Third Wave Fashion // JANUARY 2014 // THE CONTENT + COMMERCE ISSUE | Page 14

THE WORLD AROUND US
BUSINESS
WRAPPED IN RED FLAGS
When December began with Cyber Monday, retailers felt the
pinch. In hardly less than a panic, companies responded
with tremendous discounts to entice customers to walk
through their doors. Unfortunately, the tactic did little to
bring shoppers out, and retailers across the industry saw
traffic drop through the month. anks to the lackluster
shopping season, more deals were offered and UPS took the
brunt of the storm as the last-minute online deals
overwhelmed their system. ough the numbers seem good,
they come with red flags that point to a very weak holiday
season across the industry. BUSINESSWEEK

BULLSEYE: TARGET PINS ARE SPOT ON
As one of the first merchandisers to take advantage of
Pinterest’s API, debuted it’s Awesome Shop just in time for
the holidays. e shop is arranged like a social media news
feed, which aggregates the top pins from Pinterest and
matches them to items with high rankings in the Target
online store. MOBILE COMMERCE DAILY

THE WORLD OF SALES
Helping get small businesses off the ground is at the heart of
Shopify, and with simple online and point of sale systems, we
have to agree. Just in time for the holidays though, Shopify
introduced a rotating globe of real-time sales that reflects the
incoming sales and dollars per hour of businesses using the
company’s platforms. We all know that things are purchased
every second of the day, but to see this representation makes
sales that much more interesting. SHOPIFY

GIFTING GETS PERSONAL
Holidays can be confusing when it comes to getting the
perfect gi for someone, and there are are plenty of websites
that say they can help. Hatch changed that when they
brought people back to the heart of finding the best gi.
Instead of Algorithm’s and pages of products, the team at
Hatch will make personal suggestions for the most
discerning of friends and family. HATCH

GOOGLE LOOKS AT ROBOT DELIVERY
e Amazon drones made headlines, but they aren’t the only
online giant playing with the future of automation. ough
Google isn’t saying what they plan to do with the technology,
we do know that the company has been experimenting with
automated delivery systems in some urban areas. In the push
to deliver products sooner than next day, the technology is
pushing the brink of just how fast you can receive that
perfect purchase. NY TIMES
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