Online retailers sales see their highest growth on record in April

Amazon CloudFront Edge

Online retailers are seeing Black Friday-like sales due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business. According to new data from Adobe’s Digital Economy Index, U.S. e-commerce jumped 49% in April, compared to the baseline period in early March before shelter-in-place restrictions went into effect. Online grocery helped drive the increase in sales, with a 110% boost in daily sales between March and April. Meanwhile, electronic sales were up 58% and book sales have doubled. The data comes from Adobe’s index of the digital economy, which analyzes more…

US online Black Friday sales biggest ever?

Black friday

Online sales on Black Friday in the United States hit a record $7.4 billion this year, with a large number of transactions made from smartphones, according to data released Saturday by Adobe Analytics. The figure was a 19.6 percent increase over last year and the second biggest day of online sales ever, the company said, just below the $7.9 billion consumers spent on last year’s Cyber Monday, which follows Black Friday. This year, 39 percent of online purchases were made from smartphones, a 21 percent increase from last year. “With Christmas now…

Dell anticipates an increase in sales

Dell anticipates an increase in sales Dell foresees a surge in sales as Work From Home and online learning become the new norm. Dell is a multinational IT company based in Texas, United States. It produces desktop PCs, notebooks, tablets, and peripherals, storage solutions, virtualization and cloud services, and infrastructure. Dell Technologies anticipates current-quarter sales above market expectations. The Covid 19 pandemic shifted office work to remote work and online learning. This shift increased demand for the company’s desktops and notebooks, helping it post a surprise rise in third-quarter revenue.…

Online Marketplaces has potential to create 3 million jobs in Africa by 2025

COVID 19 Read consumer

Online marketplaces such as Jumia, Souq, Uber, and Travelstart could create around 3 million new jobs by 2025 across Africa. This is according to findings of a new report released today by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). Titled ‘’How Online Marketplaces Can Power Employment in Africa’’ the report notes that these digital platforms, which match buyers and providers of goods and services, could also raise incomes and boost inclusive economic growth with minimal disruption to existing businesses and workforce norms. Speaking during the launch of the report, Patrick Dupoux, a senior…

Google reportedly paid millions of dollars in secret data deal with Mastercard to track retail sales

Facebook

For the past year, select Google advertisers have had access to a potent new tool to track whether the ads they ran online led to a sale at a physical store in the U.S. That insight came thanks in part to a stockpile of Mastercard transactions that Google paid for. The revelation comes amid heightened concern about how much consumer data is consumed by tech companies like Google. Earlier this year, Facebook was criticized when data on as many as 87 million people was improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, raising…

Companies Buy Online Reviews by Offering Amazon Customers Full Refunds in Exchange for Five Star Ratings

An investigation has revealed that fake reviews for internet products are being bought and sold online. The  investigation found companies using Facebook to offer Amazon customers full refunds in exchange for five-star reviews of their products. They are also able to buy bogus five-star recommendations on Trustpilot, one of the world’s leading and most trusted review websites, according to BBC 5 live Investigates. Such online review sites are becoming increasingly popular with businesses and customers. Some three quarters of British adults use them, of which half believe they have seen…

Apple suspends sales of its new LG 5K monitor

Apple has reportedly halted sales of LG’s 5K monitor following well-publicised interference issues with the display, which is affected by being in close proximity to Wi-Fi routers. According to Business Insider, the UltraFine 5K Display is no longer being sold in Apple stores – while the monitor is still on display in the firm’s many shops, if a customer wants to make a purchase, they won’t be sold one. The Business insider reports that the tech giant Store employees were instructed this weekend to continue to display the LG monitors…

Apple’s AirPods have taken 26% of the online market for wireless headphones

airpods

Apple finally launched the wireless Bluetooth powered AirPods. Already, AirPods own 26% of the online wireless headphone market, cementing what Apple CEO Tim Cook has called “a runaway success.” Wireless headphones accounted for half of the entire online U.S. headphones market for the first time in December 2015. Three out of every four headphones sold online in the states were of the wireless variety. Besides Apple, Samsung has its Gear IconX wireless ear buds that compete with the AirPods. But Apple does have the benefit of having sold millions of Apple iPhone…

China’s phone market is now dominated by five companies, none of which is Samsung

China is the most unique smartphone market in the world: a phone maker can be a global sales leader without ever treading beyond Chinese borders, and small upstart challengers can suddenly explode in popularity from out of nowhere. The latter aspect is becoming harder now, however, as the latest data from Kantar Worldpanel shows that China’s top five phone vendors are becoming a more solid and dominant group. Kantar reports that, for the calendar quarter ending in October, the top five of Huawei, Xiaomi, Apple, Vivo, and Oppo accounted for…

Eight most influential Women in the Tech Scene

Its still considered a man’s world, a Male dominated arena. However, the global technology industry has plenty of women in leading roles. Many of the influential women have invested in innovate companies both locally and abroad in a bid to change the several perceptions on women in technology. As of now, Women are playing some major roles in the tech scene as opposed the previous perceptions. From roles in the financial and HR departments, women have taken senior posts in tech giant companies and have as well created a voice…