Fake photos generated by artificial intelligence (AI) are being misused to claim refunds from Chinese online shops, sparking moral and legal concerns. As China’s Double 11 shopping festival took place around November 11, several e-commerce shop owners revealed that they received AI-generated photos of damaged products from consumers attempting to seek refunds. Some people took…
From a Hangzhou startup to a global tech powerhouse, uncover the strategies that turned Alibaba into a multi-billion-dollar empire. Alibaba’s 2014 IPO was the largest in tech history, raising $25 billion on its first day. Since its founding in 1999 in Hangzhou, China, the company has grown from a small business-to-business marketplace to a global…
A draft of the “Anti-Monopoly Compliance Guidelines for Internet Platforms”, published over the weekend by the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR), focused heavily on the sophisticated, often opaque ways in which online platforms with significant market power can exploit technological advantages to exclude rivals and harm consumer interests. The document identified eight “new risks”,…
HONG KONG (AP) — Alice Zhang, a 29-year-old marketer in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, has spent only roughly half what she did last year during the “Singles’ Day” online shopping festival, switching to cheaper choices and giving up on buying new shoes after pay was cut by more than 20%. That’s typical, analysts…
On Friday, Amazon announced the debut of Amazon Bazaar, a new low-cost shopping destination for Asia, Africa, and Latin America that will be available separately from the main Amazon shopping app. On Bazaar, most products are available under $10, and some are as low as $2, the retailer says. The product selection, available now on Android and…
An explosion of digital channels has created a complex ecosystem for fashion and beauty brands to navigate when looking to engage customers today. But it has also unlocked new, unprecedented opportunities to enhance consumer connectivity for the brands willing to reimagine their approach. Early adopters of AI-powered personalisation are already seeing conversion rate increases of…
Americans are expected to open their wallets this holiday season, increasing their gift budgets even as a slowing job market and stubborn inflation weigh on consumer confidence, according to a new analysis from Visa Business and Economic Insights. U.S. consumers are forecast to spend an average of $736 each on holiday gifts, a 10% increase…
A new shopping platform is giving consumers the upper hand on identifying what celebrities are wearing. On Wednesday, Bobby Maylack, former chief creative officer at Cameo, and Emir Talu, a founding team member at Blank Street, launched OneOff, an AI-driven fashion discovery platform that blends personalization, social inspiration and e-commerce. The two entrepreneurs joined forces…
After years of pandemic-accelerated digital transformation, fashion and beauty consumers are more digitally connected than ever before — yet meaningful engagement with these consumers feels increasingly elusive. Customers increasingly expect seamless integration between digital and physical touchpoints — where online behaviour informs their in-store experience, and vice versa. However, these functions and data learnings remain…
Fashion and beauty retail stands at a critical inflexion point where digital transformation meets physical retail demand. With 70 percent of retail sales now digitally influenced, according to The Business of Fashion and McKinsey & Company’s The State of Fashion 2025 report, the industry faces unprecedented complexity in managing customer relationships across the shopping journey….