviews-Tenoha_Style_Store-Shibuya_Tokyo_Tokyo_Prefecture_Kanto.html">Tenoha</a>, with outlets in Tokyo and Milan, features a co-working cafe, a private meetings room and an events and pop-up space. </p>
<p>Successful department stores also tend to have a very individual aesthetic. As well as Selfridges and Fortnum & Mason in London, the likes of <a href="https://www.visitcopenhagen.com/copenhagen/illum-gdk412279">Ilum</a> in Copenhagen, <a href="https://www.saksfifthavenue.com/Entry.jsp">Saks Fifth Avenue</a> in New York, <a href="https://www.bongenie-grieder.ch/en/">Grieder</a> in Zurich and <a href="https://www.tsum.ru">TsUM</a> in Moscow can all testify to this. </p>
<h2>5. Brand, brand, brand</h2>
<p>What is the brand identity of Debenhams? Or House of Fraser? A department store needs to have a brand with a purpose. Strong examples in the UK include Selfridges, which is built around creativity and vision, while Liberty of London is about opulence, decoration and pattern. I’d also still include John Lewis, which is about value and integrity – its new <a href="https://www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk/about/our-strategy.html">ten-year strategy</a> heavily prioritises innovation and service.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/99237/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Ruth Marciniak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Glance at House of Fraser, John Lewis et al and you might think it’s time to give up the ghost.Ruth Marciniak, Senior Lecturer, Fashion Marketing, Glasgow Caledonian UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/909932018-03-19T10:38:52Z2018-03-19T10:38:52ZYou’re probably paying more for your car loan or mortgage than you should<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/210885/original/file-20180317-104694-1n1y2o7.gif?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A bad interest rate can make your new car a lot more costly.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">AP Photo/Carlos Osorio</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Federal Reserve makes headlines from New York to Hong Kong anytime it lifts its benchmark interest rate. Rightfully so, as any increase tends to drive up <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/13/business/fed-rate-mortgages-loans-credit.html">borrowing costs</a> on everything from credit cards to auto loans and mortgages.</p>
<p>There’s a more important factor that determines how much you’ll pay when you borrow money to buy a car or home, and it’s entirely in your hands: the lender you choose. That’s because how much a lender might charge you for a loan can vary dramatically from one to the next. That’s why it pays to shop around. </p>
<p><a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=OOrSzlkAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=sra">My</a> <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3044889">research on auto loans shows</a> that most consumers don’t do that, which can cost them hundreds or even thousands of dollars over the life of a loan or lead them to purchase a lower-quality car than initially planned. Fortunately, it’s pretty easy to avoid that.</p>
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<h2>Bargain hunters</h2>
<p>Most of us shop until we drop for price bargains on clothes, computers or virtually anything else. With the internet, finding the best deal among products and companies is easier than ever.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8181551-hawk-incentives-deal-seeking-shoppers/">recent survey</a> found that 92 percent of consumers always look for the best deal when they’re out shopping, while 80 percent said they’re willing to go out of their way to find a bargain. </p>
<p>So you’d think this logic would carry over to the bigger purchases in life. For most Americans, automobiles are the <a href="https://scholar.harvard.edu/files/campbell/files/householdfinance_jof_2006.pdf">largest- or second-largest household asset</a> they own. And <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/news/consumers-rely-car-financing-more-ever-203000128.html">most cars</a> are purchased with the help of an auto loan.</p>
<p>And yet, while people often work hard to find the best possible deal on the price of a car, surprisingly most fail to shop around at all for interest rate bargains. Research shows this behavior isn’t limited to just auto loans – most people don’t shop around when taking out a <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/nearly-half-of-mortgage-borrowers-dont-shop-around-when-they-buy-a-home/">mortgage</a> or a <a href="http://www.bain.com/publications/articles/tapping-latent-demand-in-personal-lending.aspx">personal loan</a>. </p>
<p>And that’s even though financing costs for a typical loan can make up a significant proportion of the total cost of buying a car. For example, let’s assume you’re buying a US$25,000 car and financing the entire purchase. A $25,000 loan at a 4 percent rate would cost you $2,600 in interest over its life, adding more than 10 percent to the true price of the car. </p>
<h2>What makes a rate</h2>
<p>Let me explain how a lender arrives at a particular interest rate. </p>
<p>The lender usually starts with a benchmark rate, such as the <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/rates/interest-rates/prime-rate.aspx">prime rate</a> or even a U.S. Treasury bond, both of which tend to move up and down along with the Fed’s target rate. </p>
<p>Other variables that go into the rate you ultimately pay include borrower-specific risks like credit scores or your debt-to-income ratio and the lender’s markup, which can be influenced by a variety of factors. For secured loans, such as mortgages and auto loans, the size of the down payment and the value of the asset will make a difference. </p>
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<p>Not all lenders will price the same loan, for the same borrower, the same way. In fact, a bit more than half of all borrowers overpay on their car loans. </p>
<p>That’s the surprising conclusion of a <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3044889">recent study</a> I conducted with Brigham Young finance professors <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/bronsonargyle/">Bronson Argyle</a> and <a href="http://taylornadauld.com/">Taylor Nadauld</a>. We arrived at our findings, after reviewing anonymized data provided by software-services firm <a href="https://www.visibleequity.com">Visible Equity</a> on more than 2 million auto loans extended by 326 different financial institutions.</p>
<p>The data allowed us to compare interest rates on car loans that originated in the same metropolitan area and time period for similar amounts on similarly priced cars and to borrowers with similar credit attributes. </p>
<p>We found that almost 1 in 5 consumers take out a loan more than 2 percentage points higher than the best rate available to people with similar credit scores. </p>
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<p>For example, Mark from Nashville with a <a href="https://www.myfico.com/credit-education/credit-scores/">credit score</a> of 711 agreed to pay a rate of 5.85 percent to buy a used 2012 Toyota Camry for $18,033 — which was the average loan size in our study. A different bank in the area, however, offered Jamie a rate of 4.2 percent for roughly the same loan, even though she had the same credit. In other words, Mark will end up overpaying by about $1,000 over the life of the loan, or about $17 every month. </p>
<p>Contrast that with the likely consequence of the Fed raising rates by a quarter point this month, which would have much less impact on your cost to get a loan. If an auto loan were to go up by 0.25 percentage point, monthly payments on that typical car loan would rise by just $2 a month, or $120 over five years.</p>
<p>Further, we found that many car buyers who end up overpaying cope by buying older, cheaper cars rather than shop around for a better interest rate. Had the borrower shopped around for a better rate, he could have spent most of that $1,000 in extra financing on a higher-quality car. </p>
<p>The same lessons apply to other loans too. A <a href="https://www.consumerfinance.gov/about-us/blog/nearly-half-of-mortgage-borrowers-dont-shop-around-when-they-buy-a-home/">government survey</a> found that failing to shop around for the best mortgage rate could easily cost you $3,500 over just the first five years of the loan and thousands more over the typical mortgage. </p>
<h2>Why people don’t shop for loans</h2>
<p>What accounts for this apparently lackadaisical attitude toward interest rate shopping?</p>
<p>Applying for credit often involves paperwork, which can be tedious or stressful. It could require a trip to a separate lender’s office when buying a car is time consuming enough. Borrowers may not even know that there are better deals to be had. </p>
<p>In fact, we found that a consumer needs only to shop around for three offers to get something pretty close to the best available rate. </p>
<p>Other faulty assumptions may be at play, too, including the notion that you have to finance your car through the dealer (you don’t), that your own bank will give you the best deal (often not, according to our data), that the dealer’s rate will be best (not always), or that your credit score will be affected if you apply multiple places (<a href="https://blog.equifax.com/credit/will-interest-rate-shopping-hurt-my-credit-score/">it won’t</a>). </p>
<p>Part of the problem also seems to be that consumers often <a href="https://www.forbes.com/2009/03/19/credit-poor-judgement-markets-tim-harford.html#7a237e67636c">don’t appreciate the power of compound interest</a> and the extent to which small differences in monthly payments add up.</p>
<p>Admittedly, it’s not as exciting to shop for a loan as it is to test-drive a car, but most of these factors can be overcome or shouldn’t be a concern in the first place. While it does take a little more work to seek out other financing options, modern tools make it easier than you might think. Much of the same financial paperwork can be used at multiple lenders, and websites like <a href="http://bankrate.com">Bankrate</a>, <a href="http://creditkarma.com">Credit Karma</a> and <a href="http://nerdwallet.com">NerdWallet</a> allow you to compare multiple interest rate offers.</p>
<p>The bottom line: Car buyers are literally paying more for less by not doing their due diligence to find the best financing deals. When it comes to credit, it pays to shop around.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/90993/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christopher Palmer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Most of us bargain hunt when shopping for a new blouse or pair of blue jeans, yet for some reason we don’t with interest rates, potentially costing us thousands of dollars.Christopher Palmer, Assistant Professor of Finance, MIT Sloan School of ManagementLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/886842017-12-20T11:27:32Z2017-12-20T11:27:32ZMore businesses are trying mobile apps to lure and keep consumers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/198611/original/file-20171211-27680-oj23he.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Using a store's mobile app can affect in-store purchases.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/young-beautiful-woman-using-mobile-store-498919009">Javier Arres/Shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Intense retail competition has led old standbys, such as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/24/here-are-the-28-stores-that-sears-is-closing-next.html">Sears</a>, to <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/list-sears-kmart-store-closures-2017-11">close dozens of stores</a>. Walmart is <a href="https://news.walmart.com/2016/08/08/walmart-agrees-to-acquire-jetcom-one-of-the-fastest-growing-e-commerce-companies-in-the-us">venturing online more</a>. And Amazon is expanding offline, <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-big-expansion-retail-pop-up-stores-2016-9">opening stores</a> and <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-16/amazon-to-acquire-whole-foods-in-13-7-billion-bet-on-groceries">buying Whole Foods</a>. The fight for retail dollars is fierce, and the battleground will soon migrate into the palms of customers’ hands – via apps on their smartphones.</p>
<p>This isn’t just happening with mega-retailers. <a href="https://www.cinemark.com/cinemode">Movie</a> <a href="https://www.amctheatres.com/mobile/app">chains</a> and <a href="https://www.chewy.com/ci/lp/resp/chewy-app/chewy-app.html">pet supply stores</a> are increasingly connecting with their customers through their own branded apps. Zumiez, a specialty clothing chain with <a href="http://ir.zumiez.com/news-releases/news-release-details/zumiez-inc-announces-fiscal-2017-third-quarter-results">600 stores in the U.S.</a>, <a href="http://www.zumiez.com/the-stash/">has an app</a>. Scooter’s Coffee, an Omaha-based coffee chain with <a href="https://franchising.scooterscoffee.com/">200 stores</a>, <a href="https://www.scooterscoffee.com/MobileApp">has one too</a>. So does <a href="https://www.nypovt.com/">New York Pizza Oven</a>, a single pizza parlor in Vermont. </p>
<p>Mobile apps are becoming key ways for customers and retailers to interact. Our recent analysis of data from a large U.S. retailer of video games and electronics (whose name we agreed to keep confidential) found that <a href="http://www.msi.org/reports/the-effects-of-mobile-apps-on-shopper-purchases-and-product-returns/">apps can even affect consumers’ offline buying</a> habits.</p>
<h2>Growth in use – and spending</h2>
<p>The number of people who have the option to use mobile apps is skyrocketing. <a href="https://www.ericsson.com/en/press-releases/2015/6/ericsson-mobility-report-70-percent-of-worlds-population-using-smartphones-by-2020">More than 70 percent</a> of the world population will own a smartphone by 2020. And they’ll spend more than <a href="https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Smartphone-Apps-Crushing-Mobile-Web-Time/1014498">80 percent of their on-phone time</a> using task-specific apps.</p>
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<span class="caption">Is there no line because people are ordering ahead on their mobile phones?</span>
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<p>Letting buyers learn about products, discover deals, locate nearby stores and even place orders in advance is a huge business opportunity. At Starbucks, for example, an app allowing people to order and pay on the go – just swinging into the store for pickup – helped customers avoid standing in line and waiting: <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2015/10/30/how-mobile-ordering-can-impact-starbucks-valuation/">Over five years, 20 percent of its sales</a> shifted to online transactions.</p>
<p>Research has also begun to show that people who use mobile shopping apps buy more than they might otherwise. After individual shoppers started purchasing using eBay’s mobile app, their <a href="https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.5.489">purchases from eBay’s website increased</a>. Similarly, a tablet app from major Chinese e-tailer Alibaba led customers to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2406">spend about US$923.5 million more each year</a> with the company than they would have without the app. Some of that increased spending is from shoppers using the app to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2015.2406">buy impulsively</a> – making one-off purchases of items they are interested in, or adding items to larger orders.</p>
<p>Our research recently found a new dimension to this app-related spending boost. Over 18 months, customers who downloaded the branded app of the retailer we studied spent <a href="http://www.msi.org/reports/the-effects-of-mobile-apps-on-shopper-purchases-and-product-returns/">30 percent more in stores</a> than they would have without the app. We can infer this by looking at data on customers’ spending before and after the app was installed, and by <a href="https://press.princeton.edu/titles/8769.html">comparing that</a> to the spending of a random sample of customers who had similar demographics and shopping behavior before the app launched.</p>
<p>We learned that most of the increase was because customers used the app to find out about products before buying them. For example, by closely analyzing the data on app use and purchases, we could see these customers started increasing purchases of lesser known video games when they started using the app.</p>
<h2>App users return products more</h2>
<p>While shoppers who use a retailer’s mobile app tend to buy more online and in stores, we find that they are also <a href="http://www.msi.org/reports/the-effects-of-mobile-apps-on-shopper-purchases-and-product-returns/">more prone to subsequently returning</a> the products they purchased. </p>
<p>In particular, customers who use a retailer’s app tend to return products most often when they purchased those products on discount, and within seven days of making the original purchase. Apps often make it easier to purchase items on impulse. When customers receive some of the items and are dissatisfied, they regret the decisions and return the items. </p>
<p>Even taking into account the high rate of returns, app users spend more both online and in physical stores. But that’s when the apps work as customers expect them to.</p>
<h2>App failures –- and consequences</h2>
<p>Apps that load information slowly or crash frequently can deter not only online purchasing, but in-person spending, too. Surveys show that <a href="https://techbeacon.com/sites/default/files/gated_asset/mobile-app-user-survey-failing-meet-user-expectations.pdf">more than 60 percent</a> of users expect an app to load within four seconds. And our ongoing research suggests that more than half of users will abandon an app that freezes or crashes frequently.</p>
<p>App slowdowns can be costly. One estimate suggests that if each Amazon webpage took just one second longer to load, the company’s sales could drop <a href="https://www.fastcompany.com/1825005/how-one-second-could-cost-amazon-16-billion-sales">as much as $1.6 billion</a> a year. For smaller retailers, a similar drop of 2 to 3 percent would be a smaller dollar amount but still a significant blow.</p>
<p>Our ongoing research with Stanford’s <a href="https://www.gsb.stanford.edu/faculty-research/faculty/sridhar-narayanan">Sridhar Narayanan</a> suggests that poor app performance reduces users’ in-store spending too. Specifically, we studied how shoppers react when an app is not accessible for five or six hours, due (users were told) to a server error. Our preliminary results suggest that in the following two weeks, those shoppers spent 3 to 4 percent less in stores than they would have otherwise. Less-frequent customers reduced their spending even more than the company’s more regular shoppers.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Unnati Narang discusses her ongoing research on failures in mobile shopping apps.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Interestingly, customers who experience app failures spend less in stores, but their online spending remains unchanged. A deeper analysis indicates that when a retailer’s app fails, shoppers often go to the retailer’s website to complete their intended transactions. But the negative experience from app failure discourages them from buying more in the retailer’s store. </p>
<p>Our research illustrates some ways mobile apps can be a double-edged sword for customers and retailers alike. Shoppers can use apps to learn more about prospective purchases, be inspired on the fly and save time at the cash register. But if the software fails, they may be frustrated, discouraged and even spend less at physical stores. Retailers can see increased sales and faster transactions, but may have to handle more returns – though they’ll still make more money. The longer-term effects of mobile apps on the retail business have yet to be seen, of course, but in an ever-changing landscape, companies and customers alike will be exploring the options.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88684/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As businesses’ branded mobile apps become more common and popular, how are they affecting shoppers’ buying habits?Venkatesh Shankar, Professor of Marketing; Director of Research, Center for Retailing Studies, Texas A&M UniversityUnnati Narang, Ph.D. student in Business Administration (Marketing), Texas A&M UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/882522017-12-03T19:25:43Z2017-12-03T19:25:43ZSustainable Shopping: the eco-friendly guide to online Christmas shopping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/197053/original/file-20171130-12040-him00v.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5760%2C3259&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Online shopping is quick and fun. There are ways to make it eco-friendly.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>Shopping can be confusing at the best of times, and trying to find environmentally friendly options makes it even more difficult. Welcome to our <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/sustainable-shopping-38407">Sustainable Shopping</a> series, in which we ask experts to provide easy eco-friendly guides to purchases big and small.</em></p>
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<p>Online shopping has recently <a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/325000-orders-a-second-as-singles-days-breaks-shopping-records/news-story/5d6b1c268da36d23cb14791b3e671395">smashed retail records</a> worldwide, while its growth has continued <a href="https://acquire.startrack.com.au/pdf/Inside%20Australian%20Online%20Shopping%202017.pdf">significantly in Australia</a>. With Christmas just around the corner, Australia Post expects this to be the busiest year <a href="http://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/australia-post-is-offering-free-delivery-for-over-40-of-australias-biggest-online-stores/news-story/61b12dd9a22e9c8a1ea46c2dc0fcac9b">it has ever seen</a>.</p>
<p>December is the largest buying month in Australia, with online shopping hitting its peak during the Christmas period. In 2016, total online spending hit a staggering <a href="https://acquire.startrack.com.au/pdf/Inside%20Australian%20Online%20Shopping%202017.pdf">A$21.7 billion</a> with a <a href="https://acquire.startrack.com.au/pdf/Inside%20Australian%20Online%20Shopping%202017.pdf">10.4% growth</a> in parcels.</p>
<p>An increase in purchases usually leads to an increased carbon footprint, but online shopping can actually be more environmentally friendly than traditional shopping – as long as you follow these simple rules.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/sustainable-shopping-how-to-rock-white-sneakers-without-eco-guilt-85989">Sustainable shopping: how to rock white sneakers without eco-guilt</a>
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<h2>Online shopping can be better than buying in-store</h2>
<p>During the 2016 Christmas period, Australian Post handled more than <a href="https://acquire.startrack.com.au/pdf/Inside%20Australian%20Online%20Shopping%202017.pdf">34 million domestic parcels</a>. It might seem natural to assume that all this package delivery increases the environmental impact of our shopping, but research shows that completely online buying is <a href="https://ctl.mit.edu/sites/ctl.mit.edu/files/library/public/Dimitri-Weideli-Environmental-Analysis-of-US-Online-Shopping_0.pdf">better than going to a store</a>.</p>
<p>The major reason for online shopping’s lower carbon footprint is the reduced number of trips we make to stores. A delivery truck uses far less fuel per package than an equivalent number of people driving in person to pick them up. </p>
<p>However, many people will check products in-store before buying them online, which negates the benefit of online shopping. A 2013 study from the <a href="http://business.edf.org/blog/2013/12/21/is-online-shopping-better-for-the-environment/">MIT Center for Transportation and Logistics</a> found that shoppers who visit stores before buying online generate a carbon footprint almost twice the size of a purely online purchase. </p>
<p>Problems also arise <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/nov/24/black-friday-to-cause-spikes-in-air-pollution-and-plastic-waste-warn-environmentalists">when consumers are not at home</a>, as redeliveries add a significant amount of carbon emissions to online purchases. Flexible delivery options, like Australia Post’s <a href="https://auspost.com.au/receiving/manage-deliveries-in-transit/safe-drop">Safe Drop</a>, can help mitigate this (and some overseas companies actually allow adjustable delivery times). </p>
<p>Another environmental concern is the packaging itself. Most packaging boxes consist of cardboard and various types of plastics. Sadly, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2014/nov/18/online-shopping-holidays-packaging-waste-recycling">almost half of the boxes are not recycled</a>. And while you might feel guilty about this waste, the bigger issue lies in your returns.</p>
<p>At Zalando, one of the biggest online retail websites, where shipping and returns are free, the return rate of packages is <a href="http://www.manager-magazin.de/unternehmen/artikel/a-1036798.html">50%</a>. In the US, the chain of returned goods used <a href="http://mashable.com/2016/11/29/cyber-monday-returns-environment/#wiuPrxpycSqz">4.5 billion litres of diesel fuel and emitted 12 million</a> tonnes of carbon emissions in 2015 alone.</p>
<p>In summary, picking up items after a failed delivery or at a click-and-collect point, returning unwanted items, or other complementary shopping trips all increase the carbon footprint.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-retailers-want-you-to-click-and-collect-83094">Why retailers want you to 'click and collect'</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The 4 Rs of sustainable online shopping</h2>
<p>Although the entire delivery process is complex and consists of many variables, there are some simple things to keep in mind. I call them the four Rs:</p>
<p><strong>Rethink</strong>: online purchasing is better for the environment, but only if the entire process remains digital from start to finish. So, no brick-and-mortar store visiting. Signing up for suitable <a href="https://auspost.com.au/delivery-options">delivery options</a> helps to ensure your parcel arrives on time, eliminates extra deliveries and reduces your carbon impact.</p>
<p><strong>Relax</strong>: buy well in advance, thereby avoiding same-day or next-day delivery. The gives transport companies the chance to consolidate the packages into fewer trips, increasing efficiency and reducing emissions.</p>
<p><strong>Returns</strong>: do you really need to order that T-shirt in three sizes? Every avoided return is a contribution to the environment.</p>
<p><strong>Reuse</strong>: opt for eco-friendly packaging and reuse it, especially boxes and cushioning materials. <a href="http://recyclingweek.planetark.org/documents/doc-1117-recycling-revolution-report-2013.pdf">Planet Ark</a>, an Australian environmental organisation, has lots of information on recycling if you want to understand the size of the problem.</p>
<p>Ultimately, although these steps can help, eco-friendly shopping begins with <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/sustainable-shopping-38407">what you buy, and from where</a>. </p>
<p>In most cases, transportation counts for only a small part of an item’s overall environmental impact, so it’s important to choose the right producer. Keep in mind that, although delivery is important, there is an entire supply chain that comes before it. Happy sustainable shopping!</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/88252/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David M. Herold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>’Tis the season for online shopping – which means a month of shipping. Here’s how to reduce your delivery footprint.David M. Herold, Sustainable Logistics Researcher, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/692672016-11-23T15:25:02Z2016-11-23T15:25:02ZHave reports of Black Friday’s death been greatly exaggerated?<p>Black Friday is hyped as one of the biggest in-store shopping days of the year, with stores trumpeting giant sales and even <a href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/personalfinance/2016/11/18/black-friday-ad-leaks-give-glimpse-holiday-deal-future/93924752/">bigger advertising campaigns</a>. </p>
<p>Some pundits claim that <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/black-friday-is-dying-a-slow-death-2016-11">Black Friday is dying</a> and is no <a href="http://www.seattletimes.com/business/retail/super-bowl-of-shopping-is-more-like-a-scrimmage/">longer relevant</a>. However, the <a href="https://nrf.com/news/black-friday-changing-far-gone">National Retail Federation issued a strong denunciation</a> of these articles and declared that Black Friday is “far from gone.”</p>
<p>Which is the true story? Is Black Friday dying or still relevant? These questions are important because some retailers believe <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/will-black-friday-save-the-economy/">Black Friday helps get people in the mood</a> for spending over the holiday season, when U.S. companies make <a href="https://nrf.com/resources/holiday-headquarters/holiday-faqs">approximately one fifth</a> of their annual sales.</p>
<p>To answer them, let’s consider four important facts and data points concerning Black Friday. Together, they paint a mixed picture. </p>
<h2>Four facts to ponder</h2>
<p>First, lots of people go out shopping on Black Friday</p>
<p><a href="https://nrf.com/sites/default/files/Images/Media%20Center/2015%20Thanksgiving%20wknd%20preview.pdf">Each year the National Retail Federation issues numbers</a> showing how many people plan to begin shopping the moment they finish devouring their Thanksgiving pie. Last year 66 million adults said they would definitely go shopping on Thanksgiving weekend, while another 70 million said “maybe.” And 74 percent of them planned to shop on Black Friday. When you have 136 million people intending to do the same thing at the same time, it’s clear the day remains important.</p>
<p>Second, we are spending less time shopping.</p>
<p>One measure of something’s importance is how much time is spent on the activity. Important things get attention and time. The latest data, however, show we are spending less time shopping, suggesting it’s becoming less important to us. </p>
<p>The U.S. government began surveying people in 2003 to find out how much time we spend on daily activities, such as sleeping, working, taking care of children, watching television and countless other tasks, using the <a href="http://www.bls.gov/tus/">American Time Use Survey</a>. The typical adult spent 146 hours per year shopping <a href="http://www.bls.gov/tus/tables/a1_2003.pdf">in 2003</a>. <a href="http://www.bls.gov/tus/tables/a1_2015.pdf">By 2015</a>, the figure had dropped to 131 hours, a reduction of 15 hours or 10 percent. </p>
<p>To give some perspective on how much time we spend shopping, the average person in the U.S. spends about 250 hours a year showering, brushing their teeth, combing their hair and doing other personal grooming. Shopping comprises about half the amount of time we spend cleaning ourselves up.</p>
<p>Where did we cut back? Of the total 15-hour drop, people in the U.S. spent five fewer hours shopping for groceries and food. Shopping for clothes, shoes, toys and all the other items people buy dropped by 10 hours, which bodes ill for Black Friday’s importance.</p>
<p>Third, we are not spending less</p>
<p>One potential reason we are devoting less time to shopping is that the average person is spending less. If you buy less, you do not need to spend as much time shopping. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s <a href="http://www.census.gov/retail/about_the_surveys.html">Retail Trade Surveys</a> show this reason is not true.</p>
<p>After adjusting for inflation, the average person in the <a href="http://www.census.gov/retail/index.html">U.S. spent</a> a bit under US$15,000 in 2003 on retail goods. That figure had budged a small amount a dozen years later but was still below $15,000. This fact is neither good nor bad for Black Friday’s fate.</p>
<p>Fourth, internet shopping is taking sales away</p>
<p>One big reason we are spending less time shopping is that instead of going to physical stores we are buying items online. Shopping online <a href="http://www.mmaglobal.org/MMJ-Archive/Spring-2010/47035-0MMA.pdf#page=55">is often much faster</a> than wandering the aisles aimlessly in a giant big-box emporium.</p>
<p>While overall spending has not increased, the <a href="http://www.census.gov/retail/index.html">Census Bureau’s retail data</a> show people in the U.S. are steadily shifting away from buying things in stores toward buying on the internet. In 2003 the average U.S. person bought slightly more than $250 of goods on the internet. By 2015, the figure had jumped to almost $1,100 per person. </p>
<p>This steady growth in e-commerce follows almost the same downward trend in sales at brick-and-mortar locations strongly suggesting people are just shifting from one method of shopping to another. This final fact is another ill omen for Black Friday (and shows the increasing prominence of <a href="https://theconversation.com/cyber-monday-gives-a-big-boost-to-mobile-commerce-68902">Cyber Monday</a>).</p>
<h2>So what is the answer?</h2>
<p>Black Friday sales will continue to pack in the crowds for three reasons.</p>
<p>First, sales spike on Friday because of a catchup effect. Almost no one goes retail shopping on Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, when large numbers of people are traveling. On Thanksgiving Day itself, most retail stores are closed. Even without special sales, this catchup effect ensures the day after Thanksgiving has a larger volume of traffic and more robust <a href="http://businessmacroeconomics.com/">revenue</a> than a typical Friday.</p>
<p>Second, many people get the day after Thanksgiving off from work since most non-retail businesses, schools and government offices are closed or functioning only with skeleton crews. For people who have gotten their fill of family and turkey, going shopping is a welcome excuse to leave the house.</p>
<p>Third, the media’s focus on the day helps ensure it is an experience that people want to join. No matter what the other trends in retail data show, the days after Thanksgiving are often very slow news days, since <a href="http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2010/1126/Working-on-Black-Friday-A-look-at-who-doesn-t-get-the-day-off">many business people and politicians, who generate news, take the day off</a>. With less to report, journalists will continue to focus on Black Friday since it is something they know will happen and will attract attention.</p>
<p>So is Black Friday dying or booming? The National Retail Federation’s data show lots of people went shopping just after Thanksgiving. Census data show steadily lower sales in bricks and mortar stores year after year, plus rising internet sales. Time use data show shopping is now taking less of the typical person’s day.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCcMxc7kEkx_0HCkI_Dxo7ow">My answer</a> is that while brick-and-mortar stores are slowly becoming less relevant for daily purchases, people love events. Black Friday in the future will likely become more of a special occasion where many people go back to retail stores that in their day-to-day life they will typically ignore.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/69267/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay L. Zagorsky does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>While some pundits claim the much-hyped shopping day that follows our Thanksgiving feasts has lost its relevance, the reality is a lot more complicated, as four important facts show.Jay L. Zagorsky, Economist and Research Scientist, The Ohio State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/571492016-05-17T19:34:21Z2016-05-17T19:34:21ZSales increase by up to 56% when shoppers know a product will last<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121779/original/image-20160509-20595-1fod9rr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">from www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>From fashion to food and electronics, many industries are facing a backlash against cheaply made products that do not last. Sick of printers that break within two years, or suitcases that fall apart the second time you use them, there is a growing appetite for long-life guarantees – from the promise of the <a href="http://www.tomcridland.com/">30-year jumper</a> to the rise of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/16/buy-me-once-online-store-lifetime-guarantee-product-reviews">shopping sites</a> dedicated to products that last a lifetime. </p>
<p>But we don’t always know whether a product will last when we buy it.</p>
<p>We recently carried out a study to see how consumption patterns would change if consumers were informed about product lifetime at the time of purchase. The European Economic and Social Committee has published the findings of this study, carried out by the <a href="http://www.univ-ubs.fr">University of Southern Brittany</a>, the <a href="http://www.sircome.com/">Sircome agency</a>, and the <a href="http://www.prf.jcu.cz">University of Southern Bohemia</a>.</p>
<p>Our main goal was to see whether displaying a product’s lifespan would influence a consumer’s decision to purchase. In other words, would our consumption patterns change if the lifetime was indicated? Would we choose the same products if we had this information? It seems we would not, and there are easy ways for manufacturers to inform of us of our options.</p>
<p>The experiment involved a sample of 2,917 participants from five European countries (Belgium, the Czech Republic, France, Spain and the Netherlands). We designed a fake shopping website, which consumers could use just as if it were Amazon or ASOS. (Participants did not know the site was fake.) Once they had checked out their shopping basket, participants were directed to a questionnaire which gauged various socio-economic and psycho-social indicators.</p>
<p>The results showed that if shoppers had information on product lifespan, they would choose to buy longer lasting items: on average, a product’s sales increased by 56% if its lifetime was longer than competing products’.</p>
<h2>The products we want to last</h2>
<p>Displaying the lifetime does not have the same impact on sales of all products. Of the products tested, purchases of suitcases (+128%) and printers (+70%) were influenced the most by displaying the lifetime. Why these two products?</p>
<p>Suitcases are the quintessential roaming product, giving them two characteristics which makes the consumer rank lifetime as a priority: the trials of transport make resilience a key factor, and any item used solely for travel will be brought out only occasionally. If it is used rarely, the consumer has every reason to hope it will last a long time.</p>
<p>As for printers, they have one of the shortest lifetimes of all household electronic goods, and people buy them because they need them, not for pleasure – two more good reasons why we would want them to last.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=448&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121781/original/image-20160509-20599-1621488.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=563&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Graveyard of broken dreams.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Sales of smartphones are among the least affected by displaying lifetime (+41%) – possibly because they are bought for pleasure and having the latest model is a factor for many consumers.</p>
<p>It would also seem that the importance attached to lifetime increases with the amount that people are prepared to pay. In other words, lifetime is more important when purchasing top-of-the-range products (+49%) than bottom-of-the-range products (+44%).</p>
<p>A full 90% of participants said that they would be prepared to pay more for a dishwasher which would last two years longer. On average, they said they would be prepared to pay €102 more for that guarantee on a dishwasher priced between €300 and €500. The results also showed that the amount consumers were prepared to pay for a longer lasting product varied with the GDP of the country in which they lived.</p>
<h2>How should lifetime be displayed?</h2>
<p>Various display formats were tested: of these, a format similar to standard A to G energy consumption categories were the most effective in informing consumers. With this display, the market share of products with a longer lifetime than their competitors increased by 84%. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1263&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1263&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1263&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1588&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1588&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/121780/original/image-20160509-20581-1wc6qn4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1588&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">As easy as A to G.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Energy_label_2010.svg">Flappiefh</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>An indications of useful lifetime (indicated in terms of washing cycles, pages printed, and so on) came second, with an average increase in market share of 56% for products with a long lifetime.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, 80% of participants felt that the manufacturers were very to extremely responsible with regard to providing information about a product’s lifetime. </p>
<p>All these findings argue for legislation on product lifetime. There is no doubt that the reliability of the products purchased is important to consumers. The study showed that regulatory information would steer customers when purchasing products. </p>
<p>While not excluding their own share of responsibility in ensuring that their products last, consumers recognised that normal conditions of use would enable manufacturers to guarantee a minimum lifetime for their products. They also said they were prepared to pay more for products which last longer. </p>
<p>This points to an obvious policy response: an indication of lifetime should be mandatory on products, just as an energy rating is mandatory on many others. Providing an A to G rating for lifetime would allow manufacturers to meet consumers’ expectations, and consumers to make better choices.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/57149/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>This document has been written by European University of Brittany 's researcher and does not represent the point of view of the European Economic and Social Committee. The interpretations and opinions contained in it are solely those of the authors. This study was carried out by the University of South Brittany, SIRCOME and the University of South Bohemia following a call for tenders launched by the European Economic and Social Committee. The information and views set out in this study are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee. The European Economic and Social Committee does not guarantee the accuracy of the data included in this study. Neither the European Economic and Social Committee nor any person acting on the Committee's behalf may be held responsible for the use which may be made of the information contained therein.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Gaëlle Boulbry ne travaille pas, ne conseille pas, ne possède pas de parts, ne reçoit pas de fonds d'une organisation qui pourrait tirer profit de cet article, et n'a déclaré aucune autre affiliation que son organisme de recherche.</span></em></p>We want products that last, it’s up to manufacturers to provide us with the information we need to buy them.Mickaël Dupré, Maître de conférences associé à l’IAE Brest, chercheur associé au LEGO, Université de Bretagne occidentale Gaëlle Boulbry, Maître de conférences, chercheur en marketing, Université Bretagne SudLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/551842016-02-23T13:01:58Z2016-02-23T13:01:58ZSelfies could replace security passwords – but only with an upgrade<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112546/original/image-20160223-16464-ekcpa7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Selfie shopping</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The next time you do some online shopping or call your bank, you may find you no longer have to scrabble around to remember your security password. Banks are <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-35609833">increasingly turning</a> to voice recognition technology as their preferred way of ensuring customers are who they say they are when they use telephone banking services. Mastercard has even announced that it will accept fingerprints or selfies as proof of identity for online purchases. </p>
<p>But does this kind of technology really mean that you’ll soon be able to just forget your passwords? The short answer right now is “no”. Banks are adopting <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-voice-recognition-technology-really-identify-a-masked-jihadi-52787">voice recognition</a> technologies (often known as “speaker identification” in research literature) and <a href="http://mi.eng.cam.ac.uk/%7Ecipolla/publications/article/1997-IVC-face-detection.pdf">face recognition</a> primarily for verification, not identification. These technologies are a reasonable tool for verifying a person is who they claim to be because machines can learn how one person normally speaks or looks. But they are not yet good methods of identifying a single customer from the very large number of possible voices or faces a bank might have in their database.</p>
<p>For voice identification to work, the difference between your voice and others’ (inter-speaker variation) must always be greater than the difference between your voice now and on another occasion (<a href="http://seas3.elte.hu/VLlxx/gosy.html">intra-speaker variation</a>). The same is true with “selfie recognition”; you need to look more like the normal you than anyone else does. In practice, this doesn’t always happen. The more voices or faces a system compares, the more likely it will find two that are very similar.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=602&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112557/original/image-20160223-16416-b9ymr4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=756&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Voice or selfie recognition for identification and verification.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Imagine all the things that can change your own voice when you make a phone call: a blocked or damaged microphone, tiredness, mouth or throat pain, drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, eating curry or misplaced dentures. These make intra-speaker variation large. For face recognition, facial hair, complexion changes, makeup, glasses, lighting and face coverings all contribute to changes in the way you look.</p>
<p>The consequence is that banks have a fair chance of “verifying” that a caller or selfie-taker is who they claim to be, but not of “identifying” an unknown voice or selfie. So we will still need a way to identify ourselves for the foreseeable future, and the best method remains a secret PIN or password.</p>
<p>A driver in Malaysia who had a fingerprint authentication system fitted to his new Mercedes S-class in 2005 found out <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4396831.stm">the painful way</a> that some biometrics can be stolen. When thieves discovered that his car could only be started with a fingerprint, they promptly stole his finger along with his car.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://theconversation.com/can-voice-recognition-technology-really-identify-a-masked-jihadi-52787">simple voiceprint</a> can likewise be stolen. All you need is a good quality recording of the person speaking. The same is true for systems that require a user to speak a fixed passphrase or PIN. Interactive systems using a <a href="https://www.sans.org/reading-room/whitepapers/authentication/exploration-voice-biometrics-1436">challenge-response protocol</a> (e.g. asking a user to repeat an unusual phrase) would raise the difficulty level for attackers, but <a href="http://homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/zwu2/papers/apsipa2014_replay.pdf">can be defeated by current technology</a>.</p>
<p><a href="http://staff.estem-uc.edu.au/mwagner/files/2014/05/ChettyWagner_InvestigatingFeatureLevelFusionForLiveness_ISSPA_2005.pdf">Face recognition</a> (such as that used to identify selfies), lip reading, and <a href="http://www.cs.columbia.edu/%7Ebelhumeur/courses/biometrics/2010/howirisrecognitionworks.pdf">iris pattern recognition</a> are all visual methods that could possibly be stolen or spoofed by pictures or video images.</p>
<h2>More biometric data</h2>
<p>The solution appears to be either making use of additional secret information (which means yet more to remember) or to combine different types of biometric information. Unfortunately, methods that require a camera <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128266-000-face-recognition-technology-fails-to-find-uk-rioters/">are sometimes of limited use</a>: the user must face a camera, for example, must not have glasses or clothing obscuring their face and eyes, will require adequate lighting – and the system probably should not be used while in the bath.</p>
<p>Other researchers are investigating the biometric potential of capturing an <a href="http://csee.essex.ac.uk/staff/palaniappan/IJVLSI_Biometric_Palani_2007.pdf">individual’s unique brainwaves</a> with a headset or, more recently, with earphones. But <a href="http://www.commsp.ee.ic.ac.uk/%7Edlooney/PDFs/The%20In-the-Ear%20Recording%20Concept.pdf">such technology is in its infancy</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=275&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/112422/original/image-20160222-25891-1gu316e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=345&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Multimodal biometric authentication.</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>One future technology being developed for mobile devices is an ultrasound scanner that <a href="http://www.lintech.org/savad/index.html">maps part of the face shape</a> of a person speaking. This is not just a snapshot of the face, but a recording of how the mouth of the speaker moves as the words are spoken. The biometric aspect is not just confined to the sound of the voice but includes the way the mouth shape changes as the voice is produced. The required hardware is even built into most smartphones already.</p>
<p>Imagine walking into a bakery and picking up a crusty farmhouse loaf. You take it over to the baker and say “I would like to buy this, please.” “That will be two pounds, do you wish to proceed with the purchase?” replies the baker. “Yes, please proceed,” you say, and wait for their “Okay” before walking out with your loaf. No cash, no payment card and no personal details divulged. </p>
<p>It might sound like a scene from a bygone era when you knew your local baker and maintained an account with them. But it is, in fact, a future that researchers are working hard to enable. <a href="http://www.bankingtech.com/47982/Biometrics-the-case-for-convenience/">Your smartphone will employ voice authentication and speech recognition technology to authorise the payment with your bank</a> who will confirm the transaction electronically with the baker. Meanwhile, a <a href="http://quintessentialthinking.com.au/uploaded_files/pos.pdf?PHPSESSID=92d3559682c19aade822be530c356e16">point-of-sale video recording</a> of the transaction will be lodged with both your bank and the bakery. So while you shouldn’t throw away your passwords just yet, you can expect some exciting developments in this area over the next few years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55184/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>I have recently been awarded (but has not yet used) Faculty Research funding from Google to explore the biometric potential of speech and ultrasonic speech. This project has not yet started - it is due to start in June 2016 - and thus there are obviously no results yet.
The funding is a one-off "unrestricted gift" that has no strings attached.
Anyway, I haven't mentioned Google in the article.</span></em></p>Plans to introduce voice and facial recognition technology for online shopping and banking point to a password-free future.Ian McLoughlin, Professor of Computing, Head of School (Medway), University of KentLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/422062015-05-22T13:08:44Z2015-05-22T13:08:44ZAre Asians more obsessed with a bargain hunt than Westerners?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82673/original/image-20150522-32578-10edwkw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Research suggests Asians are more driven to find bargains, whatever the cost.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jeepersmedia/13906755723/in/photolist-nbTKYp-kNykud-g9qZy7-nWV6ZA-pYAygz-4cwF3o-chTsUA-chTkoG-4QdJYH-nd42Tu-4RyVpW-bmxNyg-chTe71-chTeud-chToUA-ooh1EG-chThA5-drsHhs-byYwF7-gq4Cbc-kNwXYi-chTsxU-o7dnZh-chTcSJ-7VbnkH-byYwsG-bMTc6P-o95FJa-chTs1Q-kNxiHi-kNxjp8-chT9n3-qU2oiV-5BN95m-nPPNtL-nPQwgx-nPPfqi-nf6E4M-nf6ran-nd42or-nf6tGr-nd3YBQ-nf6pnK-nf6pRv-nd44uf-nPPcgx-fSNLTQ-Jm77k-o71psk-iVFMmc">Mike Mozart</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>When online shopping emerged as a global phenomenon in the early 2000s, I remember reading prophecies that consumers would now cruise far and wide across the internet for the best ever bargains, because search had become completely effortless. A decade on, it appears that people can get click-weary more easily than the pundits might have presumed. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/1251933">Academic studies</a> have long pictured consumers as somewhat lethargic when it comes to search.
Studies <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.22910/abstract">have shown</a>, for example, that people are not very likely to click beyond the top few links on a results page so if a company’s website is to have high visibility on the internet, it must rank high on search engines’ results pages. So in practice, consumers might look at only a couple of popular online vendors before making a purchase – even though they could have checked out a few more without much extra effort but with some chance of nailing a better deal.</p>
<p>However, these observations have largely come from the West. I grew up in the shopping mecca that is Hong Kong, and my impression of consumers there is that they can go to great lengths to net the cheapest offer – online or offline. They might even take weekend shopping expeditions to another country just because of some hearsay bargain hunting opportunities. It doesn’t matter to them that at the time, effort and other expenses along the way would make the endeavour a Pyrrhic victory. </p>
<h2>Our bargain hunt experiment</h2>
<p>As it turns out, my PhD student Jake Pattaratanakun, who is from Thailand, shared similar thoughts. We decided to investigate how Asian consumers may be different from Westerners when it comes to bargain hunting. We put together <a href="http://www.jbs.cam.ac.uk/fileadmin/user_upload/faculty/downloads/mak-culturemoderatesbiases.pdf">a study</a> to be published in Psychological Science and which involved hundreds of students in the UK and Thailand. The results showed that Asians are more inclined than Westerners to spend longer searching online for the best deals because they are more sensitive to the “sunk cost” – the previous unrecoverable time and effort spent trawling the internet for deals.</p>
<p>The game we had the students play was very simple. Their objective was to purchase a virtual good. They could visit any number of virtual shops to buy this good, but different shops charged different prices for it. They only saw the price offered at a shop once they had visited it; but visiting a new shop cost them game tokens – a “search cost”. This meant they could discover better deals (lower prices) by visiting new shops, but at the expense of a higher search cost. At the end of the game (once they’d purchased the good) their eventual earnings were calculated as 700 tokens (the value of the good) minus the price offered at the shop they bought the good from and the total search costs they incurred.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/82601/original/image-20150521-1001-wrcgf7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Serious about shopping.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/gallery-813493p1.html">nui7711 / Shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The ‘sunk cost effect’</h2>
<p>In one experiment, we directly compared how UK and Thai participants fared in this game. We found that UK participants often did not search enough, even when it was in their interest – they gave up pretty quickly. Thai participants, however, loved to search. Even when the search was costly they would visit new virtual shops – they seemed to enjoy the Pyrrhic victory. </p>
<p>We surmised that our Thai participants were driven by the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0749597885900494">“sunk cost effect”</a>. This is a psychological phenomenon where a person becomes especially motivated to continue doing a task after having committed a lot of investment in it (the investment could be financial, physical, or just time). So a manager could become bent on pursuing a pet project to the bitter end, even when the project looks doomed half way through because they had already sunk so much effort into it that they cannot let go. </p>
<p>Our experiment hints at a sunk cost effect in consumer search, but only for the Asian participants. This corroborates with <a href="http://www.jstor.org/stable/3250940">previous cross-cultural studies</a> which has found that, in some other types of decision making, Asians also tend to be more easily hooked on sunk costs than Westerners.</p>
<h2>Switching between Asian and Western</h2>
<p>In two further experiments, we had participants who were Asian but were similarly at ease in both Thai and Western cultures. In one experiment, half of the participants played the game via a Thai interface and the other half via an English interface. We then had them switch interfaces after a three month gap.</p>
<p>The results from both experiments were clear: participants’ search behaviour could be switched to either the Asian or Western way, depending on the interface they were using – they searched more when searching in Thai, but searched less when searching in English.</p>
<p>In a final experiment, we modified the interface slightly so that the search costs were mentioned much less often than before. Accordingly, the Thai participants searched less when they were rarely prompted about their sunk search costs – showing it was a concern for their sunk costs that caused them to search more.</p>
<p>Although our experiments were conducted with Thai and UK participants, the results fit well with <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022435900000464">previous cross-cultural studies</a> that suggest that while Westerners lack the drive to bargain hunt, Asian consumers enjoy tearing through product and price information in a quest for the holy grail of the best buy – or at least because they have already committed to the task and want to redeem their sunk costs.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42206/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Vincent Mak does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Research shows that Asians are more inclined than Westerners to spend too long searching online for the best deals.Vincent Mak, University Lecturer in Marketing, Cambridge Judge Business SchoolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/367222015-01-28T17:40:19Z2015-01-28T17:40:19ZNet expansion driven by mobile presents risks and opportunities for marketers<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70286/original/image-20150128-22299-h6n5od.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Internet growth shows no sign of slowing.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">WeAreSocial.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A study of 30 major world economies reveals how worldwide internet use continues to expand to more than three billion users, but it also demonstrates also how this growth is being driven by mobile phones and social media, particularly in the developing world.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://wearesocial.net/blog/2015/01/digital-social-mobile-worldwide-2015/">report</a>, from marketing agency We Are Social, contains fascinating details comparing countries worldwide. Canada, for example, has the world’s highest penetration of internet users at 93%, while South Koreans enjoy the fastest internet speeds – which, at 25.3Mb/s, are almost six times the global average of 4.5Mb/s.</p>
<p>Many individuals own more than one device – total mobile subscriptions top seven billion, while the number of unique users is just over half that (3.65 billion). Of these, 39% of the mobile phone connections are classed as broadband, meaning 3G or 4G. </p>
<p>This growth means there are 185m additional mobile users compared to 2014. Given this trajectory it’s easy to predict that quite soon there will be a mobile subscription for every man, woman and child on the plant. </p>
<h2>Mobile in the driving seat</h2>
<p>Globally, in the past five years alone the proportion of web pages served to mobile devices – phones and tablets rather than laptop or desktop computers – has grown from 0.7% to 33%. In the same period the data downloaded per user to mobile devices has risen from roughly 4MB to 900MB per month. </p>
<p>In India, more than 70% of web pages served are to mobile devices, perhaps explained by the roll-out of mobile rather than fixed-line networks across the vast country. This “leapfrogging” of a technological generation – from no phone services, skipping past landlines directly to mobile networks – is common across the developing world. However, cultural and social reasons also play a part: take Hong Kong, which has mature fixed-line telephony but a mobile social networking rate twice the global average. Or Russia, where only 12% of web pages are served to mobile devices.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70299/original/image-20150128-22322-uzs6a7.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Developing countries eschew fixed line for mobile telecoms.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WeAreSocial.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But while <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-31012410">peaks</a> can be caused by new product releases – such as Apple’s iPhone 6 causing <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/27/apple-record-quarterly-earnings-report-iphone-6-plus">record-breaking profits</a> – mobile subscriptions generally follow a pattern of <a href="http://www.ccsinsight.com/press/company-news/1884-slowdown-hits-uk-smartphone-and-tablet-sales-tough-competition-looms">maturity and decline</a>. In the UK, mobile subscriptions are at 117% of population (74.8m) which is a decline of 9% since January 2014. However, our reliance on them has increased, where usage per device has risen by 20 minutes per day to 1hr 52m. One explanation is that the increasing availability of free Wi-Fi in cafes, shops, stations and other public places has allowed users to get by without a mobile data subscription for their second devices.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/70290/original/image-20150128-22325-1m37i5i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">More people are online, more of the time, buying stuff.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">WeAreSocial.com</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Risks and opportunities</h2>
<p>Roughly a quarter of us regularly use mobile phones for watching videos, managing our money, or researching products we might purchase. And this presents a massive opportunity for marketers – when we are considering a purchase we might be open to an offer that can be used when in an actual shop. We might also have given access, through an app, to personal information. The fact that 18% of us bought something online from a mobile device in the past month suggests there’s potential. But there are complications.</p>
<p>First, according to <a href="https://hbr.org/2013/01/how-people-really-use-mobile">recent research</a>, 68% of smartphone use is at home – not, ironically, taking advantage of mobility when away from laptop or desktop computers, but even when in the same room. So while mobiles are key elements of how we research and shop for products, it is often as a “second screen” while we are at home watching television or using laptops, not in a shop preparing to purchase.</p>
<p>Second, while <a href="http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/press-room/2013/nielsen--earned-advertising-remains-most-credible-among-consumer.html">trust in mobile advertising</a> as a source of information has increased in recent years, in comparison with others – personal recommendations, for example – it still ranks among the lowest.</p>
<p>In the We Are Social report there’s evidence that <a href="http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=5694070&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D5694070">mobile location-based search</a> was used by 15% of respondents in the past month. This is where the search engine algorithm includes location data in its response: we search for the latest film release and the times for our local cinemas are included in the result. </p>
<p>This marks the approach of <a href="http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=775250">semantic search</a> which resolves the meaning of search requests, rather than simply keyword matching. Better semantic search boosts the usefulness of mobile devices even more, which firms can use with personalised offers to try and overcome their consumers’ trust issues.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/36722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Chris Archer-Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A study of 30 major world economies reveals how worldwide internet use continues to expand to more than three billion users, but it also demonstrates also how this growth is being driven by mobile phones…Chris Archer-Brown, Lecturer in Information Systems, University of BathLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/354492014-12-30T13:00:05Z2014-12-30T13:00:05ZBrick-and-mortar retailers must reinvent themselves to survive the shift to online shopping<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67848/original/image-20141219-31542-25srhj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Apple is considered a leader in designing "experience" stores. Some of their retail outlets in Manhattan have become tourist destinations. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers registered another lackluster holiday shopping season, while online sales have remained upbeat since Cyber Monday. As more consumers spend a larger share of their dollars online, does this signal the days of shopping at department stores and shopping malls are numbered? </p>
<p><a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/45516.wss">Cyber Monday sales</a> this year were up 8.7% compared with 2013, led by a sharp increase in mobile transactions according to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark. Sales over mobile devices jumped 29%. That’s a sharp contrast with the mostly bad news for brick-and-mortar stores, which saw about <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2014/11/30/news/economy/black-friday-nrf-estimate/">6 million fewer shoppers</a> over the Thanksgiving weekend, with overall spending down about 11%, according to the National Retail Federation. </p>
<p>One can reminisce about the days when department stores and mega-malls were among the main places for Americans to meet, socialize and, of course, shop. Spending an afternoon at the big downtown department stores used to be a family treat during the holiday shopping season. The experience eventually evolved more into trips to the mall – which were typically anchored by a major department store or two. </p>
<p>That’s all changed. We have certainly witnessed in recent years a pronounced uptick in terms of consumers doing their shopping online and through various mobile devices and applications. That’s the trend, but does it really mean people will shop exclusively on these devices in the not-too-distant future? Are we in the final days of a major retail shopping shakeup that will eventually make department and other physical stores a thing of the past? </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67953/original/image-20141222-31560-19t0avj.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Woolworth’s was an iconic downtown department store that symbolizes its status in American life back in the day. The national chain went out of business in 1997.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/montrealblues/3362790256/in/photolist-68abom-hUhzq-wUpV8-62n48L-6bVWXZ-5MXBXq-3i8Qey-bmf5rz-oWsKKR-aCsL3b-7kcdbq-5MXMiY-rYEW6-5MBDcx-5MyiK2-7kceaC-2q12dH-7k8jA2-7k8j84-ga6C1N-jgrFBK-83HRxK-83gsUK-dXeYju-7bRmsD-5SgoZa-9RqtKS-psk4gT-5PaZKX-bmf4Va-6KJUNu-6KJW69-aguG3C-2q12JX-aymsfC-92qv1P-5MHeDq-5ULfjo-abydMG-6KEPLZ-d2TUiC-aymsiq-fkMpdA-5TzWF7-h1GeK-7kcdZd-6f5Zhc-DvpEq-dwrDMx-6LwAAQ">Voici Montréal-This is Montreal/Flickr via CC BY-SA</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Touch and feel</h2>
<p>Recent news from online mega-retailer Amazon suggests both yes and no. Reports surfaced in October that the Seattle-based company said it plans to open its <a href="http://www.upi.com/Business_News/2014/12/11/Amazon-to-open-physical-store-in-New-York-City-offering-same-day-delivery/2331418301912/">first physical store</a> ever – in Manhattan – suggesting Amazon sees value in bricks and mortar. And then this month, the company said it’s launching <a href="http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=newssearch&cd=6&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0CEMQqQIoADAF&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wsj.com%2Farticles%2Famazon-tests-bike-messengers-for-one-hour-delivery-in-new-york-city-1418071863&ei=hn-YVPr8L9PasAShkoFw&usg=AFQjCNEqEl1J-NiAt05d0OSorJ9WRej7fA&sig2=P5d2ef3Fc1vgpyGG4daGNg&bvm=bv.82001339,d.cWc">one-hour delivery service</a>, also in Manhattan, a significant step in shipping so that it takes just a few clicks online and minutes later the product we want is in our hands. </p>
<p>There will always be a certain segment of the population who will frequent brick-and-mortar stores for the opportunity to “touch and feel” the merchandise. This is an important aspect for some age groups such as Baby Boomers and Generation X. On the other hand, the millennials and other younger generations tend to buy their clothes and gadgets online. </p>
<p>A desire for “instant gratification” or “instant ownership” is still key with some buyers – including youths – who appreciate the ability to touch, feel and buy an item all in the same moment, currently only possible at a physical store. Amazon’s one-hour delivery service, however, may begin to eat away at this. </p>
<p>On the other hand, many people prefer to snag the best deal after surveying a large number of products, something difficult to do in stores, especially when their are large crowds, and don’t mind waiting for their purchase to show up days later in the mail. That jives with the sense that we’re a more “deal-oriented” society today.</p>
<h2>Reinventing brick and mortar</h2>
<p>So then what do brick-and-mortar stores need to do to survive and even thrive – and lure those mystifying millennials? </p>
<p>Traditional brick-and-mortar stores may be struggling due to the meteoric rise of online shopping, but it doesn’t mean they’re losing out on those sales – they’re just moving to their website. While some argue that eventually it’ll all be online, I contend that physical stores will be around for some time to come – if and only if they are successful at reinventing themselves more in the mold of Apple as experience stores.</p>
<p>Some stores have excelled at doing this and creating an “in-store experience” that’s about more than trying to find a t-shirt or new computer, such as Nordstrom and Apple. Others will have to adopt similar techniques to compete. Clothing retailer JC Penney, for example, is <a href="http://www.talentzoo.com/beneath-the-brand/blog_news.php?articleID=12959">in the midst</a> of trying to reinvent its shopping experience to make it more than just a transaction with a cashier. </p>
<h2>Value-added transactions</h2>
<p>Retailers need to add value to the transaction to make it worth the trip away from the convenience of the computer. The entire in-store experience must be enriched. Necessary elements include: </p>
<ul>
<li><p>knowledgeable, professional and courteous employees who will do everything to ensure customer satisfaction (Nordstrom and Apple do this well)</p></li>
<li><p>conduct continuous customer research to always better understand what prospective consumers will be searching for</p></li>
<li><p>a pleasant store environment and ambiance that is soothing and inviting to the customer’s senses</p></li>
<li><p>warranties and guarantees that leave no doubt in the consumer’s mind that this is the place to do business</p></li>
<li><p>irresistible and creative in-store displays that attract the consumer</p></li>
<li><p>an integrated e-commerce, online marketing approach within the storefront architecture so that all shoppers will get the “best of all worlds.”</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Traditional department stores and malls were once <em>the</em> social hub for people to meet, converse, shop, eat and enjoy life. There is no reason that they cannot be re-invented and rejuvenated to serve that role once again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35449/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>George Cook does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Department stores and other brick-and-mortar retailers registered another lackluster holiday shopping season, while online sales have remained upbeat since Cyber Monday. As more consumers spend a larger…George Cook, Executive Professor of Marketing and Psychology, University of RochesterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/355212014-12-15T15:49:21Z2014-12-15T15:49:21ZAmazon price glitch: to buy or not to buy, that is the moral question<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67242/original/image-20141215-5254-zsehvp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">"In a dance as old as time": Bristol shoppers get ready for some 1950s bargains</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/brizzlebornandbred/8482322048/in/photolist-dVy7PS-5uMK6-5MnsCd-dGjqkY-5uLgk-5uRgf-5uPLc-6LJVUR-5RB6PJ-8Wgtd-hiE2pF-6bXAFY-aFbuaF-5uKab-5rmG5A-5gMUBi-eg2yW-opFu2w-e5mmaT-9x6s9R-7Fjw8s-ctGFrm-ctHmY9-eh2RZj-4jDCXz-o8dgp4-ctGLa1-66EofK-ctGQJu-7vtYfg-ctGM83-o8dhgz-o8dfor-gRp2W8-f2jNfQ-gRmD4j-gRpzXH-4F2jfQ-6qUfqR-gRo9Gz-gRoWfG-gRnbuL-gRpfZT-gRnDgH-gRom7k-gRnh5e-gRnBDc-gRoLuj-gRmJ3h-gRmvJv/">Paul Townsend</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Christmas is never plain sailing. It’s tough on consumers trying to work out how much food to buy and how to get their hands on the latest must-have toy for children, and it’s tough for retailers trying to get the sales through the tills at what needs to be their busiest time of the year. </p>
<p>Perhaps retailers are more fixated by Christmas than consumers are; remember that most retailers are looking for at least one quarter of their sales in the month leading up to Christmas. So, when there is a hitch in the Christmas system it can spell problems for all. </p>
<p>Delivery companies, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30461853">and Yodel in particular</a>, have been in the news this Christmas for a variety of problems including non-delivery of goods. And now Amazon has hit the headlines with a <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/11292999/Amazon-glitch-leads-to-rush-over-1p-bargains.html">technical problem with its pricing software</a> from a third party provider. The problem led to hundreds of goods being sold on Amazon for as little as 1p. Poetic justice some might say, as this pricing software is continually adjusting Amazon’s prices to undercut rival suppliers. But if Amazon sneezes, Amazon’s <a href="http://support.repricerexpress.com/hc/communities/200054121/questions/200908861-All-my-items-repriced-to-1p-at-about-7pm-tonight?locale=en-us">Marketplace Sellers can find they catch pneumonia</a>. Such was the impact that some were reportedly concerned that the loss of money could bankrupt their businesses if they had to provide the goods at such low prices. </p>
<h2>Common cause</h2>
<p>Perhaps there will emerge a consensus among retailers about a response to mistakenly mis-priced goods. Most internet sellers have experienced this at one time or another, and some have responded by not fulfilling the orders and writing to explain the error (with a <a href="https://www.trustpilot.co.uk/review/www.johnlewis.com">little sweetener included, of course</a>). For a while it looked as if Amazon might leave its Marketplace Sellers to fulfil their orders at the 1p prices, but third party service, RepricerExpress says <a href="http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/cab/abn/y14/m12/i15/s01">Amazon’s latest response</a> is that sellers will not be penalised. Quite what that means, and whether customers who miss out are in their thoughts, is less clear. So, is this just another flurry around a computer glitch or are these problems a sign of other trends in the market place? </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67244/original/image-20141215-5266-15yeo27.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">No mugs. Amazon shoppers snapped into action.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/cheukiecfu/5252835702/in/photolist-4jwFhk-q5j98N-8bifjD-4Y9yob-9CrJAg-9Wz6qT-8bmwZL-71JcXe-6MJbAG-8bieLe-oJKefg-8bieSP-8bif7e-8bmwKj-wvih4-8xKZ7G-91836r-91ba3N-91b9EC-9183mR-oVpnjg-bmgNP8-pNqWnQ-6XfPVq-9LgfdU-9LiQ91-aYVgYr-9Ln1yv-91838X-9182Zt-9183fa-Lsd9-5woyHz-orUhVg-NY4ok-8xGXqD-8xKZ7y-8xKZ8d-8xKZ7f-7zY3MR-555WoR-9CuC2N-91ba9J-9LmYwB-9LpWdq-9Lid91-9HU3kv-9LpNZQ-9Lfqgk-77h17L">cheukiecfu</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The Amazon sneeze has unfortunately revealed the flip side of the Christmas spirit among consumers. Twitter and Facebook were awash with people boasting of the hundreds of bargains they had scooped up including items that they say they did not need. That doesn’t sound like the Christmas spirit. When you see a bargain due to a mis-pricing (and you can’t say it’s not obvious) and if it’s not something you want, should you buy it, or should you pass it by? Maybe there’s nothing wrong with snapping up a mis-priced bargain; but then crowing about it to the world?</p>
<p>Maybe these bargain hunters ignore the small-scale supplier and see the only loser as the big corporation, in this case Amazon. Or perhaps they see it as the invisible hand of Father Christmas at work, who knows? Business probably has to take its fair share of the blame. In the last month we have been encouraged to spend both in the High Street and on the internet like never before. The daily carousel of tempting tasty treats drifting through our inboxes must drive many of us to distraction, and if every now and we see a freebie and grab it, are we to blame? Retailers have been sending out daily emails before and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-american-gift-to-the-uk-the-black-friday-consumer-splurge-34609">since Black Friday </a>and <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-american-gift-to-the-uk-the-black-friday-consumer-splurge-34609">Cyber Monday</a> luring us to spend with wave after wave of discounts. They have encouraged us to look for a flash sales bargain rather than simple, reasonably priced goods. Part of the problem with current consumer behaviour might just be a case of companies not being careful enough what they wish for.</p>
<h2>Break in the chain</h2>
<p>When businesses encourage consumption they have to be sure that they have the infrastructure and that it works. Interestingly, the Yodel issue is not new. When companies first started internet ordering there were <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1092318/A-million-Christmas-presents-missing-post-week--hope-dedicated-team-elfish-Santa-Detectives.html">masses of issues with parcels not arriving</a> in time for Christmas. Businesses are required to forecast sales and they don’t always get it right. They encourage purchasing but they may be reluctant to invest in the infrastructure that is going to support a hoped-for sales increase. Unpredictable events like rain in the summer, or a mild winter can tilt sales alarmingly, and undermine such infrastructure investments. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=441&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/67245/original/image-20141215-5275-17ouhbs.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=554&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Click and Collect. Shouldn’t make sense, but it’s working.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ell-r-brown/12013796446/in/photolist-jiBR8u-poCgLF-ej51GK-bpv2EC-95Pnna-iPAnJZ-6gUp9u-7AHnPz-dDhCDN-efpn1J-nonoGe-pbnrAj-p9LQKw-oxGqqG-orT4Vx-oYEtfU-nLmjTd-phk3c7-nLJTyg-oCQQZt-dxvHgB-o4dYDz-73o94B-9vajsV-7zC1J2-hoW183-nir43-24kwT-p5Nwyj-87s2yP-nbMjhH-pvJWMc-dYApV9-iNM2Nb-fPZ26W-dHMvAf-nTUJKx-datqfM-jfQmJX-nTUJM6-cqy5s1-a5e2ov-3j9mdL-nBHiTd-a5gTSQ-a5gTVh-j5XGin-nU813q-9bZWVh-brfKJ6">Elliott Brown</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>But it is not all bad news this Christmas for consumers or retailers. A recent report has shown that the <a href="http://www.retailtimes.co.uk/uk-retailers-predict-click-collect-surge-christmas-trading-period-reports-barclays/">growth in click-and-collect</a> has benefited both. Click-and-Collect must be one of the biggest contradictions in internet shopping, you buy it online, yet you go to the shops to pick it up. Yes of course it was designed for people who couldn’t receive parcels at home, but now it’s also popular with people who are at home all day! Anyway, for retailers it means that consumers may spend more when they visit the retail parks to collect their parcels, and they can be sure that they actually get their parcels delivered.</p>
<p>I for one am pleased that the latest email messages I am getting remind me that I only have a couple of days left to order for Christmas. Of course these are swiftly followed by alerts telling me when the winter sale begins, but before we put the credit card away for a few days we shouldn’t forget that while businesses may be responsible for encouraging our consumption, we are citizens as well as consumers and that should mean we act ethically even when we see a bargain too good to be true.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/35521/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
Christmas is never plain sailing. It’s tough on consumers trying to work out how much food to buy and how to get their hands on the latest must-have toy for children, and it’s tough for retailers trying…Isabelle Szmigin, Professor of Marketing, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/348842014-12-01T16:34:21Z2014-12-01T16:34:21ZShopping online at work? Feel free to blame your boss<p>On Friday we witnessed <a href="https://theconversation.com/retail-rage-why-black-friday-leads-shoppers-to-behave-badly-34041">images reminiscent of the London Riots</a> from a few years ago. People with a crazed look in their eyes <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-american-gift-to-the-uk-the-black-friday-consumer-splurge-34609">descended on shopping malls</a> to plunder their contents. They fought with others over flat screen TVs and emerged, arms full of consumer goods they did not even know they needed. This time, at least, it was legal.</p>
<p>As sure as Boxing Day follows Christmas, so Cyber Monday now follows Black Friday. It presents an altogether different scene. Instead of people brawling over electrical equipment, hundreds of thousands of people around the country sit quietly in their office. Instead of spending their day working, they will spend a good chunk of it chasing bargains on various internet sites. </p>
<p>This is a bonanza for retailers, but in many ways it amounts to a mass withdrawal of productive labour. In the past, this might have been called a general strike. Now it seems we are all willing to collectively row back on working for a day in order to start shopping online. </p>
<h2>Clocking off</h2>
<p>It is a relatively recent phenomenon. The term was first coined in the US <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/30/technology/30iht-cyber.html?scp=12&sq=cyber%20Thursday&st=cse&_r=0">about 2005</a> and popularised in the UK around 2009. Alongside its “real world” twin, Cyber Monday marks the beginning of the Christmas sales period; according to one marketing services company, UK consumers will spend £649.5m on Dec 1 this year, <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-30273742">a 26% increase on Cyber Monday the previous year</a>. In the US, the spend was US$1,735m which was <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_Monday">an 18% increase on the previous year</a>. </p>
<p>While Cyber Monday is a big day on for internet retailers, it seems to be a big day off for many of the work force. Instead of officially taking a holiday, many employees show up to work, informally clock off, and then spend a few hours hunting for bargains online. What this means is that a significant amount of the shopping done on this big shopping day is done on company time. Following Sunday evenings, 4pm during weekdays is <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/internet/7963109/Office-workers-stop-working-start-online-shopping-on-Wednesday-at-4pm.html">typically the busiest times for internet shopping</a>. </p>
<p>One US survey <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jacquelynsmith/2012/11/26/half-of-all-workers-will-do-online-holiday-shopping-at-work-this-year/">found that 49% of employees</a> planned to spend some of their work time during the Christmas holiday period shopping online. Another UK survey <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2818776/Are-sneaky-office-shopper-Research-reveals-workers-spend-NINE-days-year-shopping-online-work.html">found that 53% of employees</a> will do some of their Christmas shopping online while at work. </p>
<h2>One loaf short …</h2>
<p>It might seem productive, at least to those with lengthy Christmas lists to tick off, but internet shopping is a quintessential form of what has become known as <a href="http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/37a5b704-7b5d-11e2-8eed-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3KermIfIR">“cyber loafing”</a>. This involves the use of working time to engage in unproductive surfing of the internet – usually for personal purposes. Cyber loafing can come in many forms, from briefly checking in to a social network which might take up a few minutes to extended online shopping sprees or hardcore internet surfing sessions which can wile away whole workdays. </p>
<p>The prevalence of cyber loafing naturally leads us to ask why employees do it. The existing research suggests that employees who are not particularly interested in their job (lower intrinsic motivation and less involved) <a href="http://iscience.deusto.es/wp-content/uploads/2011/09/Liberman-Seidman-McKenna-Buffardi-2011-Computers-in-Human-Behavior.pdf">were more likely to cyber loaf</a>. The cultural norms of the workplace seemed to also make a difference. In workplaces where cyber loafing was informally accepted, people were more likely engage in minor acts of cyber loafing such as checking emails, <a href="http://clas-pages.uncc.edu/anitablanchard/files/2011/06/BlanchardHenle2008.pdf">but they tended to avoid major bouts</a>. When people perceive their workplace to be unjust, <a href="http://bschool.nus.edu/Staff/bizlimv/publications/Lim%20(JOB%202002).pdf">they were also more likely to engage in cyber loafing</a>. One study found that the <a href="http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563211000604">most keen cyber loafers are young, male</a>, from ethnic minorities and more frequent internet users. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=393&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65968/original/image-20141201-20591-1ot4whm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=493&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Feet up. Productivity flat.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/thelifeofbryan/133627349/in/photolist-cNSKP-aFpUXk-boswTu-f9vY52-72ECyJ-4utT9D-6afxx5-7pe7HQ-7yRNV5-7yN6ji-9mz1uJ-Ybmr-53KSLG-6SxoM-nfwRYg-nfwRX5-2uEzhb-8mkAac-5Fsxv3-89erKE-cifCu9-8tEDVv-x3LPJ-aBt9fc-fM5Bad-7HhesQ-7AkoxJ-6Gm14s-6tKNUp-wi8Fs-bNS9FF-6tKNBF-6GgUyg-6DSjD7-6DNFmR-dctQx">Bryan</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recent, fascinating study by Roland Paulsen suggests that some people engage in cyber loafing because they <a href="http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/management/human-resource-management/empty-labor-idleness-and-workplace-resistance">simply don’t have enough tasks</a> to do at work. This might seem like a good deal, but not having enough to do can actually be very boring. As a result, many of the people interviewed applied their languishing work ethic to online activities such as reading the newspaper, playing video games and high involvement shopping. By filling up their days with high involvement cyber-loafing, Paulsen found that these bored workers could give some meaning to the endless stretch of time which lay before them. </p>
<h2>Performance neutral</h2>
<p>Cyber loafing is often seen as a waste of time and energy. However, a recent study suggests that moderate levels <a href="http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=5153&context=etd&sei-redir=1&referer=http%3A%2F%2Fscholar.google.co.uk%2Fscholar%3Fstart%3D20%26q%3Dcyberloafing%26hl%3Den%26as_sdt%3D0%2C5%26as_ylo%3D2010#search=%22cyberloafing%22">don’t have much impact on performance in work tasks</a>. Actually, it appears that a little cyber loafing can actually have an upside. One study reports that some forms can actually trigger more positive moods in people. The lesson, though, is to keep it impersonal: checking emails <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01449290903353054#.VHwXLhaPnu0">often made people less happy</a>. </p>
<p>What all this suggests is that the many millions of hours which will be “wasted” at work by employees shopping this Christmas season may not be an entirely bad thing. It certainly fuels the consumer economy. But perhaps more importantly, it means that if you’re not particularly motivated by your job, then you can fairly easily lift your mood; and wave some research about negligible productivity losses under the boss’s nose if you get caught.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34884/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Andre Spicer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>On Friday we witnessed images reminiscent of the London Riots from a few years ago. People with a crazed look in their eyes descended on shopping malls to plunder their contents. They fought with others…Andre Spicer, Professor of Organisational Behaviour, Cass Business School, City, University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/340412014-11-28T07:43:30Z2014-11-28T07:43:30ZRetail rage: why Black Friday leads shoppers to behave badly<p>The manic nature of <a href="https://blackfriday.com/pages/black-friday-history">Black Friday</a> has often led shoppers to engage in fistfights and other misbehavior in their desperation to snatch up the last ultra-discounted television, computer or pair of pants. What is it about the day after Thanksgiving, historically one of the busiest shopping days of the year and traditionally the start of the holiday season, that inspires consumers to misbehave? </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.emeraldinsight.com/journals.htm?articleid=1931057&show=abstract">unique characteristics</a> of Black Friday sales promotions and the frantic retail environment they create, coupled with the shoppers’ own physical and emotional states combine to loosen the emotional constraints. Retailers heavily promote their most desirable items at deeply discounted prices in order to encourage more foot traffic. Demand for those precious few items naturally exceeds supply, and that imbalance can lead to aggressive consumer behavior. </p>
<p>But another key ingredient results from the very timing of the sales, which may begin at midnight or early in the morning and require eager customers to camp outside a store all night: sleep deprivation. That means many Black Friday shoppers’ cognitive levels are not functioning at top form, resulting in impaired decision-making and heightened negative mood states, thus facilitating misbehavior. </p>
<p>Research several colleagues and I conducted to identify <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1386/fspc.1.2.193_1">what are the causes of consumer misbehavior</a> on Black Friday focused on two situational variables: crowding and unpleasant behavior of fellow shoppers (that is, behaving rudely and arguing). Both variables are implicated whenever Black Friday miscreants make it into the press. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=370&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/65816/original/image-20141128-9758-1a84t1e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=465&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Thanksgiving Day holiday shoppers line up with television sets on discount at the Target retail store in Chicago, Illinois, in 2013.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Reuters</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Crowding can be good – or bad</h2>
<p>On the whole, the large crowds that congregate on Black Friday had positive effects on <a href="http://thekeep.eiu.edu/fcs_fac/13/">consumer behavior</a>, reducing dissatisfaction and aggression and thus errant activity as well, according to our study. When consumers are expecting it, the negative impact is mild. All it takes is one bad seed, however; the unpleasant behavior of some shoppers can ruin the experience for others and interfere with their efforts to obtain a desired item. Being unable to purchase the advertised product strikes them as unfair, and this perception of inequity frequently leads to misbehavior. </p>
<p>This suggests that shops shouldn’t ignore or accommodate naughty customers. Rather, they need to take proactive actions, such as clearly communicating store policy about misbehaving customers, and be prepared to react immediately to signs of aggression, like removing or ejecting such shoppers. </p>
<p>Retailers could also better curb misbehavior by simply monitoring behavior before customers even enter the premises. For example, if shoppers assume the pushing and shoving outside of a store’s doors is caused by unpleasant fellow customers, they are likely to think there’s some unfairness going on, leading to more misbehavior. </p>
<p>On the other hand, if customers believe the reason for misbehavior is due to overcrowding, they are less likely to perceive inequity and misbehave. Posting signs at entrances or in advertisements reminding shoppers to bear with Black Friday’s crowded conditions may help keep customers civil.</p>
<h2>Cutting down on retail rage</h2>
<p>In general, reducing the number of <a href="http://heinonlinebackup.com/hol-cgi-bin/get_pdf.cgi?handle=hein.journals/saclr50&section=23">unpleasant customers</a> would improve the shopping experience for other shoppers as well as for store employees, and reduce bad behavior. Some steps retailers could take to do this include adding checkout lanes to speed up traffic and putting more employees on the sales floor to improve responsiveness to shopper concerns. </p>
<p>For retailers, Black Friday is meant explicitly to attract these large crowds in hopes of ringing in more sales – hence the original meaning for the day, when companies become profitable for the year or moved into the black. But besides leading to misbehavior, more people jostling over a small number of deeply discounted items can lead to also adds to injuries or even wrongful death lawsuits. Retailers need to balance making more money and the safety of their customers and workers. </p>
<p>Ultimately, customers are responsible for their own behavior. When shoppers behave responsibly, the Black Friday experience isn’t spoiled for their fellow customers and everyone is able to buy their digital goods and clothes in safe and relatively stree-free environment.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/34041/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jaeha Lee does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The manic nature of Black Friday has often led shoppers to engage in fistfights and other misbehavior in their desperation to snatch up the last ultra-discounted television, computer or pair of pants…Jaeha Lee, Associate Professor of Apparel, Design and Hospitality Management , North Dakota State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/334392014-11-03T05:30:53Z2014-11-03T05:30:53ZBuyer beware, online shopping prices vary user to user<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63217/original/8kyfqbm6-1414604663.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">You might not be getting a great deal....</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic.mhtml?id=172983224&src=id">Online shopping image via www.shutterstock.com.</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>People have a mental model of shopping that is based on experiences from brick-and-mortar stores. We intuitively understand how this process works: all available products are displayed around the store and the prices are clearly marked. Many stores offer deals via coupons, membership cards, or to special classes of people such as students or AARP members. Typically, everyone is aware of these discounts and has an equal opportunity to use them.</p>
<p>Many people assume this same mental model of shopping applies just as well to e-commerce websites. However, as we are discovering, this is not the case.</p>
<p>In 2010, shoppers realized that Amazon was charging <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/stories/2000/09/25/daily21.html">different users different prices</a> for the same DVD, a practice known as price discrimination or price differentiation. In 2012, the Wall Street Journal revealed that Staples was charging users different prices based on their <a href="http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424127887323777204578189391813881534">geographic location</a>. The paper also reported that travel retailer Orbitz was showing more expensive hotels to users <a href="http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702304458604577488822667325882">browsing from Mac computers</a>, a practice known as price steering.</p>
<p>These reports of price discrimination and steering provoked a great deal of negative publicity for the companies involved. The lack of transparency also raises many disturbing questions. How widespread are the e-commerce practices of manipulating search results and customizing prices? What customer information do companies use to do it? When e-commerce sites personalize prices or search results, by how much do prices change?</p>
<h2>Price discrimination and steering in the wild</h2>
<p>My <a href="http://personalization.ccs.neu.edu">colleagues and I</a> at Northeastern University have taken an initial stab at answering these questions in a <a href="http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/cbw/pdf/imc151-hannak.pdf">new study</a>. We examined ten major e-retailers – including Walmart and Home Depot – along with six hotel/rental car sites – including Orbitz and Expedia – to determine if they implement price discrimination or steering, and if so, what user attributes trigger the personalization.</p>
<p>We recruited 300 people from the crowdsourcing site <a href="https://www.mturk.com/mturk/welcome">Mechanical Turk</a> to run product searches on the 16 sites. We paired each of these real users, who each had their own real, idiosyncratic browser history, with an <a href="http://phantomjs.org/">automated browser</a> that ran the same searches at the same time as the real users, but did <strong>not</strong> store any cookies. </p>
<p>By comparing the search results shown to these automated controls and to the real users, we identified several cases of personalization. We saw price steering from Sears, with the order of search results varying from user to user. We saw price discrimination from Home Depot, Sears, Cheaptickets, Orbitz, Priceline, Expedia, and Travelocity, with product prices varying from user to user. </p>
<p>So what user attributes trigger personalization? The problem is that real users have a long history of browsed sites, searches, clicks, and online purchases that we as researchers don’t know. Thus, when we observe personalized results in our experiments, we can’t tease out the underlying cause.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63417/original/jttzyw3p-1414773307.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">What is your browser history telling that shopping site about how much to charge you?</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-140850265.html">Shopping image via www.shutterstock.com</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>What makes you seem like you want to pay more?</h2>
<p>To figure out what user attributes drive e-commerce personalization, we conducted another round of testing using fake accounts that we created. All the accounts were identical except for one specific attribute that we changed. In particular, we tested for personalization based on browser (e.g. Chrome, Firefox, IE), platform (e.g. Windows, OSX, iOS, Android), logging-in to a user account, and purchase history (we had one account book cheap hotels and rental cars for a week, while another account booked expensive hotel rooms and rental cars).</p>
<p>Our fake accounts uncovered many different personalization strategies employed by e-commerce sites. For example, Travelocity reduced the prices on 5% of hotel rooms shown in search results by around US$15 per night for smartphone users. Interestingly, Cheaptickets and Orbitz gave unadvertised “Members Only” discounts of about US$12 per night on 5% of hotels rooms to users who were logged-in to their accounts on the site.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=466&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/62985/original/zzf54pc7-1414470691.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=586&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Price discrimination on Cheaptickets: users who log into the site receive ‘Members Only’ discounts of about $12/night on 5% of hotels.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Aniko Hannak et al.</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Expedia and Hotels.com conduct what marketers and engineers call A/B tests to steer a subset of their users toward more expensive hotels. By dividing visitors into different groups, companies are able to use A/B tests to see how users respond to new website features and algorithms. In this case, visitors to Expedia and Hotels.com were randomly assigned to groups <em>A</em>, <em>B</em>, or <em>C</em> based on the cookies stored on their computers. Users in groups <em>A</em> and <em>B</em> were shown hotels with an average price of US$187/night, while users in group <em>C</em> were shown hotels with an average price of US$170/night.</p>
<p>Home Depot served almost completely different products to users on desktops versus mobile devices. A desktop user searching Home Depot typically received 24 search results, with an average price per item of US$120. In contrast, mobile users receive 48 search results, with an average price per item of US$230. Bizarrely, products are also US$0.41 more expensive on average for Android users.</p>
<h2>Why do sites do this?</h2>
<p>Initially, we assumed that the sites would not personalize content, given the extremely negative PR that Amazon, Staples, and Orbitz received when earlier cases were revealed. To our surprise, this was not the case! </p>
<p>Unfortunately, the business logic underlying much of this personalization remains a mystery. None of the discounts we located in our experiments were advertised on sites’ homepages, so the deals do not appear to be part of marketing campaigns. When we spoke to representatives from Orbitz and Expedia, they confirmed our findings, but did not elaborate on the rationale for the design of their websites. Representatives from Travelocity confirmed that they do offer deals for mobile users, with the goal being to motivate them to use the site more and install the Travelocity app.</p>
<h2>What’s a bargain-hunting shopper to do?</h2>
<p>What is clear from our study is that price discrimination and steering on e-commerce sites is becoming more prevalent, and more sophisticated. As a user, it’s almost impossible to know if the prices you are being shown have been altered, or if cheaper products have been hidden from search results.</p>
<p>If you are looking for the best deals and are willing to work for it, we recommend searching for products in your normal desktop browser, an incognito or private browser window, and your mobile device. Of course, e-commerce companies are constantly experimenting with new personalization techniques, so in the future, an entirely different attribute may trigger personalization.</p>
<p>Ultimately, we hope that our study will encourage companies to be more transparent about how they personalize prices and search results. Rather than using opaque and creepy algorithms to secretly alter content, companies could stick to the kinds of real-world incentives that shoppers already know and love, like coupons and sales.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/33439/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Christo Wilson receives funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) under grants CNS-1054233 and CHS-1408345. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.</span></em></p>People have a mental model of shopping that is based on experiences from brick-and-mortar stores. We intuitively understand how this process works: all available products are displayed around the store…Christo Wilson, Assistant Professor of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/232682014-02-17T15:02:24Z2014-02-17T15:02:24ZWe might regret backing Lush over Amazon in trade mark wars<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/41704/original/txp7n34b-1392642098.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Lush's gripe with Amazon is an explosive issue and it's not just about ethics.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">firepile</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The ongoing battle between cosmetics company Lush and internet retailer Amazon is starting to give off a distinctly unsavoury odour. At the beginning, many supported plucky little Lush as it sought to stop Amazon from flogging lookalike bath products when users search for the word “Lush” on the site. Now it is starting to look like the consumer is being left behind as two companies exchange tit for tat.</p>
<p>If you type “Lush” into the search bar on Amazon.co.uk, a list of thousands of products is returned. Most of the top results are bath products by <a href="http://bombcosmetics.co.uk/">Bomb Cosmetics</a>, a fact that is causing a great deal of consternation for Mark and Mo Constantine, the owners of <a href="https://www.lush.co.uk/">Lush</a>.</p>
<p>The Constantines have always refused to sell their products on Amazon.co.uk and have taken the internet giant to court in England over its continued pushing of products similar to theirs. Lush’s reputation has been built around “ethical trading” and the Constantines have said they <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/nov/30/lush-amazon-trademark-court-battle">don’t agree with the way Amazon does its business</a>. But the actual court <a href="http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/Ch/2014/181.html">case</a> does not make the specifics of their objection entirely clear.</p>
<p>That’s because this case is not, and should not be about ethics. However much we might admire the politics of Lush or resent how Amazon operates, their respective reputations are not really the point here.</p>
<p>The nub of the issue is on the one hand, the extent of the control the Constantines can exert over the use of the word “Lush” in association with bath cosmetics when it is registered as a trade mark and, on the other hand, Amazon’s business model. Amazon relies on being able to offer a wide range of products, the keyword references to which are built up through intelligence gathered from searches performed by consumers when looking for goods.</p>
<p>And it’s not the only company that depends on this model. Internet companies the world over will be taking note of this case. This is just the latest in a long line of disputes concerning trade marks and keyword advertising. They happen when one company uses keywords that might be registered trade marks in order to draw the attention of customers to their goods and services or to the goods and services of a favoured third party.</p>
<p>Google, eBay, Interflora, Marks & Spencer and numerous others have all been involved in one way or another in this type of litigation. LINKS</p>
<h2>As sticky as a half-used bath bomb</h2>
<p>What sets the Lush case apart is that Amazon was found to have been using the word “Lush” in its commercial communications, whereas eBay only acts as an <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/12/09/us-ebay-idUSTRE6B82AE20101209">online marketplace</a> for trade marked products.</p>
<p>The question here was whether Amazon’s use implicated one of the functions of a trade mark, such as by identifying the original source of a product, advertising it or affecting potential investment in that product. The court said there was no indication that Lush products were not available for purchase on Amazon. And given the consumer had been informed, via a drop down menu, that “Lush bath bombs” were available, an average consumer would not “without difficulty” know that the goods that show up in a search do not originate from the brand Lush.</p>
<p>That the appearance and branding of Bomb Cosmetics products made them look similar to Lush products only makes it harder for a consumer to conclude “without difficulty” that the goods they were being shown were not connected with Lush.</p>
<p>The advertising function of the trade mark came in to play when the court decided that Amazon’s use of the trade mark would dent Lush’s ability to attract custom. And even the investment function of the trade mark was implicated because of the (unspecified) problem that Lush had with Amazon’s reputation.</p>
<h2>David, Goliath and you, the consumer</h2>
<p>This is undoubtedly not the last word on the matter. Amazon will appeal the judgement. And there are issues arising from the case that have wider implications and will need to be worked out. </p>
<p>Trade mark law exists specifically to protect the consumer but the way these disputes play out is an odd state of affairs indeed. The consumer has no standing to sue to protect their interests and the battles are fought between traders.</p>
<p>One way the focus is kept on the consumer is the concept of consumer confusion. In this case that test has become a question of whether the consumer can tell “without difficulty” the origin of the goods.</p>
<p>I may be unscientific in my approach, but I did not for a minute think that Bomb Cosmetics products originated from Lush when I saw them on Amazon. In other words, I was not confused.</p>
<p>The reasoning of the court in this David and Goliath case is also a little light in relation to how exactly either the advertisement and investment functions have been infringed. Has Lush really suffered financially from this situation as much as it says? It’s hard to say.</p>
<p>It may be that fuller consideration should be given to the worries that arose around what the impact would be on the consumer if Amazon’s business model has to change as a result of its run in with Lush.</p>
<p>We now live in world in which online shopping is the norm and many of us rely on Amazon-like businesses to deliver the service we have come to expect. We have to ask, therefore if it’s in the consumer’s interest to change the way these sites operate to protect companies such as Lush, however laudable their ethical standards might be.</p>
<p>While, as was said in the case, these concerns should not allow Amazon to run “rough shod” over intellectual property rights belonging to third parties, it does force us to focus on the central question as to what the trade mark system is for if, as a result, the consumer is disadvantaged.</p>
<p>Lush’s latest move has been to register <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/02/13/lush-cosmetics_n_4782186.html">Christopher North</a>, the name of Amazon’s managing director in the UK, as a trade mark. There are plans for a range of products under the name using the tagline “rich, thick and full of it”.</p>
<p>While this has generally been portrayed in the media as an amusing next step in the battle between the mismatched adversaries, the danger is that the move will detract attention from one of the key challenges epitomised in this case. Trade mark law is supposed to protect the consumer and we need to take a long hard look at how technological challenges change the way we do that.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/23268/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Charlotte Waelde does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The ongoing battle between cosmetics company Lush and internet retailer Amazon is starting to give off a distinctly unsavoury odour. At the beginning, many supported plucky little Lush as it sought to…Charlotte Waelde, Professor of Intellectual Property Law, University of ExeterLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/210982013-12-04T06:31:28Z2013-12-04T06:31:28ZMoral outrage at Amazon is cancelled with a click<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/36821/original/3vr9gyyf-1386086088.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amazon worker wraps someone else's Christmas present.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Chris Radburn/PA Wire</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>If there’s any time of year that retail companies fear bad press it’s in the run-up to Christmas, so <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/dec/01/week-amazon-insider-feature-treatment-employees-work">undercover footage</a> revealing gruelling work conditions which was broadcast last week and the ongoing tax-related naming and shaming is unlikely to be welcome news at Amazon high command.</p>
<p>To cap it all, Amazon has been forced to endure <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/nov/30/lush-amazon-trademark-court-battle">sensational headlines</a> about its court battle with ethical cosmetics company Lush over “bullying” business practices.</p>
<p>With all of this negative PR, it’s a hard-push to find members of the public who’ll defend the company – as Twitter trends show the fury-filled sentiments that thousands share (and retweet).</p>
<p>It might be imagined that Amazon’s bid to do decent business in the UK over this festive period could be hampered – and yet the evidence suggests that this is anything but a likely outcome. Highly powerful and emotive information often fails to lead to the kind of behavioural changes that might be expected. Why? The answer to that was the <a href="http://www.gla.ac.uk/media/media_252956_en.pdf">central focus</a> of research conducted by the Glasgow University Media Group in 2012: does anything we hear, see or read actually make a difference?</p>
<p>The simple answer is: yes, it does – but growing knowledge and attitudinal sympathies don’t always translate into action for a whole range of reasons.</p>
<h2>Shocking culture</h2>
<p>The <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03k5kzp/Panorama_Amazon_The_Truth_Behind_the_Click/">Panorama exposé</a> of Amazon’s working conditions is genuinely shocking – though largely to those who still expect holidays and sick pay. And, shocked or otherwise, some of this group might even agree with the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2013/nov/27/boris-johnson-thatcher-greed-good">words of the London Mayor</a> that “greed is good”, the quest to eradicate inequality is “futile” and actually some people having a rotten old time is a “valuable spur to economic activity”. </p>
<p>In a media and political culture in which support for disabled people is increasingly conceived of as “something for nothing”, such sentiments are not as extreme as they might sound.</p>
<p>Far less shocked are those who have worked in the modern retail environment. They have adapted over time to the structural transformation taking place within it – and they’re either too exhausted or too scared of losing their own jobs to bite the hand that feeds.</p>
<p>The principle behind the Lush court action is equally important – that we’ve handed so much power over to a few companies that they actually direct our thinking now. A bit like Google algorithms select and privilege information every day with reduced input from us. But, as Evgeny Morzov <a href="http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/the-internet-ideology-why-we-are-allowed-to-hate-silicon-valley-12658406.html">frequently points out</a>, technology companies and their agendas just don’t get scrutinised in the way the banking or energy industries do. It’s technology, so it must be progressive. Of the minority who are cynical, the battle for privacy is a ship that has long since sailed.</p>
<h2>Self before sacrifice</h2>
<p>There will be individuals greatly affected by what they hear and read about Amazon, but there are barriers to turning attitude into action – cost and convenience mainly. Working parents on low incomes find Amazon appealing on a number of levels; is a reduced Christmas for their own family the kind of sacrifice they’d make? Do people put ethics before their own children? Think Labour politicians and their choice of school.</p>
<p>Our research did, however, find a small number of people who changed their behaviour in response to new information (about the potential effects of climate change in this case). It happened when information tapped into existing sympathies often alongside unmet commitments – and money and life did not prohibit carrying these out. With Amazon, perhaps it’s those who found the tax issue morally indefensible, with the Panorama documentary the final push factor.</p>
<p>The numbers who will vote with their feet are difficult to predict. Only time will tell the impact on Amazon’s profits. One thing worth remembering is that the company is part of a much broader cultural shift to conducting much of our daily lives online – and perhaps that makes it easier to express moral outrage but separate that from how we actually behave.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/21098/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Happer previously received funding from the UKERC. </span></em></p>If there’s any time of year that retail companies fear bad press it’s in the run-up to Christmas, so undercover footage revealing gruelling work conditions which was broadcast last week and the ongoing…Catherine Happer, Research Associate, Glasgow University Media Group, University of GlasgowLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/167842013-08-06T14:04:47Z2013-08-06T14:04:47ZFive things the Washington Post can learn from Amazon<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/28785/original/b73xm5vr-1375788362.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Learn from the master to take over the world</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">fugutabetai shyashin </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The Washington Post’s purchase by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos is the latest example of a new generation of internet moguls spending big on pet projects. </p>
<p>It was also <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/aug/05/google-sergey-brin-synthetic-beef-hamburger">revealed</a> this week that Google founder Sergey Brin was the financial backer behind the world’s first lab-grown hamburger. While the synthetic hamburger is a new idea, the Washington Post is an institution. The Graham family has owned it for 80 years, including during the time it famously exposed US president Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal. It is a well-respected newspaper and one of the few apparently running at a <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/04/business/media/washington-post-profits-drop-sharply.html?_r=0">profit</a>, despite decreased circulation, as readership migrates online.</p>
<p>This purchase is a sign of how the new world is taking over the old. And, a by-product for Bezos is increased political influence. At the same time, his proven reputation as a technology and business genius makes his interest in the Post a great opportunity, so what can the newspaper learn from its new owner?</p>
<h2>1. Think big, very big</h2>
<p>Amazon did not enter the bookselling market place with the aim of becoming a major player, it entered with the aim of becoming the only player. The Washington Post is not exactly a minnow but newspapers have tended to act tentatively when it comes to building their online presence. Digital readers are an impatient bunch and won’t wait around for you to catch up. Brand loyalty is put to the test on a daily basis in a way that has proved difficult for big-name newspapers to cope with. The Post should strike out online with the same boldness that characterised its prime years after Watergate.</p>
<h2>2. Adapt to survive</h2>
<p>Bezos and his team are fearless when it comes to continuously shifting the business model for Amazon. Having started with books, the site expanded its remit to sell electronics, CDs, DVDs and even jewellery and clothes. Then it opened up to allow registered sellers to market their own products. As a result, it has become the biggest online retailer.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=398&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/28790/original/wn5dq6dw-1375795703.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=500&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Bezos is a man who knows how to deliver.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">dfarber</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Newspapers could follow suit, for instance, by offering sections in which news from several sources is compared or integrated. Readers often have a voracious appetite for information about a particular topic, regardless of who produced it. This could work well when a major news story breaks, such as political events in Syria or the football transfer window.</p>
<h2>3. Know your customer forensically</h2>
<p>Amazon users know to check out the reviews of the products in their baskets before ordering to make an informed choice. A community has grown on the site because people want to know what others think when they make a purchasing decision. </p>
<p>In the old world, newspapers balked at the idea of producing content that readers “wanted” to read. Journalists are still wary of allowing reader stats to influence their content but are warming up to the value of getting the reader involved. This includes having sections for readers to comment on live issues but also means offering up content that is tailored to individual readers. </p>
<p>Amazon recommendations can go wrong with <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/12/the-most-ridiculous-amazo_n_496445.html#s73483&title=Coyote_Urine_">hilarious results</a> but there is no denying that the site is the master when it comes to personalising the e-commerce experience. News websites do already suggest content to readers but most could do so in a much more sophisticated way.</p>
<h2>4. Add items to your basket</h2>
<p>When Lovefilm entered the market, offering an online DVD rental service, Amazon was quick to spot an opportunity and snapped up the company. The Post may have to jump-start its renewal process through acquisition of, say, a highly-regarded print magazine and/or e-news agency now that the Post has become separated from Slate magazine in the sale to Bezos. It could also “purchase” highly regarded online columnists to write for it as a way of reinforcing its branding as a digital news provider.</p>
<h2>5. Choose your weapons</h2>
<p>Amazon’s brand power has enabled it to extend its product line and it’s not just about purchases that arrive in a brown box. The company’s arsenal includes Amazon Studios for example, which produces films and TV shows based on online submissions and user feedback. The Post has a very prestigious brand in the US and should use this to consider sponsoring an existing online news channel or even starting its own. </p>
<p>Amazon also knows how to lean on its brand to reel customers in to its latest products. We should probably expect to see this playing out again with the Post. It won’t be long before Kindles come with an in-built Washington Post app, with email alerts on breaking news.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/16784/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sunila Lobo does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The Washington Post’s purchase by Amazon chief executive Jeff Bezos is the latest example of a new generation of internet moguls spending big on pet projects. It was also revealed this week that Google…Sunila Lobo, Research Fellow, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/126542013-03-19T00:19:36Z2013-03-19T00:19:36ZOnline pharmaceuticals: bricks, not clicks, keep us safe<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/21393/original/8pdbb8b7-1363650775.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Counterfeit drugs are an unintended consequence of globalisation.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Melanie Tata</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Antibiotics that are laced with rat faeces and floor polish? Cough syrup that contains more than a dash of antifreeze? Antipsychotics with no pharmacologically active ingredients? Medications for heart or erectile disorders that feature floor sweepings and plaster but insufficient chemicals to the job? </p>
<p><a href="http://www.who.int/medicines/services/counterfeit/overview/en/">Counterfeit drugs</a> are an unintended consequence of <a href="http://japha.org/article.aspx?articleid=1043476">globalisation</a>. And they’re one reason why Australian pharmacies matter.</p>
<p>Modern consumer protection began with laws restricting the sale and advertising of <a href="http://www.tga.gov.au/pdf/history-tg-regulation.pdf">quack medicine</a>, alongside those requiring increasingly rigorous qualifications for people dispensing and advising about medications. This made pharmacy a true <a href="http://www.psa.org.au/archives/3535">profession</a> rather than an occupation for vendors of pills and potions. </p>
<p>That emphasis on quality has served Australia well. We have not seen the disasters evident in low-touch (or no-touch) regulatory regimes, such as in <a href="http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/11/14/pharmaceuticals-fake-who-india-idINDEE8AC0AK20121114">India</a>, eastern Europe and the Middle East. Pharmacy, like the pathology sector, has been a quiet performer.</p>
<p>That performance is worth bearing in mind as consumers shift from bricks to clicks in sourcing DVDs, clothes, wine and books. It’s become commonplace to hear forecasts about the death of the department store and dire prospects for retail property. </p>
<p>What’s less apparent is the willingness of some consumers to buy medications online, particularly medications from overseas. That shift is also underway and can be expected to continue. This is bad news for public health rather than just for <a href="http://www.pharmacyboard.gov.au/">pharmacists</a> who have spent several years at university and are now competing with no-name entrepreneurs operating out of Kiev, Vladivostok, Tijuana or Mumbai.</p>
<p>There are good reasons for treasuring your pharmacist – and for encouraging her autonomy in the face of competition from the retail juggernauts named Woolies and Coles.</p>
<p>One reason is her expertise – she is aware of inappropriate mixes of medications. Consumers who are self-medicating through offshore suppliers are buying a commodity that isn’t tied to advice and isn’t wrapped up with an effective legal framework if something goes wrong. </p>
<p>If you’re <a href="http://www.news.com.au/national-news/surge-in-dodgy-net-drugs-spurs-warning/story-e6frfkvr-1226052212307">shopping online</a> from a pharmaceutical smorgasbord, the only thing that’s likely to save you from bad choices is the effectiveness of <a href="http://www.tga.gov.au/newsroom/media-2012-seizure-medicines-121005.htm">Australia Post</a> and the <a href="http://www.customs.gov.au/">Australian Customs & Border Protection Service</a> in <a href="http://customs.gov.au/site/mediaRelease20111108.asp">blocking</a> dodgy imports. </p>
<p>But the officials policing the border can’t be everywhere. The government has <a href="http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr11-ck-ck053.htm">acknowledged</a> serious problems at the <a href="http://www.tga.gov.au/">Therapeutic Goods Administration</a> (TGA), the agency that seems to have been asleep when defective breast implants and hip joints were distributed. </p>
<p>The local pharmacist, on the other hand, is likely to provide cogent advice about what not to mix and match, and cautions about self-diagnosis based on Wikipedia and cyberchondria sites or about what is promoted through global direct-to-consumer <a href="https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/bitstream/1807/33218/8/Gibson_Shannon_G_201211_LLM_Thesis.pdf">marketing</a>.</p>
<p>Another reason is that the conventional distribution chain for medications in Australia doesn’t have the systemic failures evident overseas. Buying your medications online from an overseas supplier may be significantly cheaper but that purchase is accompanied by significant risk. </p>
<p>A succession of independent scholarly <a href="http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0020100">studies</a> and government reports has demonstrated serious problems with counterfeits of legitimate pharmaceuticals (estimated at around <a href="http://www.economist.com/node/16943895">US$30bn</a> each year) and the appalling bad quality of some generic medications. Some generics are as good as branded products; others fail basic tests of efficacy and safety. </p>
<p>Globalisation means that the main victims of bogus medications are sadly some of the people in greatest need: those on subsistence incomes in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jan/02/india-rejects-fake-medicine-africa">developing world</a>, who depend on genuine <a href="http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/molecules-to-medicine/2012/08/20/counterfeit-drugs-a-deadly-problem/">anti-malarials</a> and other life-determining pharmaceuticals rather than the “<a href="http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=6500">blue pill</a>” that addresses the first-world problems of middle-aged men and their partners. </p>
<p>But we’re not immune, and defective medications with increasing <a href="http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2011/08/counterfeit-driving-resistance/">resistance</a> among diseases such as tuberculosis and malaria, affecting Australians visiting overseas.</p>
<p>If you’re relying on offshore clicks, rather than visiting local bricks (or the online presence of an Australian pharmacist) what will you be getting? The answer matters if you’re buying better living through modern chemicals rather than cotton buds, jelly beans and squeaky toys. </p>
<p>You’re out of luck if something goes wrong and you want compensation from the supplier in Kolkata or Bucharest.</p>
<p>In thinking about the future of the pharmacy sector in Australia, we should recognise the significance of the “bricks and mortar” chemist, possibly even subsidising professionals to stay open longer, rather than doing our drug shopping from Amazon.com or DodgyRX.com.</p>
<p>This is the second article in our short series about pharmacies. Click on the link below to read the previous instalments:</p>
<p><strong>Part One:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/pharmacy-gravy-train-drives-up-the-cost-of-prescription-drugs-10016">Pharmacy gravy train drives up the cost of prescription drugs</a></p>
<p><strong>Part Three:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/note-to-pharmacists-on-how-not-to-sell-the-morning-after-pill-10250">Note to pharmacists on how not to sell the morning-after pill</a></p>
<p><strong>Part Four:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/pharmacists-should-drop-products-that-arent-backed-by-evidence-12646">Pharmacists should drop products that aren’t backed by evidence</a></p>
<p><strong>Part Five:</strong> <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-you-have-to-show-id-to-buy-cold-and-flu-tablets-2173">Why you have to show ID to buy cold and flu tablets</a></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/12654/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Bruce Baer Arnold does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Antibiotics that are laced with rat faeces and floor polish? Cough syrup that contains more than a dash of antifreeze? Antipsychotics with no pharmacologically active ingredients? Medications for heart…Bruce Baer Arnold, Assistant Professor, School of Law, University of CanberraLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.