Shopify has committed to providing its retail customers with new avenues to target prospective customers in the wake of Apple's ongoing privacy crackdown.

According to CEO Harley Finkelstein, Shopify aims to invest heavily into its 'Audiences' marketing tool which launched last year. Further development of Audiences aims to enable retailers housed on the platform to boost engagement with customers now it's more difficult to track iPhone users' shopping habits.

Finkelstein told the Financial Times that the rollout of Audiences with be a “key area of focus” moving forward. The tool allows retailers on the platform to consolidate customer data, improve outreach and ad targeting, and is integrated with Meta and Google’s advertising platforms.

Through this, the company said that marketers will be able to better target ads at “lookalike” customers based on purchases from other retailers. Shopify told the FT that the system is designed specifically to compensate for Apple’s current rules on tracking iPhone users.

Similarly, Finkelstein said the new tool will enable Shopify to compete with Amazon’s rapidly-expanding advertising business.

Competitive landscape

The expansion of Amazon’s advertising division poses a significant challenge for Shopify, which is used by more than 1.7 million retailers globally. Advertising revenue at Amazon increased rapidly across the second and third quarters of 2022, surging by around 30% in Q3 and surpassing $9.5 billion.

While this poses a lingering threat to Shopify, ongoing changes to how Apple processes and shares user data are also prompting concerns amidst a significant slowdown in the global ecommerce industry.

New requirements on data processing for iPhone users mean that users can now choose to opt out of tracking between apps and websites. The decision sparked major upheaval across the advertising industry, with businesses raising concerns that they will be effectively blocked from targeting users.

Meta was a vocal critic of the move, with the social media giant claiming that advertising on its family of platforms will become less effective without the ability to target users.

However, while the move by Apple raised concerns across the industry, Amazon is among a number of firms set to benefit from the decision due to its policy of targeting ads based on first-party data.

Shopify believes that the expansion of its Audiences tool will allow retailers to continue targeting customers in a similar fashion to pre-Apple changes and engage with customers via Instagram, Google’s search engine, and YouTube platform.

A key factor in this move is that retailers will be able to opt in to adding customer data to a broader pool, which it claims will constitute “first-party” data.

But although Finkelstein insisted there will be long-term benefits for merchants leveraging the platform, some have raised minor concerns about sharing data within a larger pool that might include rival businesses’ data sets.

There’s always going to be some apprehension about sharing data,” Finkelstein said. “But that’s often offset by, net net, am I making more money, am I selling more?”

Industry disruption

Shopify announced last year that it planned to implement more than $46 billion in cutbacks across the business while company share values dropped by nearly 75% compared to a 2021 peak.

In July, the firm also announced more than 1,000 redundancies after encountering an unexpected slowdown in ecommerce sales in the wake of a pandemic-induced boom.

The ecommerce giant appears concerned over the prospect of heightened industry competition ahead of a looming recession. As such, enabling retailers to bolster engagement and outreach could be crucial as the company weathers difficult market conditions.

“Especially right now, merchants want to be able to find more customers,” Finkelstein told the FT.

A bipartisan US antitrust bill, which could soon be voted on in the Senate, has reportedly faced an expensive opposition campaign by tech giants.

One of several bills included in a wider antitrust proposal, the American Innovation and Choice Online Act (AICO) has been two years in the making and seeks to forbid tech giants from engaging in ‘self preferencing’, using platform data for unfair profitable advantage, and infringing upon the payment or pricing methodology of competitors.

Bloomberg reports that Google, Apple, Amazon and Meta, alongside trade groups with which they are affiliated, have spent just under $95 million since 2021 to lobby against support for the bill, which they argue will limit their ability to run platforms effectively.

In a similar focus to the EU’s Digital Markets Act (DMA), the AICO would seek to prevent so-called ‘gatekeeper’ firms, those that run the largest online platforms home to many smaller competitors, from abusing their positions of power for financial gain. For example, Google’s promotion of Google Maps reviews when a customer searches for a restaurant or Amazon’s control over which products are listed highest will be put under scrutiny by the bill.

“It is really hard to take on these subjects when you have the biggest companies the world has ever known, that control an inordinate part of the economy, opposed to it,” Vox quotes senator Amy Klobuchar, the co-sponsor of the AICO, as having remarked.

In a blog post from January, Google’s president of global affairs Kent Walker argued that potential US legislation on this level would be damaging for customers and the tech sector:

“Antitrust law is about ensuring that companies are competing hard to build their best products for consumers.

“But the vague and sweeping provisions of these bills would break popular products that help consumers and small businesses, only to benefit a handful of companies who brought their pleas to Washington.”

Those sponsoring the bill are confident that if voted on, it has the support necessary to clear the Senate. But it remains to be seen if the bill will be raised for a vote in the narrow window before the midterm elections in November, which are likely to change the voting balance within the senate.

If enacted, the AICO would give the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), along with the Department of Justice, the authority to sue companies that fail to comply, though what the penalty could look like has yet to be determined.

The bill comes to vote as many legislators around the world consider the power that many tech giants exert over their market. The EU has recently opened an investigation into Google’s dominance over the Play Store, which sees it charging high developer fees and limiting the extent to which apps can use alternative billing systems, while in the UK, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened an investigation into whether Amazon’s platform gives its retail arm an unfair advantage over third-party sellers.

Despite individual reviews of monopolistic practice, however, the UK is not yet pursuing big tech regulation to the same degree as the EU is with the DMA. Set to come into effect in Spring 2023, this will greatly curb the extent to which tech giants can use platforms to unfairly push their services, as well as protect data from being used to damage the competitiveness of the market.

In particular, the act seeks to limit the powers of gatekeeper companies. Such firms that fail to comply with the rules will face fines of up to 10% of their worldwide turnover, or 20% on repeat offences.

Without lobbying power in Europe as in the US, there is little that Google or any other tech giant can do to halt the implementation of the DMA, and companies may be forced to change their worldwide practice as a result.

Financial services firm Square is to offer its UK sellers ‘buy now pay later’ (BNPL) capability across their platforms.

Sellers will be able to offer customers BNPL online through a Clearpay integration at the checkout, while any in-person Square checkouts will also support Clearpay options, including Square Point of Sale, Square for Retail and Square for Restaurants.

The move makes the UK the only market in which all Square platforms offer BNPL solutions.

Clearpay, known as Afterpay outside the UK and EU, was acquired by Square in 2021 for approximately $29 billion. Square registered a 180% global increase in new customers using Afterpay through Square sellers between February and March, and US businesses that offered it as a BNPL service saw increases such as a 17% increase in clothing sales.

The integration means Customers can complete payments in four interest-free instalments over a six week period, while sellers receive the full amount up-front. Clearpay integration will also be available for developers within the Square Web Payments SDK, offering businesses the option to maintain Square and Clearpay payments easily.

Clearpay will also be available as a payment method for sellers who utilise Square’s Virtual Terminal dashboard, through which customers can be sent Pay Links via text message.

Square offers businesses hardware and software to facilitate card payments, with dedicated Square Readers and Stands, or even through a simple iOS or Android app. As its customer base is primarily made up of businesses that did not formerly have card payment capabilities, 96% of Square Sellers are small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), according to market insight firm Enlyft.

BNPL payments accounted for almost £13 billion of UK e-commerce spending in 2021, and could exceed £16 billion in 2022, according to US fintech giant FIS. In the UK, BNPL is expected to account for 12% of UK e-commerce spending by 2025, and is currently the fastest growing online payment method.

Rich Bayer, UK country manager at Clearpay, identified “young and engaged shoppers who want BNPL as their preferred payment method” as a key market that the integration opens up to Square Sellers.

With the worsening cost of living crisis and rising inflation, SMBs are increasingly look for ways to offset costs for their customers, as even smaller purchases begin to be weighed up against the price tag of essential items.

“We’re thrilled to be integrating Clearpay both in-store and online in the UK,” stated Alyssa Henry, head of Square. "The integration across platforms furthers our goal to give sellers of all sizes omnichannel tools that help them to grow by meeting consumer shopping habits, whatever and wherever they are.

“Clearpay provides our ecosystem with a new tool beyond an alternative payment method; it enables an omnichannel commerce solution that can offer true value to our sellers.”

Sharp has announced a new partnership with business finance platform FundOnion through its Connect Partner Program, which will extend its range of IT products and services for UK SMBs.

Based in London, FundOnion helps businesses access funding solutions by providing a finance brokering service that matches them to lenders. The platform helps SMBs across a number of sectors, including retail, ecommerce, professional services, and engineering.

The partnership means FundOnion’s customers will now have access to Sharp’s range of B2B solutions, which include managed print, IT services and audio-visual capabilities.

Sharp said the collaboration will ultimately help streamline customer’s internal operations.

“Our partnership with FundOnion will enable SMEs to access Sharp’s award-winning range of B2B technology products and services alongside lending solutions from one of the UK’s leading business finance platforms,” said Simon Warnes, Partnership director at Sharp.

“This Connect partnership highlights Sharp’s ongoing commitment to delivering the future of work to as many SMEs as possible.”

Sharp’s Connect Partner Program was introduced back in 2018 to widen the company’s support with businesses that complement its portfolio. Today, the company has more than 15 Connect Partners across a wide variety of areas and services, including Managed Print, IT, Document Processing, Office Products, and Consultancy.

By partnering with FundOnion, Sharp is now expanding client funding options across the diverse corporate, commercial, and public sector markets, it said.

“It’s a great pleasure to be partnering with Sharp – one of the world’s leading brands with a long and eminent history supporting both the commercial and corporate sectors,” commented James Robson, FundOnion CEO.

“We are enthusiastic to find more ways for our brands to work together to let SMEs know that our organisations are there looking to fight to help them grow during these uncertain times.”

A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Apple in the Northern District of California, accusing the tech giant of “illegally profiting from payment card issuers through its Apple Pay policies.”

Apple attained up to $1 billion in fees ‭‬annually violating federal antitrust law, according to attorneys at Hagens Berman and Sperling & Slater.

The violations come two-fold as Apple has not only linked its mobile devices and proprietary mobile wallet to push Apple Pay but also monopolized the market for tap-and-pay mobile wallets on iOS.

Compounding the payment ordeal, Apple charges card issuers who use Apple Pay ‘supracompetitive fees’ for services otherwise available on Android devices for free.

“When you compare the functionality of Apple Pay to mobile wallets available on Android devices – Google Pay, Samsung Pay – you’re essentially holding up a mirror; they are essentially identical,” said Steve Berman, Hagens Berman co-founder and managing partner.

“And yet, the same service on Android that card issuers pay absolutely nothing for costs them a collective $1 billion annually through Apple Pay.”

As matters stand, Apple charges US card issuers 15 basis points on credit and .5 cents on debit for all transactions made via Apple Pay.

“On the surface, Apple Pay’s fees pushed onto card issuers may seem small, but truly the devil is in the details of Apple’s policies, and these fees add up big time,” Berman added.

The antitrust lawsuit by Hagens Berman, representing a class of US credit unions and financial institutions, is geared towards reimbursing payment card issuers, in addition to seeking injunctive relief to counter Apple’s policies.

The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened a new investigation into Amazon for allegedly misusing seller data to unfairly advantage its business, as well as other potentially anti-competitive practices.

There are three main focuses for the CMA’s investigation, the first of which will examine how the company collects and uses third-party data for sellers on the Amazon e-commerce platform, “including whether this gives Amazon an unfair advantage in relation to business decisions made by its retail arm”.

The CMA will also be scrutinising how the company chooses which product is added to the ‘Buy Box’ - a more convenient listing for sellers that offers one-click purchasing, and how it sets the eligibility criteria for selling under its Prime brand.

Amazon is facing allegations of anti-competitive behaviour that “could result in a worse deal for consumers”, the CMA said.

The case follows a separate active investigation into the company for similar reasons by the European Commission (EC) but will focus entirely on the UK side of Amazon’s business. The EC’s investigation will not look at practices in the UK now the nation has left the European Union (EU).

The EC formally charged Amazon for the misuse of third-party seller data in 2020 after it was found to have used that data to make informed strategic decisions to compete against them.

Amazon was also accused in 2020 of misleading Congress about using third-party seller data after a similar probe was launched in the US.

Amazon’s e-commerce platform is populated by third-party sellers that benefit from the wide pool of consumers that use Amazon.co.uk daily, as well as additional benefits such as matching sellers with consumers and the potential to have orders ‘fulfilled by Amazon’ where storage and shipping are handled by Amazon.

Amazon also has its own retail business that it runs off its e-commerce platform and the CMA will be scrutinising whether the platform is affording special treatment to Amazon’s retail business, giving it an unfairly advantageous position over third-party sellers.

“Millions of people across the UK rely on Amazon’s services for fast delivery of all types of products at the click of a button,” said Sarah Cardell, general counsel at the CMA.

“This is an important area so it’s right that we carefully investigate whether Amazon is using third-party data to give an unfair boost to its own retail business and whether it favours sellers who use its logistics and delivery services – both of which could weaken competition.”

The CMA said “thousands” of British businesses use Amazon to sell their products and consumers could end up paying more for lower-quality items if Amazon is unfairly abusing its position as the platform’s controller to benefit its own business.

Amazon and Google are also under CMA investigation for failing to tackle rampant fake reviews on their websites, though it is still ongoing with no conclusions drawn yet.

The investigation is launched a day after the EU's landmark vote in favour of passing the Digital Markets Act (DMA) which aims to prevent big tech companies like Amazon from abusing their 'gatekeeper' positions.

Approved by an overwhelming majority, the DMA will compel large companies to give greater data rights to third parties and in Amazon's case, the sellers on its platform.

Third parties will now be allowed to access the data they generate to help them promote their own products and make better business decisions.

The EU hopes the new legislation will help prevent big tech companies from engaging in anti-competitive practices, but implementation will take time.

The Home Depot has selected HPE’s Aruba ESP (Edge Services Platform), delivered via HPE GreenLake for Aruba networking, to power advanced customer and associate experiences across its US stores.

The new HPE GreenLake for Aruba network as a service (NaaS) will provide a solid network foundation, complete with speed, scale, flexibility, and agility, the home improvement retailer said in an announcement.

The aim is to deliver a seamless experience to the firm’s customers and pool of 500,000 associates, allowing them to peruse, research, and make purchases with ease whether in-store, online or on the mobile app.

“Our goal is to enable technology to remove the friction from our customers’ and associates’ experiences each and every day,” said Daniel Grider, vice president of technology at The Home Depot, in an announcement.

As part of its drive to make it easier for customers to design, visualise, and buy materials for their projects, the retailer is rolling out Zebra Technologies’ TC52ax handheld devices, which will allow users to check prices and inventory in hand or from more than 40 feet away.

Home Depot said its refreshed network will streamline its IT management and operations, with solutions such as Aruba Central cloud with AIOps capabilities to enable the firm to proactively monitor network health and tackle issues.

The company’s wireless offering also includes Aruba location services via WLAN Aps, which offer zero-touch determination of AP location, continuously validate and update location, as well as provide a set of universal coordinates that can be transposed on any building floor map or web mapping platform.

“Our customers trust us to have the right tools and materials to complete their home improvement projects; having an in-store network that further supports interconnected capabilities like in-store navigation or image search allows them to get back to their projects more quickly,” Grider added.

Amazon has announced the deployment of two new robots across its fulfilment centres, which the company says will work alongside human workers to lift, shift and sort packages with improved safety and efficiency.

Adding to the fleet of 520,000 robots already in use at Amazon, the new systems, dubbed Proteus and Cardinal, will be the first designed to shift packages autonomously around workers, with no need for a restricted operating area.

Currently, Kiva and Pegasus robots are used to move large storage pods within a caged inventory area, using 2D barcodes to navigate. Workers call over robots to pick items off the pods, package them, and send them on conveyor belts to be loaded onto worker-operated trolleys Amazon calls GoCarts.

The new robots will assist with the sorting and movement of packages that workers do currently. Proteus will navigate loaded GoCarts alongside humans, while Cardinal will bear the weight of offloading packages from conveyor belts in sorting centres.

Amazon claims that it is not moving to replace workers, simply reducing their involvement in risky tasks.

A demonstration video shows Proteus moving around an unmarked warehouse space, and automatically braking upon detecting a human in its path.

Cardinal, which boasts a large crane arm, will be implemented to not only lift heavy packages from conveyor belts but simultaneously use AI to sort packages as they are loaded. Amazon claims that Cardinal is being tested with lifting capacities of up to 50lbs (22.7kg) and will be introduced in warehouse settings in 2023.

“Our vision is to automate GoCart handling throughout the network, which will help reduce the need for people to manually move heavy objects through our facility and instead let them focus on more rewarding work,” stated Amazon in a press release.

While Amazon has not specified what more rewarding work may entail, employee safety within fulfilment centres has been the subject of scrutiny in recent years. A 2021 study by the labour union coalition the Strategic Organizing Center (SOC) found that Amazon warehouses experienced 5.9 serious injuries per 100 workers in 2020, a rate “nearly 80 percent higher than the serious injury rate for all other employers in the warehousing industry in 2020.”

Addressing some safety concerns, Amazon has also revealed a new “AI-powered” identification system, AR ID, which uses high-speed cameras to identify packages. This means employees no longer must scan products manually and can hold packages safely with both hands.

A new “containerized storage system”, which utilises robot arms to bring containers to employees, has also been demonstrated, with the goal being to reduce the risk of injury through climbing and bending down.

Fundbox has partnered with Visa as it looks to strengthen digital payment offerings within its embedded working capital platform.

The first stage of the new collaboration centres around the launch of the Fundbox Flex Visa Debit Card, issued by Pathward N.A., which the firm says will help small businesses better manage their cash outflows.

The pair will also work together over the coming months to introduce a series of new payment products, which will include a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) solution for flexible payment options, and a push-to-card transfer option for instant fund disbursement through Visa Direct.

“Small businesses that embrace digital tools tend to be more resilient and better able to compete,” explained Jack Forestell, Visa Chief Product Officer, in an announcement.

“As Visa continues to work towards digitally enabling 50 million small businesses by 2023, we’re excited to be teaming up with Fundbox to bring a range of new, digital offerings to the market from cards to instalments to disbursement.”

Fundbox’s Flex Pay solution focuses on spend management and is designed to help business owners manage payables while also offering flexibility around expenses. The platform has achieved strong growth and quick adoption since its release, with the firm reporting payment volume increasing over 80% quarter-over-quarter.

Fundbox says the strong performance of Flex Play has contributed to the growth of its working capital platform, with the company now having crossed $160 million in annual revenue run rate.

Now, the Fundbox Flex Visa Debit Card adds Flex Pay to card-accepting merchants to help enable convenient payments for expenses such as travel, supplies, and incidentals.

“We’ve seen our working capital solutions become more embedded within our customers' cash flow cycles as small businesses adopt digital payments to drive growth and operational efficiency,” commented Prashant Fuloria, CEO of Fundbox.

“In order to accelerate the flow of funds to our customers, it’s critical for us to continue enhancing our core payment capabilities, and our partnership with Visa is a significant step towards that vision.”

Checkout.com has announced plans to acquire French identity verification provider Ubble, in a deal expected to close before the end of 2022.

Since launching in 2012, the London-headquartered cloud payments platform has grown to house 1,700 staff members in 19 offices around the world, striking deals with the likes of Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal, Alipay, while also expanding to cover bank transfers, SEPA direct debits, as well as cash payments.

Ubble’s services will allow Checkout.com to reduce the financial risk associated with e-commerce transactions amid the rising threat of online scams and identity fraud.

Its identity verification technology will make it easier to ensure merchants and fintechs are compliant with local regulations as well as confirm whether customers are who they claim to be.

It will also expand Checkout.com’s current suite of financial products, allowing it to stay ahead of potential changes in EU and global regulations.

Checkout.com chief product officer Meron Colbeci said that personal identity security is “becoming a growing need for e-commerce and crypto merchants, digital wallets, and other fintechs”.

One notable Checkout.com customer is fintech firm Wise, which last year debuted on the London Stock Exchange as the “largest-ever tech listing”. Other fintech clients include Klarna, Revolut, and MoneyGram.

According to Colbeci, expanding Checkout.com’s security and fraud detection capabilities will allow the company to “reduce the time, cost and friction” experienced by e-commerce merchants when deploying existing identity verification solutions.

This will allow them to “offer their end consumers a simple and compelling experience, which lends itself to increased conversion rates and faster growth”, he said, adding that Checkout.com was impressed with Ubble’s ability to "rapidly drive machine-learning innovation in a complex and challenging space, and their market-leading engineering talent”.

The deal is likely to help Ubble expand to the US market; a new area of focus for Checkout.com, which originally launched as an EMEA-based company.

The announcement of the planned acquisition comes four months after Checkout.com raised $1 billion in a Series D funding round, raising its valuation to $40 billion (£32.8bn).

Neither companies disclosed any financial details relating to the acquisition.

The pandemic had a massive impact on how we consumed goods and services, which in turn changed how retailers operated, and how supply chains were managed. Customers now want connection, as well as convenience, so it's vital that retailers can be across all channels - omni-channels - in order to reach them.

New technologies and channels are enabling small businesses to be in the spaces dominated by the likes of Amazon, and these investments in smarter working practices are redefining the retail experience.

Download this report to see what technology businesses have adopted to stay agile and customer centric post-pandemic and how you can unlock new possibilities for your company.

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Restaurants have had to adapt their businesses since 2020 in order to survive and stay ahead of the competition. Loyal customers also realise there’s no replacement for the social experience of eating out, so they want them to still be in operation, which has also contributed to the creative initiatives many restaurants have introduced.

With the launch of takeaway options, or alternative grocery deliveries, technology has enabled restaurants to manage these initiatives in one place, so they can continue to focus on their customers. Additionally, embracing contactless commerce has meant customers have kept safe, and moving beyond the pandemic, additional contactless technology has made ordering more efficient and reliable.

Download this report to learn more about the evolution of restaurants and how technology is opening up new worlds of opportunity.

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Companies accepting credit card payments online have a new set of standards to abide by as of today.

The Payment Card Industry Security Standards Council has issued version 4.0 of its PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), a standard defining security measures to protect payment card information.

Anyone holding this data, such as online retailers or service providers, must comply with the standard.

The new version of PCI DSS features several changes. It expands its access control requirements to make multi-factor authentication (MFA) mandatory for all access into the cardholder data environment, and also updates password requirements.

Companies following the standard will also have to implement new protections against phishing attacks.

The latest document also introduces more flexibility for organizations to demonstrate their compliance. Whereas the previous version focused on firewall protection, version 4.0 has broadened its terminology to address other network security controls.

The Council has also added support for targeted risk analyses. These let companies define how frequently they perform some security-related activities, it said.

The PCI will translate the new version of PCI DSS into different languages over the next few months. Assessors - the companies that verify compliance with the standard - also have to train in the new version.

The current version, 3.2.1, will remain active until 31 March 2024, the Council said. After that, version 4.0 will be the only active version of the standard. Some requirements in the new version are defined as best practices, but will become mandatory. Organizations will have an extra year - until March 31 2025 - to phase those in.

The shift towards online shopping accelerated during the pandemic. And within that trend, shopping with smartphones, known as m-commerce, has been growing too. According to figures from eMarketer, in 2021, 38.5% of retail ecommerce sales were via mobile devices, and this is predicted to rise to 44.2% by 2025. But m-commerce has a problem. Smartphone shoppers are less confident about checkout than desktop internet users, so conversion rates are lower, making a more seamless and secure retail experience essential.

A 2019 Monetate study found that conversion rates for mobile shoppers stood at just 2.25%, which was less than half of the 4.81% recorded for desktop shoppers. What this implies is that shoppers may be willing to browse online shops on their smartphones but are much more comfortable making purchases on their desktop systems. Interestingly, a 2020 study by SaleCycle argued that the figures were reversed when it comes to adding products to a shopping cart, with 8.96% on mobile performing this action, whereas 4.35% on desktop did so.

In other words, customers are happy to browse online shops and select items on a mobile device but are clearly much more reluctant to complete the purchase. This is in stark contrast to the shift towards smartphones in other areas. Around two thirds of video viewing is on mobile, and a similar percentage of the population use smartphones for news consumption. In fact, more than half of all web traffic is now serving mobile devices, so their unpopularity for completing shopping transactions is a clear outlier, and ripe for improvement.

Some of this will be due to pure physical characteristics. While it might be attractive to browse online shops on your smartphone and select possibilities, a device with a larger screen will make it easier to make the final decision. But the most likely reason for the poor conversion rate of m-commerce is lack of confidence in the checkout process. A key factor in this is providing a trust-based, secure management of identity, which protects the user and makes them feel that their mobile transaction is perfectly safe, as well as seamless to perform. This can also make it even easier for customers to begin a transaction on one device that they then complete on another.

The benefits of CIAM

The central technology in making the m-commerce checkout process as seamless as possible is customer identity access management (CIAM). This important system enables organisations to securely capture and manage customer identity and profile data. It delivers control over customer access to applications and services. In the m-commerce context, this includes shopping carts, secure payment systems and subscription-based content. A strong CIAM infrastructure helps organisations avoid cyber breaches and enables customers to be confident that they can trust the systems they are accessing, as well as accelerating the building of new m-commerce experiences such as apps.

As our reliance on digital services has increased over the years – and accelerated during the pandemic – so has the focus on online activity as an area of concern for security. In 2020, identity theft in the US had doubled over the previous year according to the Federal Trade Commission, hitting 1,387,615 cases compared to 650,523 cases in 2019. The increased volume of transactions being performed in this way is seen as ripe for exploitation by fraudsters. The dangers involved are also becoming increasingly well publicised, leading to greater distrust from customers.

This means that there is no better time to ensure your organisation has a robust CIAM system in place. Okta provides a cloud-first identity platform to deliver the trust that organisations and customers need. The Okta Identity Network delivers a variety of different applications via the cloud to enhance customer experience. This enables features such as a Universal Directory to store identities and either two-factor or adaptive multi-factor authentication. Central to the platform is a single sign on that allows one login to provide trusted access to a range of applications. The last thing an online shopper wants is to have to remember a different set of credentials for every site they go to and every service they use. This tends to drive them to using one favourite shop all the time, creating a monopoly. Having one sign-on for multiple shops enables customers to spread their purchases around and enjoy a greater variety of options.

Okta can deliver its services either as an out-of-the-box add-on or via an API for companies that are looking to customise integration in a more bespoke fashion. Over 10,000 companies have already put their trust in Okta, and the Okta Integration Network has already provided over 7,000 integrations with third-party platforms, illustrating the wealth of domain experience available. Businesses will also benefit from the Okta Integration Network’s comprehensive consolidation of insights and reports. Companies can monitor logins and service access, as well as keeping an eye on failures, so that illicit attempts to use functions can be identified.

Security and data compliance are paramount to Okta’s suite of capabilities. The company’s services conform to ISO 27001, 27017 and 27018, as well as SOC2 Type 2, CSAR Star Level 2, Fed Ramp – Authority to Operate, APEC PRP and the all-important FIPS 140-2 and GDRP regulations. Having a CIAM partner that already comes with all these accreditations means an organisation won’t need to gain these itself, saving huge amounts of time, energy – and money.

The potential from m-commerce is clear. The smartphone in its current form is barely more than a decade old, yet it has become the de facto device for the majority of our personal digital interactions. It is ripe to become the de facto device for most online shopping transactions as well. By ensuring your business has a solid customer identity basis upon which to build its shopping experiences, you can secure the future of m-commerce for your company.

Learn more about Okta’s customer identity access management services

If you want to win in the channel, B2B e-commerce is a tool you can't afford to ignore, and, according to McKinsey, it's now the leading edge of successful B2B sales.

Indeed, larger channel players like Westcoast, Tech Data and SCC have been working on their e-commerce propositions for years, anticipating further potential as data and analytics are further integrated into the technology landscape. That's despite persistent myths surrounding B2B e-commerce – including notions that customers aren't ready; that it's only for simple repeat business; and that customers always prefer face-to-face interactions.

Ian Briffett, director of sales process optimisation at Tech Data, confirms the distie continues to invest in digital platforms as part of its own digital transformation strategy, spurred on by the last two years of disruption. “If nothing else, that made people sit up and look for where we need to make a difference,” he tells IT Pro.

Briffett, however, “broadly agrees” with McKinsey that B2B e-commerce strategies can suffer from misperceptions, relying on outdated notions of online as being all about an advertising shopfront.

“If you go back about two years, many people did look at B2B e-commerce as being either marketing or purely transactional; it was a very different era,” he explains. “What's changed is it's more about how we enable a broad channel and provide additional capabilities and value to help customers grow their businesses.”

Fully integrated platforms will drive success

From working out how to increase software licensing and recurring revenues to providing the right levels of customer service, platforms that can drive processes will enable success.

Most B2B companies (65%) now offer e-commerce, according to McKinsey, meaning they can fully transact sales online – up from 53% in early 2021. Would the channel not be further ahead than non-tech sectors? Tech Data reportedly earned 50% of its revenues via e-commerce five years ago; back in 2017.

Canalys chief analyst Alastair Edwards says their research suggests 40% offer “some form of e-commerce online”, with another 20% planning online sales channels.

“It’s complex. What is a channel digital marketplace, as opposed to an e-commerce site?” asks Edwards. “We see large distributors and bigger partners, however, building digital marketplaces as a necessity as more software as a service (SaaS), cyber security and cloud-based services are transacted digitally.”

Data, and its growing role in digital transformation, poses questions to businesses that can be answered with e-commerce solutions, creating data that drives further insights, prompting further questions, and so on. From addressing immediate problems and pain points, e-commerce moves into driving new business incrementally.

“Software vendors, too, are pivoting away from selling traditional perpetual licences now to a subscription model,” Briffett adds. “Once you've sold something to a customer, you have to retain them, get them to renew.”

By helping vendors or distributors put the right information in front of the right people – at the right time – they should be better positioned to go and drive the “right cadence” of activities, he says.

“The other piece is to migrate these customers now to this subscription licence,” he continues. “We, therefore, need to be offering alternate quotes and help customers make informed decisions in an appropriate amount of time. That’s good for us, good for customers and good for vendors.”

For maximum benefit, information can be provided in a number of ways, including through portals, social media and other channels. If a channel partner needs a quotation to go from A to B, Tech Data publishes it automatically, for instance. Information can also be targeted to specific customers.

“We know that customers that got red boxes can move to blue boxes – or if they got one product from a vendor that they can move to another product in that portfolio,” Briffett says.

Will Omnichannel become omnipresent?

For each stage of the sales process B2B customers now employ a roughly even mix of traditional, remote, and self-service sales using e-commerce and digital portals, McKinsey suggests. Now, 94% of decision-makers say omnichannel sales are “as effective or better” than pre-pandemic models.

Many partner e-commerce forays are mostly for marketing, addressing different points in the customer journey. SCC, for instance, just partnered with IBM on a series of “virtual engagement” centres.

Tech Data, meanwhile, offers specific platforms and services for different tasks – such as for cloud services set-up with “appropriate” automated billing. Traditional account management, however, will remain important, not only for in-person calls or meetings but support and guidance. E-commerce platforms should facilitate, rather than take away, the entire burden.

“Partners, however, aren't there because we're beating them with a stick,” says Briffett. Canalys' Edwards warns, too, that face-to-face interactions can be preferred for complex projects or systems. Sophisticated e-commerce engines, meanwhile, perhaps embedded with AI analytics, mainly suits the scale of the Bechtles, Dustins, Ateas or Insights of the world. Without sufficient digital presence, however, partners can miss customer opportunities.

“Closed intranet-type procurement models are one potential differentiator, where pricing and discounts are pre-agreed,” Edwards says. “Capturing customer usage data from digital platforms can drive targeting that supports customer lifecycle strategies.”

Apple has announced a new feature called 'Tap to Pay' that will enable newer iPhones to accept contactless payments.

The new capability will allow merchants in the US to securely accept Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets using their iPhone, without the need for additional hardware or payment terminals.

Payment service providers and app developers may integrate Tap to Pay for iPhone into their iOS apps and provide it as a payment option to their clients.

Customers simply need to place their iPhone or Apple Watch close to the merchant's iPhone to make payments via Apple Pay, contactless credit or debit cards, or any other digital wallets, and the transaction will be completed via near field communication (NFC) technology.

Stripe will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to its customers.

“Whether you’re a salesperson at an internet-first retailer or an individual entrepreneur, you can soon accept contactless payments on a device that’s already in your pocket: your iPhone,” said Billy Alvarado, Stripe’s chief business officer.

“With Tap to Pay on iPhone, millions of businesses using Stripe can enhance their in-person commerce experience by offering their customers a fast and secure checkout.”

Tap to Pay will also be supported in Apple Store locations in the US later this year.

As for security, Apple said all Tap to Pay transactions on iPhone will be encrypted and processed using the Secure Element. In addition, just as with Apple Pay, Apple will be unaware of what is being purchased or from whom.

“As more and more consumers are tapping to pay with digital wallets and credit cards, Tap to Pay on iPhone will provide businesses with a secure, private, and easy way to accept contactless payments and unlock new checkout experiences using the power, security, and convenience of iPhone,” said Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet.

“In collaboration with payment platforms, app developers, and payment networks, we’re making it easier than ever for businesses of all sizes — from solopreneurs to large retailers — to seamlessly accept contactless payments and continue to grow their business,” added Bailey.

Security researchers have discovered a Linux-based remote access trojan (RAT) that uses an unusual stealth technique to remain out of sight from security products.

The malware, dubbed CronRat, hides in the calendar subsystem of Linux servers (“cron”) on a non-existent day, 31 February, according to a blog post by security researchers at Sansec.

The researchers said that CronRat “enables server-side Magecart data theft which bypasses browser-based security solutions”. The malware was discovered on several eCommerce websites injecting Magecart payment skimmers in server-side code.

Sansec director of threat research Willem de Groot said that digital skimming is moving from the browser to the server, and this is yet another example.

“Most online stores have only implemented browser-based defenses, and criminals capitalize on the unprotected back-end. Security professionals should really consider the full attack surface,” he added.

The malware uses Linux’s cron job scheduling utility to hide from discovery. It adds several tasks to crontab with a curious date specification: 52 23 31 2 3. These lines are syntactically valid but would generate a run time error when executed.

“However, this will never happen as they are scheduled to run on February 31st. Instead, the actual malware code is hidden in the task names and is constructed using several layers of compression and base64 decoding,” said researchers.

According to researchers, the malware is a sophisticated Bash program that features self-destruction, timing modulation, and a custom binary protocol to communicate with a foreign control server. Upon launch, it contacts the control server using an exotic feature of the Linux kernel that enables TCP communication via a file using a fake banner for the Dropbear SSH service. This also helps to keep the malware hidden.

It also contacts a server hosted on Alibaba in China, and uses a custom binary protocol with random checksums, to avoid detection by firewalls and packet inspectors.

Once contact with a C2 server is established, it drops its disguise and sends and receives numerous commands, and downloads a malicious dynamic library. Afterwards, the malware is ready to run any command on a compromised system.

While investigating this RAT, the researchers wrote another specially crafted RAT client to intercept commands. This led to the discovery of yet another RAT that researchers hope to study in-depth later.

Small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) are being urged to update their software ahead of Black Friday and Cyber Monday to avoid financial and reputational damage.

The warning comes after the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) identified 4,151 online shops that had been compromised using a vulnerability within the e-commerce platform Magento. With 250,000 clients, the Adobe subsidiary is the third-largest e-commerce system globally, after WooCommerce and Shopify.

NCSC alerted the affected retailers of the vulnerability in late September, with Magento issuing a security patch on 12 October.

All online businesses are being urged to update their software, as the mass shift to e-commerce since the start of the pandemic has caused more customers to shop online than ever before, increasing their risk of falling victim to online scams.

Hence, the NCSC has issued guidance on running a secure website and avoiding threats including skimming, which has been described as “a threat to all retailers” by British Retail Consortium assistant director Graham Wynn.

The trade association has urged “all retailers to follow the NCSC’s advice and check their preparedness for any cyber issues that could arise during the busy end of year period”.

NCSC deputy director for Economy and Society, Sarah Lyons, said that the agency wants “small and medium-sized online retailers to know how to prevent their sites being exploited by opportunistic cyber criminals over the peak shopping period”.

“Falling victim to cyber crime could leave you and your customers out of pocket and cause reputational damage. It’s important to keep websites as secure as possible and I would urge all business owners to follow our guidance and make sure their software is up to date,” she added.

Last year, Check Point’s security researchers observed a sharp increase in the number of phishing exploits in the run-up to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, with phishing emails having increased by over 13 times in early November 2020. In December 2020, RiskIQ security researchers discovered around 37,000 fake retail websites set up to scam holiday shoppers, with 208 domain infringement events containing only “Black Friday,” “Cyber Monday,” “Boxing Day,” or “Christmas”.

Amazon has announced that it will no longer stop supporting UK-issued visa credit cards on its platform.

The move had been due to take effect on 19 January, with Amazon blaming "high fees Visa charges for processing credit card transactions" when it was first announced in November.

The company has now reversed its decision, telling IT Pro in a statement that it is working with Visa on a "potential solution."

“The expected change regarding the use of Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk will no longer take place on January 19, a company spokesperson told IT Pro. "We are working closely with Visa on a potential solution that will enable customers to continue using their Visa credit cards on Amazon.co.uk.”

17/11/21: Amazon to stop accepting UK-issued Visa credit cards

Amazon has announced that it will stop accepting UK-issued Visa credit cards starting 19 January 2022.

The decision has been attributed to high fees charged by Visa for transactions on Amazon, negatively impacting businesses selling their products through the online shopping platform.

A spokesperson for the retail giant told IT Pro that the costs “should be going down over time with technological advancements, but instead they continue to stay high or even rise”.

“As a result of Visa’s continued high cost of payments, we regret that Amazon.co.uk will no longer accept UK-issued Visa credit cards as of 19 January 2022,” the spokesperson said, adding that the company “will continue innovating on behalf of customers to add and promote faster, cheaper, and more inclusive payment options to our stores across the globe”.

This means that next month’s holiday shopping might be the last opportunity for UK Amazon customers to pay using their Visa credit cards.

Visa debit cards will continue to be accepted after the date, alongside any other non-Visa credit cards, including Mastercard, Amex, and Eurocard. The retail giant has contacted customers asking them to update their default payment method with an eligible payment method through Amazon’s ''manage your subscription'' page.

A Visa spokesperson said that the company is “very disappointed” in Amazon’s decision, accusing the company of “threatening to restrict consumer choice in the future”.

As Visa is one of the two most popular card issuers in the UK, alongside Mastercard, the restriction could result in consumers and businesses alike finding it difficult to pay for products sold on Amazon.co.uk, being forced to either pay using debit cards or to find a different provider.

“When consumer choice is limited, nobody wins,” the spokesperson told IT Pro, adding that Visa is working to resolve the issue in order to allow its cardholders to “use their preferred Visa credit cards at Amazon UK without Amazon-imposed restrictions come January 2022”.

The news comes as another blow to Visa, which in September was criticised for not taking responsibility for a flaw which allowed its Apple Pay payment cards to be charged without the owner’s consent when set to Apple’s express transit mode.

Family shopping trips and keeping track of spending has arguably become much easier since the inception of the internet, especially in recent years. Although going cash-free has made spending more abstract, anyone in the world can download an app, or go online, to satisfy their shopping needs. This is instead of trawling through shopping centres and queuing up at banks. Instant check-outs, as well as till-free shopping, has further expedited this process, giving customers the ability to find a product and order it as quickly as possible while charging the cost to a card previously used.

It’s great for most Western countries, where markets revolve around plastic payment cards, especially with COVID-19 encouraging so many retailers to go cash-free. This isn’t the norm, however, in many other regions throughout the world, such as the Baltics, where credit and debit cards are scarce.

As Nikulipe CEO Frank Breuss explains, merchants often struggle to offer payment methods people are comfortable using. “When you talk to people in the UK or in the US, they often ask what the local payment methods are because they assume everybody has a card,” Breuss says. “But the reality is, in many markets around the world, the preferred method of payment isn’t card. In the past, local payment methods were called “alternative payment methods”, but if you look at the Netherlands, the alternative payment method has a 70% market share, so it isn’t the alternative – the card is the alternative.

“Similarly, in countries like Lithuania, online shops offer credit cards and PayPal, but the preference of consumers is actually to pay using their bank account. This could be a problem for merchants as they need to have a button on the check-out page for each bank, which adds complexity and can make the consumer think twice about their purchase.”

Unlocking new payments

These alternative payment methods include familiar ways to pay, such as direct exchanges from bank accounts rather than via debit cards, online wallets such as PayPal, AliPay and Tencent, as well as buy now, pay later services like Klarna. Other, less familiar payment methods include paying using direct debit and, in some regions, using cash, where customers can buy online but pay at their local post office or corner shop.

Nikulipe’s Banklinq platform collates the various methods and financial service providers across a region for consumers to use when purchasing products and services online. In practice, it means Banklinq becomes the only payment method merchants need to offer during the checkout process for potentially hundreds of different banks and payment methods, removing the complexity that currently exists for many vendors. This is made possible thanks to the Payment Services Directive (PSD2) open banking legislation that makes it compulsory for banks to offer application programming interfaces (APIs) for third parties to securely, and with permission, pull information from customers’ accounts.

The API is based on the NextGenPSD2 framework created by the Berlin Group, an association of more than 40 banks based in the EU, and was modified to match Nikulipe's implementation. The NextGenPSD2 framework offers an open and interoperable set of APIs to ensure the safest and most efficient way to provide data securely.

It reduces complexity and costs when it comes to accessing accounts, referred to in the industry as XS2A, and addresses the problem of multiple competing standards in Europe. It also shares the same goals as the Euro Retail Payments Board, enabling European banking customers to benefit from banking as a service (Baas) products by granting third parties safe and secure access to their bank accounts and financial data.

Despite this legislation, Breuss laments that one of the challenges Nikulipe has had to overcome is the quality of the APIs they integrate with. “Nikulipe has been able to take advantage of the technical and legal opportunity open banking has created,” he says. “However, although the legislation is very clear that the banks have to offer an API, the reality is that the quality and the promise of these APIs is very different from the APIs the banks deliver.

“It sounds very easy to connect to open banking API's but banks often do the bare minimum to enable these integrations because they see it as enabling competition, which has been tricky to overcome while providing a smooth and efficient solution to consumers.”

Falling at the final hurdle

The need for banks to provide APIs so people can make online purchases more easily may have been hard to envision in Northeast Europe two years ago. Breuss paints a picture of people stuck in their ways, especially in the rural areas, but the pandemic, he continues, has forced more people to go online for more of their products. This has created a necessity for merchants to offer payment methods that many more people are comfortable using.

Although there are no specific future plans for expansion, he adds, Nikulipe will continue to enter markets where payment methods offered by merchants don’t match the preferences of customers. “I think the pandemic has affected the growing markets in three ways,” he explains. “Firstly, merchant industries that were reluctant to go online are now online. Second, I think new consumer groups have been met, and finally, mainly outside Europe, the lockdown opened up the market for streaming products and has meant consumers are used to subscription models.

“Now, the trend for local payment methods is not a new one and it's not one that’s come from the pandemic, but I think this is a trend that all businesses need to be focussed on. Merchants should not only think about how the local market wants to pay, because anyone who doesn’t want to pay with a card, for example, will not purchase from them. The worst thing that can happen is you invest money to get a customer to your website and put something in a cart, just to lose them because they can’t pay as they want to. That’s why offering local payment methods will be a key success factor for businesses going forward.”

The FBI has raided the Jacksonville warehouse of a Chinese point of sale (POS) terminal vendor after reports that the terminals were being used as part of a network distributing malware.

The company in question, PAX Technology, is based in Shenzhen, China. FBI agents executed a court-authorized search at the firm’s warehouse in Jacksonville, Florida.

In a statement to Jacksonville-based WOKV.com, the FBI said that in partnership with Homeland Security Investigations, Customs and Border Protection, Department of Commerce, and Naval Criminal Investigative Services, and with the support of the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, it executed “a court-authorized search at this location in furtherance of a federal investigation”.

“We are not aware of any physical threat to the surrounding community related to this search. The investigation remains active and ongoing and no additional information can be confirmed at this time.”

According to a report by Krebs on Security, the FBI began investigating PAX after a major US payment processor started asking questions about unusual network packets originating from the company’s payment terminals.

A source told the publication that the payment processor found that the PAX terminals were being used both as a malware dropper and a C2 server for staging attacks and collecting information.

The source also said that two financial providers, one in the US and one in the UK, had begun removing PAX terminals from the payment infrastructure, adding that that there was proof that these terminals were used to mount cyber attacks.

“The packet sizes don’t match the payment data they should be sending, nor does it correlate with telemetry these devices might display if they were updating their software. PAX is now claiming that the investigation is racially and politically motivated,” the source told Krebs on Security.

FBI agents are also investigating at the company’s other location in Jacksonville. Shares of PAX plunged 43.3% in Hong Kong and stopped trading on news of the raid. PAX is the third-largest provider of electronic payment terminals in the world, after Florida-based Verifone and France's Ingenico.

As reported in IT Pro, the retail sector is a top target for cyber criminals as retailers have access to a wealth of sensitive data about their customers, who use often-repeated login details for their accounts.

PayPal has denied reports that it is planning to acquire digital pinboard platform Pinterest.

Bloomberg was first to report the rumours on 20 October, having been told by people familiar with the matter that the two companies were involved in “late-stage talks”, with Pinterest reportedly being offered $70 per share, mostly in stock.

This would reportedly value the acquisition at $45 billion (£32.6 billion) – the highest amount paid for a social media company to date, surpassing Microsoft’s $26.2 billion takeover of LinkedIn in June 2016.

However, in a statement published on Sunday, PayPal described the reports as “market rumours”, adding that it “is not pursuing an acquisition of Pinterest at this time”.

The announcement caused Pinterest shares to drop more than 12%, while PayPal’s bounced back by 6%, after having slumped by 8% following the news of the potential acquisition.

Pinterest wasn’t immediately available for comment.

The news comes weeks after another high-profile acquisition cancellation: on 1 October Zoom called off its $14.7 billion (£11 billion) acquisition of cloud contact centre software provider Five9. The deal, which was expected to be the largest takeover for Zoom to date, was “mutually terminated” less than three months since it was announced due to Five9 failing to secure sufficient stockholder support.

The acquisition was voted down the deal in a shareholder meeting on Thursday, with the rejection being motivated by growth concerns as well as the dual-class shares: under the acquisition terms, Five9 shareholders would have received 0.5533 worth of Zoom shares for every Five9 share.

The original story continues below

21/10/2021: PayPal is in talks to acquire digital pinboard platform Pinterest for $45 billion (£32.6 billion), according to people familiar with the matter.

The deal is said to be in “late-stage talks”, confidential sources told Bloomberg on Wednesday, with Pinterest reportedly being offered $70 per share, mostly in stock.

If accepted, the deal would be the biggest acquisition of a social media company to date, surpassing Microsoft’s $26.2 billion takeover of LinkedIn in June 2016. PayPal is likely to announce the acquisition by the time it reports quarterly earnings on 8 November, according to one of the sources. However, the deal is still uncertain and its terms could be subject to change.

News of the potential acquisition caused Pinterest shares to surge by 12.8% to $62.68, with CEO Ben Silbermann's net worth skyrocketing by an estimated $400 million to $3.8 million. PayPal, on the other hand, saw its shares slump by 4.9% to $258.36 at closing. Neither company was immediately available for comment.

Founded in 2019, Pinterest allows users to “pin” posts, such as cooking recipes or decoration ideas, organise them into folders, as well as share them with friends. It makes its money by letting companies advertise their services through promoted posts.

PayPal’s interest in the social media platform stems from the shifting landscape of retail, with customers opting to buy products advertised by “influencers” – popular social media users with high rates of followers and engagement. The trend is seen across other social media platforms: in May 2020, Instagram and Facebook introduced Shops, which allow users to browse and purchase products directly from a business’ Facebook or Instagram profile, while TikTok’s partnership with ecommerce giant Shopify allows retail brands to link their product catalogues to the app.

Pinterest had previously been in talks to be acquired by Microsoft, but the deal fell through in February 2021 after Pinterest expressed a wish to remain independent. This was the second time that Microsoft had attempted to buy a large social media platform, following its failed bid to take over Chinese video-sharing app TikTok.

Adobe has said it is making new payment options available for customer digital storefronts in order to tackle an over-reliance on integrations from third-party providers.

The new Payment Services tool is managed through Adobe Commerce Admin and will let merchants support a range of payment methods like credit and debit cards, Venmo, and PayPal, including PayPal's pay later services.

Adobe said that all payment and transaction data can be accessed through the Adobe Commerce Admin platform, and the company will provide competitive processing fees, where transactions will have tiered rates based on processing volume.

Merchants will also be able to access advanced financial reporting, and view information on their store’s orders and payments, like processed volume, payment balance, and transaction-level reporting.

“In today’s fast-moving digital economy, organisations demand flexibility and extensibility in their commerce platform to sustain business growth and deliver seamless experiences for their customers,” said Amit Ahuja, vice president of Adobe Experience Cloud Product and Strategy at Adobe.

“With the addition of Payment Services, we’re thrilled to expand on our already robust out-of-the-box commerce feature set to help Adobe Commerce merchants compete effectively and win in the digital-first economy.”

In the future, Adobe said that merchants might be able to offer other payment methods, pointing to the likes of PayPal and its ongoing investment in cryptocurrency.

Payment Services will be available to customers in the US from the fourth quarter of 2021, and will also be accessible to merchants using Magento Open Source. Support for additional territories, including Canada, Australia, and Western Europe, is planned for 2022.

PayPal is set to acquire Paidy, a Japanese 'buy now, pay later' (BNPL) company for ¥300 billion (approximately US$2.7 billion).

PayPal said that the acquisition will help to expand its capabilities, distribution, and relevance in the domestic payments market in Japan and complement its existing cross-border e-commerce business in the country.

"Paidy pioneered buy now, pay later solutions tailored to the Japanese market and quickly grew to become the leading service, developing a sizeable two-sided platform of consumers and merchants," said Peter Kenevan, vice president and head of Japan at PayPal.

"Combining Paidy's brand, capabilities and talented team with PayPal's expertise, resources and global scale will create a strong foundation to accelerate our momentum in this strategically important market."

Paidy allows Japanese shoppers to make purchases online and then pay for them each month in a consolidated bill at a convenience store or through a bank transfer. The company said it uses proprietary technology to score creditworthiness, underwrite transactions, and guarantee payment to merchants. It also helps consumers “feel comfortable and safe” while shopping online and drives increased conversion rates, average order values and repeat purchases for merchants.

The company has over six million registered users and has integrations with PayPal and other digital and QR wallets through Paidy Link.

"Paidy is just at the beginning of our journey and joining PayPal will accelerate our plans to expand beyond e-commerce and build unique services as the new shopping standard," said Riku Sugie, president and CEO of Paidy. "PayPal was a founding partner for Paidy Link and we look forward to working together to create even more value."

At the beginning of August, Jack Dorsey’s financial services company Square was set to acquire Afterpay for around $29 billion, breaking the record for a completed Australian buyout. Afterpay is another BNPL platform that lends shoppers, who are exempt from credit checks, money they can pay off later, interest-free. Square planned to integrate Afterpay into its existing Seller and Cash App business units and allow “even the smallest of merchants” to offer BNPL at checkout.

Many businesses were saved during the pandemic by online shopping and click-and-collect services, and in turn, many businesses without a comprehensive online presence, or no presence at all, struggled or failed.

However, the prevalence of online shopping also opens up new avenues of risk. In an industry that has traditionally only seen crime in the form of shoplifting, online retail has become a favourite target among cyber criminals and has been one of the most attacked sectors this year.

We look at the factors that make the retail industry such a juicy target and the types of attacks they face, as well as the steps retailers can take to strengthen their security.

Why retailers are so vulnerable to cyber attacks

When the pandemic hit, a wave of businesses were forced to sell the entirety of their goods and services online. While e-commerce was an increasing trend pre-pandemic, online shopping sales in the UK rose by 48% to £113 billion during the height of the crisis.

For attackers, this meant a surge in the number of weak spots they could easily exploit.

Customer information has been perhaps the biggest target, including both details from card payments and general personal information. Retailers have access to a wealth of sensitive data about their customers, who use often-repeated login details for their accounts.

Being customer-centric, e-commerce sites and apps are also under pressure to be highly user-friendly, which often means leaving out important security measures like two-factor authentication that would create friction.

Add to this the extremely competitive market that has pushed larger businesses to collect and analyse this data for more personalised experiences and marketing, and retail becomes an industry ripe for cyber crime.

With access to customer databases, criminals can send phishing emails pretending to be a legitimate business, and ask for personal details, send malicious links, or include malware that can wreak havoc on a customer’s PC.

As businesses increase their use of cloud computing and third-party vendors, supply chains have also become a common attack surface full of vulnerable touchpoints, particularly as retailers can’t always guarantee that their suppliers have robust cyber security in please, or even take security as seriously.

Issues persist outside of online sales as well, as retailers increase their use of IoT devices like security cameras and point of sales systems, which, because they’re connected to the internet, are more vulnerable to attack than regular hardware. A hacker can instal malware on a PoS system that records card swipes and pin numbers and infects other parts of the system.

Lastly, the nature of the retail workforce poses a threat from within. In a survey by the Ponemon Institute, over half of respondents admitted to taking information from a previous employer and 40% of those intended to use it in a new job. With lots of turnover and seasonal workers, former or disgruntled employees can compromise data just by copying information onto a USB and walking out the door.

Common cyber attacks that retailers face

On top of the threats mentioned above, like insider threats and phishing emails, retailers encounter a wide range of cyber attacks that can cause serious damage to their operations and reputations.

Any of the aforementioned threats can result in hackers or ex-employees leaking stolen data. Retailers face not only financial loss through fines for violating GDPR, but also loss of customer trust and business.

Through a botnet attack, attackers can bring together an array of compromised devices and systems and use them to carry out attacks, or sell access to the system to other malicious actors.

Ransomware is another major type of attack retailers face, often during busy times like Black Friday or the lead up to Christmas. Attackers put a halt on operations until businesses pay the ransoms, putting an enormous loss of revenue and customer confidence on the line. According to a survey conducted by Sophos, 44% of retail organisations in the last year were hit by ransomware and 32% of those paid up.

Simple steps to protect your retail business from cyber threats

As the pandemic has made clear, being adaptable in all aspects is a key to survival. Having an agile strategy that incorporates machine learning and automation will help retailers maintain robust security systems in the face of future disruptions.

The onus shouldn’t be entirely on CISOs and IT departments, however; since security is a company-wide concern, there must be board-level buy-in.

Make sure all decision makers understand the risk of any new tech, workflows, or partners you bring on in your attempts to increase revenue and digitise. Since vendors in the supply chain are one major concern, be as proactive with their security practices as you are with your own, regularly questioning and monitoring.

For information and advice pertaining specifically to ransomware threats on retailers, read this complementary resource from Sophos here.

As with all businesses, retailers have had a tough time during the pandemic and although things look to be improving as restrictions are lifted, sellers may continue to experience challenges for a while to come.

Here we look at five technology challenges retailers are still facing.

1. Tackling e-commerce

For many stores and retail businesses during the pandemic, the reduced footfall on the high street and government-enforced closures meant that business owners had to think differently in order to survive. For most, the answer was to move the majority of their commerce online.

2020 proved to be one of the most successful years for digital retail, with sales reaching £2.96 trillion – a growth of 18.4% according to eMarketer’s 2020 report. Retailers believe this is set to continue, with consumers still preferring to shop online, and the projected growth is expected to reach £3.52 trillion by the end of 2021.

Looking ahead, many sellers have adopted new strategies and technologies to claim more of this growing market – most commonly by starting an e-commerce site or expanding an existing one. Yet some smaller retailers still don’t have an online presence, often because the initial outlay to set up an e-commerce operation can be prohibitively expensive. In these cases, social media could be utilised, as long as it’s done right, with regular posts and positive customer interactions.

Even if you have moved online (and you might be left behind if you don’t) not all retailer websites are up to scratch. With strategies to increase basket value, or attract new customers, a lack of interactive features could really limit retailers’ ability to keep up with the larger competition.

Then there’s also the growing trend of m-commerce, with the majority of online purchases now being made on a mobile device, according to a report by Broadband Search. Retailer sites today need to be mobile-optimised, and by offering their product and services in the spaces that their customers are operating, retailers will continue to improve brand affinity.

2. Digitising customer expectations

90% of consumers today expect consistent shopping experiences with their favourite retailers, whether that's in store or via an e-commerce site. And when it comes to stores' e-commerce platforms, they cannot be used alone; consumers want to see that whatever they’ve added to their online baskets on their desktops also shows up when they log in to their accounts on their smartphones.

Seamless shopping expectations don’t just begin and end with physical stores and their e-commerce platform, however; the interest in offering an 'omnichannel' experience is high, with the majority of retailers realising this strategy is the best way forward.

Wherever customers interact with stores today – in person, online, over the phone, or via social media, retailers need to always be able to know who they are and what they want. Despite this, only a small minority of sellers offer aligned customer touch-points, which negatively affects their ability to maintain communication with their customers and could in turn lead to brand damage.

Retailers need to be able to offer a unified view, and this can be supported through digital transformation. By investing in the right technology and implementing CX platforms, retailers could improve their overall customer experience, streamline processes, and save costs.

3. Poor customer data

In order to achieve the great experiences expected by customers, collecting and storing consumer data is key to being able to understand buying behaviour and deliver personalised shopping based on insights. But even today, many retailers either have customer data from which they don't know how to extract insights, or the data is out of date.

In fact, a study by Deloitte found that 71% of consumer data was inaccurate, and by not having the right data or data segmentation to know your customers, retailers risk losing business to the competition.

An example of this might be customers who are bombarded with incorrect offer messages for an item they may have already purchased, and even returned, purely down to inefficient data management within the organisation.

To overcome this, retailers need to ensure data quality through a data cleaning solution, to ensure its accuracy before being analysed for customer insights.

4. Multiple security risks

With the increase in online shopping, 24% of consumers today are concerned about how their data is being used, despite this number being nearly half what it was in 2018. Even with the number of those concerned dropping, a key expectation from all consumers is for retailers to protect their data.

Retailers need to ensure that those accessing their e-commerce sites are legitimate (through the use of an email verification link, for example) to prevent malicious actors gaining access to confidential customer data, including card details, or sending phishing emails to customers posing as the retailer.

Even in physical stores, advancements in technology - the introduction of till-less shopping and the rising popularity of contactless payments - means retailers are not only facing the challenges of implementing these shopping methods, but they’re also expected to increase surveillance and protect public safety.

All of this, plus a lack of skilled IT staff to support these new in-store facilities, adds to complications, rising costs and shrinking margins.

5. Lingering supply chain issues

Lastly, even with restrictions lifted and a return to a new “normal”, COVID-19 is still having a lasting effect on supply chain management in 2021.

Fulfilment delays continue to affect retailers, as others struggle with product shortages, and for those sellers offering omnichannel experiences, the complexity of having multiple channels to market means that customer demands are not being met.

Overall, as long as retailers deliver what their customers expect, and utilise the new technology opportunities available, success will be achieved in the new normal and well into the future.

Every business wants to attract more customers, however an expanding customer base brings with it a potential increase in cyber security risks across your company. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of all digital channels by consumers has rapidly expanded. From websites to social media, businesses had to quickly scale these channels to meet the demand – however, security was often lacking in the haste to do so.

“Enterprises have acted quickly to meet the additional demand for online interaction during the pandemic,” says Jim Allum, director of commercial and technical at Macro 4. “But any digital transformation initiative needs to consider end-to-end security and IT teams will be revisiting those short-term solutions to see how they can be strengthened.”

Attracting more customers is, of course, a competitive advantage no business will ever refuse. Securing these customers as they interact across the multiple digital touchpoints they now use is the challenge facing many enterprises. The current technology stack that is in place will potentially need to be overhauled and in some cases, older legacy systems that are still in place won't have robust security and privacy measures, such as multi-factor authentication.

Speaking to IT Pro, Tim Harrison, co-founder and director of WatchPilot, gives an overview of how his company approached the expansion of customer interactions and how this influences their approach to improving digital security.

“As an e-commerce business, our most valuable data assets are our customers' personal data and their associated financial information,” he says. “Our customers' credit card data is the most likely target of a cyberattack so should be guarded closely. As our business continues to grow, more people require access to our site. To mitigate the increased security risk, we seek to adopt a ‘least privilege’ principle by providing an appropriate level of store access only for that which is required [for them] to perform their jobs. We also plan audits on who has access, including any third-party apps, with a view to further increasing the security of our website.”

Paul McKay, principal analyst, Forrester, points out that how threat actors approach their attacks has also changed.

“From a customer security point of view, the big shift has been in the volume of customers now using digital channels as opposed to face-to-face stores or physical locations. This has increased the size of the prize somewhat,” he says. “As a result, we have seen an increase in attempts to disrupt these channels and ransomware attacks aimed at disruption and extortion of customer data from these firms. This is now expanding into sectors not traditionally thought of as targets, such as links in the supply chain such as JBS foods in the US, which cause harm as much as the ‘front-end.’”

New security landscapes

Businesses have been re-drawing their digital transformation roadmaps as the pandemic has continued. Considering how their enterprises will trade in a post-COVID-19 landscape means paying more attention to security. As consumer behaviour has shifted almost wholesale to digital channels, the threat surface that companies must now secure has expanded and diversified. What this means from a practical standpoint is that IT leaders are now widening their security remit.

Adam Phipps, cyber security manager at Walsall Housing Group (WHG), tells IT Pro how the Group approaches the security of its staff and customers. "In the last 18 months, Walsall Housing Group’s security strategies and practices have been tested like no other period,” he explains. “Our rapidly accelerated digital transformation programme that enables home working, opportunistic phishing campaigns, and the discontinuity of information security operations created the perfect storm in a COVID-19 disrupted world.”

“Understanding these challenges helps WHG identify what solutions are required,” Phipps continues. “We chose Trend Micro Vision One, which helps detect and correlate threats across endpoint, network, cloud, server, and email security, offering increased risk visibility and faster response times.”

When customer numbers expand, privacy and security compliance become even more critical. GDPR is now three years old and will potentially be joined by new EU legislation (the Digital Services and Digital Markets Acts) that would place more responsibilities on data ‘gatekeepers.’ A potential class-action lawsuit against Google for allegedly tracking millions of iPhones without their owners' consent in the UK again shifts how businesses should construct digital security services that protect their organisations and their customers.

Concern about possible group legal challenges is a core finding from Egress, which surveyed 250 UK security leaders and data protection officers, and 2,000 UK customers in May this year. It revealed that 90% of security leaders are concerned about class action by data subjects in the event of a severe data breach, whereas 85% are concerned about regulatory fines. And strikingly, nearly half (50%) of UK consumers would join a class action against a company that had misused or leaked their personal data.

“The greatest financial risk post breach no longer sits with the regulatory fines that could be issued,” says Lisa Forte, partner at Red Goat Cyber Security. “Lawsuits are now commonplace and could equal the writing of a blank cheque if your data is compromised.”

Also, the European Commission recently gave details of its intention to regulate AI. As more businesses adopt this technology and apply this to their expanding customer bases, it could add another layer of regulation for them to comply with.

Forrester’s Paul McKay points to how authentication and identity are critical to the long term security of all businesses: “There is now a widespread recognition that getting security right is vital for customer trust as well as the organisation protecting its own revenue base and brand. Therefore, one of the biggest shifts we have seen is an increase in both focus on streamlining and modernising customer authentication processes in the customer identity access management (CIAM) space. Organisations are now focusing on making this a key part of their identity and access management (IAM) roadmaps."

Customer protection

One way that all businesses can improve their security is via education and training.

Neil Sinclair, national cyber lead at the Police Digital Security Centre in London, tells IT Pro: “In our experience as trainers, only about a third of UK employees receive regular email security training, while about a quarter of UK organisations are not providing regular employees with any cyber awareness training at all.”

As the use of digital channels by all consumers shows little sign of slowing, it's critical to have a comprehensive and integrated approach to security. As Phipps concludes, many cyber security challenges remain and it's how organisations react to these threats to keep their staff, networks, and customers safe that matters.

“WHG realises that there is no quick fix to the issues presented by the global pandemic. Even as society and businesses manage the health and humanitarian aspects, WHG, like so many organisations, has had to deal with the economic and operational fallout, which is creating financial and budget challenges for all companies’ information security operations in the mid-to long-term.

“The pandemic has opened the door to opportunistic threats, creating social engineering opportunities such as new phishing campaigns, which only enhances our requirements for increased spending on cyber defences.”

Post-COVID-19, the security landscape businesses and organisations face will continue to evolve. Consumers have continued to expand their use of all digital touchpoints. In this scenario, businesses need a multifaceted approach to security that ensures these channels are safe.

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Approx. read time: 16 minutes

Retailers are still transitioning after the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and with the virus still around for some time yet, the need to socially-distance in shops is still apparent. But this isn’t the only way shopping has changed for many consumers.

We’re shifting towards online shopping and cashless transactions and more retailers are turning to technology to support this and increasing their omni channel presence.

Download this guide to learn more about how shopping in a post-COVID world is going to be safer, more convenient, more personalised and more mobile through technology.

Fill out the form below to download this resource

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Approx. read time: 12 minutes

The retail fashion industry really took a knock in the wake of the pandemic, with store closures, suspended supply chains and a large increase in e-commerce sales as customers were forced to stay at home.

Despite further predicted losses, it hasn’t all been doom and gloom, with COVID-19 bringing new opportunities to innovate and expand retail business through omnichannel experiences.

Download this resource to understand the hard lessons retail businesses have learned as a result of COVID-19 and how the shift to digital is leading to greater efficiencies and improved customer interactions across retail fashion.

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B2B buyer preference has shifted towards digital in recent years, and the restrictions necessitated by the pandemic have only pushed B2B e-commerce to a place it should have been much earlier.

While B2C processes have already largely gone digital as e-commerce has taken over, B2B has lagged behind. B2B processes, though involved in many of the behind-the-scenes processes of business-to-consumer online selling, have remained manual and inefficient.

B2B sites lack the same user-friendly interfaces as B2C sites; they don’t utilise review capabilities, discounts, or chatbots and other automation that would remove the need for calling customer service reps or flipping through catalogues.

Now that the pandemic has forced B2B sellers to quickly jump on the e-commerce bandwagon, we’re seeing the priorities of many companies shift to make digital selling more automated, improve customer relationships, and drive revenue overall.

One main way a majority of companies are pursuing this is by optimising their self-service tools.

How B2B sellers are meeting the rising demand for digital ordering

Even before the pandemic, B2B buyers were already trending towards buying more from websites than sales reps. Online purchasing is more convenient and gives the customer more control of the process. And with most everyone working from home the last year and a half, it’s been much easier not to have to get ahold of real people to complete a purchase.

Now sellers are implementing a variety of initiatives to meet these demands, with self-service tools being one of the top changes.

In a survey of C-level executives and heads of marketing and e-commerce from WBR Insights, 67% of responding companies said they planned to implement more self-service options for customers like self-service portals and customer-event-triggered marketing automation flows.

Other self-service events may include paying invoices online, checking order status or product availability, getting quotations and samples, and reordering.

Benefits of self-service tools for B2B e-commerce

Self-service tools are beneficial not only to shoppers but to merchants as well.

Brian Green, head of commercial sales and GTM in EMEA at Magento, says that “self-service capabilities are core to a good online customer experience” and allow “shoppers to get answers earlier in the sales funnel...without needing to interact with a sales representative.”

On one hand, chatbots make it so customers don’t have to call sales reps or wait hours or even days for an email back to answer basic questions.

On the other, the sales teams themselves are freed up to work on other higher-value services like cross-selling and up-selling and helping customers with more complex issues.

Self-service capabilities empower businesses to be more efficient in all aspects, from streamlining their procurement processes to making supply chains more resilient to disruptions like that of the pandemic. If physical interactions suddenly had to stop again, businesses with automated, online processes would be in a much better position than those with traditional, manual processes.

Some business leaders have qualms about the effect digitisation might have on client relationships if clients feel they can’t get ahold of a real person and feel like all communications are impersonal. However, you’re empowering the customer as well as your sales teams by giving them the tools to help themselves and being there in person why they really need you.

Digitisation also gives you more visibility into buying trends and customer behaviour so that you can adapt your marketing accordingly and deliver more personalised experiences.

Should I adopt self-service capabilities and other e-commerce tools?

If you’re still on the fence about the benefits of self-service, it’s worth asking yourself about the true value of self-service versus your current manual processes.

How much time do your customer service representatives spend on one single client, from the time they take a call, perform a service, and then follow up? What are you paying for this time, and could they be spending this time on more important activities?

Are there processes like recording sales and revenue or analysing data that could be automated for more efficiency? Again, what is the cost of the time it takes to do these activities manually?

Remember, digitisation will not take people out of the equation entirely, but is only meant to automate those processes that don’t need a human touch and make life easier for both buyers and sellers.

Approx read time: 15 minutes

It’s a business imperative for B2B sellers to compete with the high expectations set by B2C e-commerce during the pandemic.

This report analyses the results of a survey of 100 CEOs, CTOs, CDOs, and more in B2B companies across Europe to see what challenges they’ve faced and solutions they’ve created to take on the coming years.

Download it now to find out more about:

• The growing emphasis on digital customer experience
• The impact of the sudden shift to remote working
• The new focus on content strategies and environmentalism

Approx. read time: 19 minutes

Over one-third of retailers now sell most of their products and services online and online selling is only becoming more business critical.

How can your business choose the right e-commerce platform to manage customer needs and future-proof your business against future changes?

Download this playbook to find out:

• Five must-have e-commerce capabilities, as identified by leading analysts
• Why these capabilities are critical to success
• How Adobe Commerce, integrated with Adobe’s enterprise-class marketing and analytics tech, can prepare you for the future

Amazon has announced it is retiring its standalone Prime Now service, with its app and website shutting down globally by the end of 2021.

Prime Now has been available since 2014 as a way for members of Amazon's Prime subscription service to get items delivered straight to their doors within a few hours for an extra fee.

However, the e-commerce giant is now directing users that want these fast deliveries to the Amazon app and website where a two-hour delivery option will be made available. This also includes Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods, which are both available in the app and website.

The move will also incorporate any third-party retailers or local stores that were offered within Prime Now, such as the supermarket chain Morrisons. Available retailers differed slightly from region to region, but the service was used in more than 5,000 cities and towns and even operated out of dedicated Prime Now warehouses.

"To make this experience even more seamless for customers, we are moving the experience from a separate Prime Now app onto the Amazon app and website so customers can shop all Amazon has to offer from one convenient location," the company's vice president of grocery, Stephenie Landry, said in a blog post.

"In 2014, I wrote a six-page document outlining a service that would allow customers to get last-minute items in about an hour. We even gave the project the internal code name 'Houdini.' In just 111 days, our team took the concept outlined in that six-page document and turned it into Prime Now, which became the foundation for Amazon's ultrafast grocery and same-day delivery businesses."

The change has been planned for some time with pop-up notifications in Prime Now directing users to the new website and app. The service has also been discontinued in India, Japan, and Singapore.

Ocado has announced plans to create 100 new advanced technology jobs in the UK as part of an expansion of its Swiftfields Campus development centre in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire.

The grocery e-tailer is seeking to recruit software engineers, product managers, designers, technicians, and testers working on advanced technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, digital twins, and autonomous vehicles.

The new employees will be part of Ocado’s second-largest UK development centre, the Swiftfields Campus, which already employs 385 software and hardware specialists working in areas such as machine learning, automation, big data, cloud computing, and IoT.

Following the company’s investment in robotic picking and autonomous vehicles, Ocado has taken on three new units in the area to expand its testing, experimentation, and collaborative office facilities. The expanded Swiftfields Campus is set to support the company’s accelerated adoption of the Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) - the end-to-end e-commerce, fulfilment, and logistics platform used for online grocery shopping by retailers across the globe.

Commenting on the announcement, Ocado head of UK Development Centres Isabel Richards said that the company is “always on the lookout for people who share our drive to innovate”.

“Our ‘Swiftfields’ Campus gives us access to both the amazing technical talent in Hertfordshire and the industrial space that enable us to build world-class development facilities and experiment at speed,” she added. “This new hub in Welwyn Garden City offers exciting opportunities for ambitious, tech-savvy individuals who want to play a part in developing pioneering innovations that are changing the way the world shops.”

Ocado currently employs around 2,500 technical experts in seven countries across the world. Welwyn Garden City is among Ocado’s 12 development centres, which are also based in London and Hatfield (UK), Sofia (Bulgaria), Wroclaw and Krakow (Poland), Barcelona (Spain), Stockholm (Sweden), Toronto (Canada), San Francisco, and Las Vegas (USA).

Last year, following a £1 billion investment round, the company created 500 new technology jobs, with the majority of the new roles being software engineers and product managers located around European development centres. However, a "significant" number of these roles also included positions at Ocado’s London site, which announced 260 new jobs in July 2019.

The following article originally appeared in Issue 11 of IT Pro 20/20 as part of a new series that invites industry experts to give their take on some of the most pressing issues facing businesses today. To sign up to receive the latest issue of IT Pro 20/20 in your inbox every month, click here. For a list of previous issues, click here.

Women in the technology industry, especially those in technical roles, routinely face a plethora of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. They shouldn’t have to follow such a tough path on their own - but there is light at the end of the tunnel. Today, I am part of Mars, one of the world's largest consumer goods companies, in a role that shapes our key technology strategies, but I’ve come a long way from where I started and it was often tough going.

My path into tech started with a doctorate degree in experimental physics - a subject which fascinated me due to its logical and structured nature. I had started to build upon my experience of scientific computing by engaging in small projects alongside teaching, but in 1999, my husband was transferred to the UK through his company. I arrived with my family to start a new life in a new country.

My first job in the UK was as a support analyst in a startup, answering customers’ phone calls and logging their IT questions. Initially, I focused on finding a suitable role, doing it well, and then taking the next step. Since my first role in IT, I have technically led many digital transformation programmes for various enterprises, including government departments and multinational companies.

Many people assume that strong communication skills are not necessary to work in the technology industry, reasoning that workers will be spending more time with computers than with people. I too started my career in technology with this assumption, but quickly realised that my technical skills would never gain the recognition and value that they deserve if I couldn’t successfully convey their importance to others.

I have always focused on learning business processes and understanding business challenges, without relinquishing my core technical skills, and my key achievement has been to learn to communicate well. The key to effective communication with business stakeholders is to make a conscious effort to listen, clarify, and respond in a language that is both relevant and jargon-free. The key to successful communication is to do this consistently.

My focus on maintaining my integrity and learning continuously has been key to my professional development, but my biggest challenge has been finding ways to fit into the male-dominated IT industry.

I did not fit in a typical IT organisation. I believe in fairness, value integrity and advocate diversity of opinion, but I was often told that such principles conflicted with organisational interests. I was frequently urged to overlook unjust treatment, encouraged to be more like my colleagues and toe the line. My technical abilities would also get dismissed. I struggled to accept such compromises.

As an example, I was working on a large, complex programme alongside a senior architect who was well known in the organisation. Unfortunately, he had neither much knowledge of the subject, nor did he take any responsibility for the team. He would ask me what I was doing, write it down and then take full credit with the senior managers, who assumed that it was all his own work.

Frequently, I was the only woman in the team and had a different ethnic and cultural background, so I directly attributed these differences in attitude to biases. I had reached an impasse and had to find a way out. I decided to change myself, but on my own terms and conditions. I worked on eliminating my own biases about people and their culture, background, nationality, and gender in order to ensure that I could be objective about any gender bias that I experienced.

This objectivity has changed my approach. Instead of dismissing comments which may at first seem biased, I have learnt to try and appreciate where they are coming from. If they are borne out of a lack of understanding, I have a rational conversation with the individual. If this does not resolve the matter, then at least I know that I have attempted to build bridges.

Introspection has helped me redefine my values and I live by them, while simultaneously trying to internalise feedback to continuously improve myself. I recognise that this is all a work in progress, and one which I may never complete. However, exercising the ability to be my natural self has brought me peace that I have not known before.

Two decades after I arrived in the UK, it’s gratifying to see more young women choosing careers in STEM, but while I am fiercely proud of the technical skills that I have honed over the course of my career, the skills of communication, empathy, and introspection have been just as vital. It has been a remarkable and rewarding journey, professionally, personally and intellectually, and it’s not over yet. I know I have a lot more work to do and I’m intrigued to see where it will take me next.

Ingka Investments, owner and operator of 389 Ikea stores and e-commerce across 32 countries, has invested close to £12 million in London-based tech startup what3words.

What3words technology divides the world into a grid of 3-metre squares, with each square being assigned a unique combination of 3 words that can be used to pinpoint the area to a high degree of accuracy. This has a number of use cases, including helping emergency services locate 999 callers in locations that are difficult to describe, such as a remote hillside.

Ingka said that the technology would prove useful with efforts to reduce CO2 emissions and reduce the number of vehicles on the roads by ensuring more first-time deliveries are successful.

“As we look to a future of drone deliveries and autonomous vehicles, the system, also designed for voice entry, will provide the accuracy needed,” it added.

The investment is set to launch the startup into new international markets while continuing to develop partners within the e-commerce and logistics sector.

Krister Mattsson, managing director of Ingka Investments, said: “We are delighted with this new investment in what3words as they are an innovative company and we are confident of their continued growth. With an increasing demand for home deliveries, scalable and sustainable solutions are becoming increasingly important.

“We see value in helping to support the build-up of a universal addressing system that can lead to better customer experience, while the precise locations will allow for a reduction in overall miles travelled, reducing the carbon footprint of home deliveries.”

The Ingka Group has already made a number of investments to help support the core Ikea retail business, including in areas such as digitalisation, customer fulfilment, fintech, and sustainability.

“What3word’s ambition is to become a global standard for communicating location," said Chris Sheldrick, CEO and co-founder of what3words. "We envisage a world where on every platform, in every checkout field, you can give your what3words address, with retailers able to deliver to that precise 3-metre square. The investment from Ingka Investments will help us unlock new markets while accelerating our position as a ‘must-have’ in the logistics industry.”

In November 2019, Capita integrated the what3words app into its “Vision” control systems to help emergency services locate 999 callers in difficult to pinpoint areas.

A physical Amazon store has opened in London's Ealing that offers shoppers a grocery service without checkouts.

The 2,500 square foot facility is the first of its 'Go' stores to be launched outside of the US, but it follows the 'Amazon Fresh' branding in the UK.

The store opened at 7 am on Thursday, with shoppers able to find everyday ingredients and ready meals without any queues or interactions with a shop assistant. The service is app-based and uses the same types of technology that can be found in self-driving cars, according to Amazon.

The system is called is 'Just Walk Out Technology' and it uses cloud computing advancements such as sensor fusion and deep learning algorithms to identify what shoppers put in their baskets. This is then automatically calculated and paid for when the user exits the building.

Sensors in both the shop and on a customer's smartphone are used to build and monitor a geofence - a virtual parameter in a physical area - which not only identifies what users pick or put down but also helps to control the store's inventory systems.

The first Amazon Go store, which was a prototype in Seattle, was delayed after the tracking technology initially had problems monitoring multiple users or objects at the same time.

The tech giant now has 26 'Go' stores across the US, as well as its new site in the UK.

The store has also managed to open despite the COVID-19 pandemic and social distancing measures, although it is currently working with a reduced maximum occupancy of 20 customers. The floor has also been marked with reminders for face coverings and maintaining social distancing and there are PPE and disposable gloves available at the entrance for all visitors.

The CEO of European fintech giant Adyen has expressed concerns around using Bitcoin as a mainstream form of payment.

The cryptocurrency's volatility makes it less viable for transactions, the company's founder and CEO, Pieter van der Does, told CNBC.

Ayden, a Dutch payment platform founded in 2006, processes payments on behalf of Netflix, Facebook, and other leading brands. It's one of a number of companies that enjoyed significant growth due to the pandemic with more customers using its online payments and e-commerce services. But, the firm's CEO has said it has "no interest" in adding crypto payment methods to its roster of services.

"Bitcoin is more of an investment asset than a payment method," Van der Does said, according to CNBC. "We are interested in payment methods which are being used. I am wondering if the huge movement in the value of Bitcoin is helping it as a payment method."

In that regard, the value of Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies, has fluctuated wildly throughout its existence. Just over the last few years, Bitcoin value has dropped below £10,000 but also, more recently, shot up to new heights of $36,352.20. The recent news that Tesla will use its corporate cash to buy Bitcoin saw its value soar past $40,000.

The electric car firm announced a $1.5 billion investment in Bitcoin on Tuesday alongside plans to start accepting payments in the digital currency. Similarly, Mastercard has also suggested it will offer some cryptocurrencies on its network in the future, although it's unclear if Bitcoin will be included.

Adyen's stance to not follow suit adds to a growing list of companies and organisations that are suspicious of cryptocurrencies. The likes of in-coming Intel boss Pat Gelsinger and the Financial Conduct Authority have expressed concerns and warnings around the use of digital tokens. Van der Does has also suggested that Adyen's clientele have shown no interest in it either.

"It might not actually be helping cryptocurrencies if they are more like investment assets than a currency," he told CNBC. "That makes it less interesting for a merchant - to have potential (as a means of payment), you need a stable currency."

The European Commission (EC) has announced formal antitrust charges against Amazon over its treatment of third-party sellers.

In a preliminary ruling, which follows an investigation launched almost two years ago, the EC says Amazon broke competition rules by using data gathered on third-party sellers to compete against them.

Amazon is using this data, which includes the number of ordered and shipped units of products, the sellers' revenues on the marketplace, and data relating to shipping to make strategic business decisions to the detriment of the other marketplace sellers, the EC says.

"For example, it allows Amazon to focus its offers in the best-selling products across product categories and to adjust its offers in view of non-public data of competing sellers," the EC's Statement of Objections reads.

"The use of non-public marketplace seller data allows Amazon to avoid the normal risks of retail competition and to leverage its dominance in the market for the provision of marketplace services in France and Germany – the biggest markets for Amazon in the EU."

The EC also announced that it has started a separate investigation of into Amazon policies that may artificially favour its own retail offers, as well as products of other companies that pay to use Amazon’s logistics services.

In particular, the watchdog will investigate whether the criteria that Amazon sets to select the winner of the “Buy Box", the promotional window that suggests items for customers to add to their basket, leads to preferential treatment of Amazon's retail business or of the sellers that use Amazon's logistics and delivery services.

Executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager commented: “We must ensure that dual role platforms with market power, such as Amazon, do not distort competition.

“Data on the activity of third-party sellers should not be used to the benefit of Amazon when it acts as a competitor to these sellers. The conditions of competition on the Amazon platform must also be fair. Its rules should not artificially favour Amazon's own retail offers or advantage the offers of retailers using Amazon's logistics and delivery services.

“With e-commerce booming, and Amazon being the leading e-commerce platform, a fair and undistorted access to consumers online is important for all sellers.”

Amazon has yet to comment on the EC findings, but has previously played down antitrust concerns, claiming that many retailers have their own private-label offerings and that online sales represent only a small sliver of the overall retail sector.

Amazon’s business practices have been under scrutiny elsewhere in the EU and in the US. Earlier this year, Germany's antitrust watchdog launched an investigation into the company for allegedly abusing its dominance amid the coronavirus pandemic by blocking sellers from increasing prices.

In the US, Amazon is part of a group of companies under scrutiny by the House Judiciary Committee. The Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission have also launched antitrust probes against Amazon.

Watching the mad scramble to secure an Xbox Series X this week has been grimly amusing. As is normally the case whenever a new big-ticket gaming item comes out, there was a frantic dash to pre-order the new console in order to guarantee a day-one delivery and – as usual – the process was a complete mess.

Predictably, the demand massively outstripped available supply and retailers quickly ran out of stock, but that process wasn’t helped by a truly staggering amount of technical failures. Customers on both sides of the Atlantic were forced to suffer long load times when trying to access store pages, only to be greeted with error messages.

Sony suffered similar problems with the PlayStation 5’s launch; part of the problem was low stock levels and a lack of coordination around when pre-orders were going live, but many attempted purchases were stymied by technical errors, failed payments and other wobbles.

Naturally, this wasn’t a problem for me; as a newly-minted PC gamer, I merely sat on my watercooled throne of RTX 2080’s and observed the carnage with amused disinterest. It did, however, get me thinking about just how infinitely scalable the cloud actually is.

One thing I found particularly interesting is that many users reported multiple problems when trying to purchase the new Xbox through both Amazon and Microsoft’s storefronts. It’s perhaps understandable that smaller retailers like Argos and Very might have problems in the face of an overwhelming surge of app and website traffic, but Amazon and Microsoft are the proprietors of the world’s two biggest public cloud infrastructures.

One of the key selling-points of the cloud – or so we’re told – is that it’s an ‘elastic’ infrastructure, meaning that when site traffic surges, the system can scale up its capacity to accommodate it rather than simply falling over as traditional on-premise infrastructure would. And yet, when traffic to their platforms spiked, neither Microsoft nor Amazon seemed able to cope without issue.

Now, of course, I understand why this happened: The latest Xbox is one of the most compelling consoles Microsoft has released in years, and demand for pre-orders was no doubt especially high. On top of that, computer science is, in many ways, more art than science – if cloud computing wasn’t so tricky to get right, Microsoft wouldn’t have been able to earn $12.5 billion from doing so in its latest financial quarter.

However, it must be said that when not even the two titans of the cloud computing space can handle the traffic for a scheduled and anticipated launch event –which was for one of Microsoft’s own flagship products, to boot – it doesn’t inspire the greatest confidence in AWS or Azure’s ability to weather the unexpected spikes in the way its customers likely expect.

Both cloud platforms are still technical marvels on the cutting edge of enterprise computing, and one wobbly launch does not a faulty platform make. Still though, it’s a useful reminder that for all the cloud industry’s bluster about ‘maximum uptime’ and ‘infinite scalability’, there’s no such thing as an infallible system, and even the biggest platforms aren’t immune to the occasional upset.

The Financial Conduct Authority has agreed to delay the implementation of the EU's upcoming Strong Customer Authentication directive after it assessed that most businesses would not be prepared for the new electronic payment rules by a 14 September 2019 deadline.

SCA, a law forming part of the EU's Second Payment Services Directive (PSD2), will require all businesses offering online payment services within the European Economic Area to enforce multifactor authentication on electronic transfers.

The changes are designed to enhance the security of payments and help reduce fraud, however, according to the FCA, the complexity of the changes is likely to create significant disruption for consumers if implemented using a hard deadline.

"The FCA has been working with the industry to put in place stronger means of ensuring that anyone seeking to make payments is not a fraudster," said Jonathan Davidson, executive director for supervision, retail and authorisations at the FCA. "While these measures will reduce fraud, we want to make sure that they won't cause material disruption to consumers themselves; so we have agreed a phased plan for their timely introduction".

Under the changes, the e-commerce industry of card issuers, payments firms, and online retailers will have 18 months to implement a second authentication factor for customer-initiated payments, which could include asking customers for a PIN number or biometric data in order to verify the transaction.

No regulatory action will be taken against companies which do not meet the PSD2 requirements on the 14 September, provided that necessary steps have been taken to be completely compliant at the end of the 18-month window.

However, while the change is designed to make it easier to implement the directive, some have criticised the delay for adding needless confusion to the industry.

"It is disappointing to see such resistance from the financial services sector towards integrating Strong Customer Authentication into its services," said Jason Tooley, chief revenue officer at Veridium. "Financial institutions and payment service providers have had nearly two years to prepare since the initial announcement, and there is no valid excuse for the delay in its enforcement apart from an unwillingness to participate."

"The impact on consumers must not be overlooked by the lengthy delay in enforcement; Strong Customer Authentication will mean consumers are more confident when buying online -- not act as a deterrent to sales as some have incorrectly suggested."

The FCA has said it will continue to monitor how banks and payment services are working towards meeting the new standards, as well as ensuring that alternative forms of multifactor authentication are made available to customers.

M-commerce, or mobile commerce, describes the use of mobile phones to make commercial transactions, predominantly smartphones. Today, global mobile traffic to the internet exceeds desktop traffic, making up around 55% of the market according to Broadband Search, compared to 42% by desktops, with the last 3% put down to tablets (in other words, larger mobile devices).

With more people ordering goods online than ever before, the need for businesses to ensure they include an omnichannel experience and ensure their websites are accessible from handheld devices is increasingly important. According to Sales Cycle, 68% of online shopping was done via a mobile device in 2020, with 56% of sales attributed to m-commerce traffic.

With m-commerce covering a number of different transactions, there are plenty of ways for retailers to adopt it into their sales and marketing strategies. This includes mobile payment options, from Apple Pay and Visa Checkout to Android Pay, amongst others, as well as providing consumers with a better customer experience with personalised content and direct shipping methods to anywhere in the world.

The term m-commerce also incorporates the variety of new mobile payment solutions that have emerged, creating “mobile wallets” with the use of fintech, including PayPal and Cash App, enabling one-click payments in stores via a wireless terminal, or mobile point of sale.

Exploiting this avenue may involve updating the features on your website to include optimising the sales process for mobile phones, from a user experience (UX) point of view, with larger buttons, for example. Optimising websites also entails offering customers a seamless and flowing journey, with the capacity to browse and make purchases without encountering any bugs or glitches. The process must involve understanding how people navigate around your site, the journey they take and coming up with ways to improve the overall shopping experience while making purchases through smartphones.

The rise of m-commerce

The concept of using mobiles to shop was first coined as m-commerce in 1997, with its definition stated as, "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer's hand, anywhere, via wireless technology", but the use of mobile devices as a way to make smarter purchase decisions and make payments has evolved substantially since then.

A decade ago, few would have thought that we could pay for products via our smartphones through the use of mobile payments technology, or use apps to order our weekly shopping on the bus home with web speeds nearly as good as our home broadband.

At the start of the year, eMarketer attributed almost 14% of total global retail sales to m-commerce, with nearly 51% of total e-commerce sales via mobile.

"A greater dependence on mobile devices, namely smartphones, is having a positive effect on retail m-commerce sales globally," said Monica Peart, eMarketer's senior forecasting director. "This trend is evident in more frequent mobile shopping sessions and higher spends per session, both hallmarks of a growing expectation for mobile devices to satisfy a variety of consumer shopping needs."

Web-based m-commerce

M-commerce has made it vital for all companies to have mobile-responsive websites that adapt automatically to the size of the screen, allowing mobile experiences to exist alongside a desktop shopping experience.

Smartphones and tablets accounted for 34.5% of online sales in 2017, according to The Circular Board, and that’s predicted to reach 54% by the end of 2021.

App-based m-commerce

More and more these days, retailers rely on mobile apps to reach customers, replicating the experience of being inside their store for people when they're waiting for trains, eating their lunch or at other idle time. Often when a customer visits a retailer's website via their smartphone, the retailer will redirect them to their app store so they can download the app.

Retailers seem to be getting it right: commerce marketing firm Criteo found that mobile apps perform far better than both desktop and mobile websites when it comes to pushing customers to purchase something, boasting a better conversion rate than the others. This reflects the richer and more personalised shopping experience retailers are bringing customers via apps.

M-commerce is definitely a growing part of retail, but it's important that retailers meet and surpass customers' expectations of their digital shopping experiences. This means providing them with a quick responsive interface that is personalised to their tastes, as well as embracing other technology to make it easier to find and pay for products, such as mobile payments while alleviating any security concerns customers may have.

M-commerce during the pandemic

Over the last few years, retailers have worked to expand their mobile presence and this shift was even further accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdown measures.

With the closure of brick and mortar shops and heightened budget consciousness due to the financial crisis, the traditional high street shopping experiences gave way to seemingly endless scrolling. In fact, by April 2020, the average user was spending over a quarter (27%) of their daily waking hours on their mobile device – and what better way to spend that time then by shopping? Only a few months later, mobile analytics company App Annie recorded that UK retail sales made via mobile had increased by 30% since the first quarter of the year, with consumer spending on mobile increasing to in excess of $50 billion (£35 billion) in the first half of 2020.

Last year’s success of m-commerce could also be credited to food delivery apps such as Deliveroo or UberEats, which became a key feature of the lockdown economy as the UK government shut down restaurants and advised consumers to have goods – particularly food – delivered to them at home. This resulted in unprecedented demand for some takeaways, with Domino’s Pizza, for example, being forced to implement a queuing system for its online customers as well as recruit additional delivery drivers.

While the pandemic saw most businesses struggle, m-commerce undeniably thrived in the chaos. This prompted HM Treasury to consider introducing an additional tax for online retailers such as Amazon, in order to help the UK recover from the financial strain of the COVID pandemic.

Amazon has released Amazon Pay for Alexa Skills, a platform that means businesses can now offer product and service purchasing through Alexa.

The service was previously in beta and available for US businesses to use, but Amazon has now revealed it'll be generally available for developers to integrate into web stores.

One of the main benefits is that customers can buy goods and services without putting their payment details in manually. They simply need to add their payment details to Amazon Pay beforehand and will be able to complete the transaction using their voice and the Amazon account details already stored in Alexa.

Businesses can easily implement Amazon Pay for Alexa Skills by registering to use Amazon Pay within their skill and then linking their Amazon Pay account with their Alexa Skill in Amazon Central.

Amazon explained Amazon Pay for Alexa Skills also integrates with the majority of CRM systems for additional marketing activity and customer retention.

One of the companies already using Amazon Pay for Alexa Skills is Virgin Trains, which means customers can book train tickets using their voice. They can check their train times and then go through to purchase in just a few commands.

"From finding train times or booking your tickets through voice, we want to make every journey with Virgin Trains amazing, and our collaboration with Amazon is a great example of this commitment to putting the customer first," John Sullivan, CIO of Virgin Trains said.

He added that customers have experienced a 66% shorter purchase time, significantly improving their buying experience and boosting customer service.

Shopping on smartphones is on the rise, with recent research revealing that mobile commerce (m-commerce) sales now make up more than 70% of online store visits in most industries.

Some people may still prefer using their desktop PCs or even shopping in person, but m-commerce is fast becoming the go-to method of retail, particularly given the decline of high street brands and the various lockdowns of the past two years.

While the shift to m-commerce is perhaps more gradual than first thought - research from ComScore found that desktops were still the most popular devices for shopping on Black Friday and Cyber Monday - it continues to grow in popularity, and developers and retailers are beginning to realise the need to tweak their services to meet the changing demands.

As such, the future of m-commerce is still somewhat undefined and there may be a number of obstacles to hurdle before it becomes the preferred way to shop.

The challenges of m-commerce

Retail purchases have been moving online at such an alarming rate that many of the UK's biggest brands had gone under long before the pandemic had even hit. Customers have been taken away from the high street by the convenience of online shopping and the likes of Amazon. The next step here is moving from desktop to mobile, which would seem like a logical phase considering more people own a smartphone than a laptop.

However, the experience offered on mobile is still somewhat inferior to the desktop. A lot of this is down to the size of the screen and the perspectives it offers. What's more, retailers often have the same site for both desktop and mobile, so the latter often has a poorly scaled image and certain navigation tools are harder to use.

Connectivity can also play a part, as although networks are far faster and more stable than they were five years ago thanks to the arrival of 4G and 5G, it's not always a certainty that you'll have a reliable connection. There's nothing worse than spending an hour picking the right item, only for your connection to drop as you go to the checkout. It's a frustrating experience that often results in users deciding to hold off on making the actual purchase until they're home.

Users are also generally less comfortable with the idea of entering payment details into a mobile device. Despite improvement to mobile OS security over the years, there's still a perception that mobile devices are less secure than their desktop counterparts.

Solutions to common m-commerce problems

Smartphone manufacturers are already addressing many of these problems, introducing technologies to make transactions more secure, including fingerprint readers that protect devices from unauthorised access.

Retailers are starting to make the experience better too, by introducing apps that have been designed from the ground up to provide a more seamless experience compared to a mobile web store.

Additionally, social networks are making it easier to buy products without even leaving the apps and websites shoppers feel most comfortable using. Just hit the 'buy' button in Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and the transaction can be completed in a familiar environment.

One-click checkouts are also becoming more popular, meaning customers no longer have to enter all of their payment details with the fear someone's looking over their shoulder. Add into the mix OneTouch from PayPal, and it's giving customers even more peace of mind.

However, there's still some way to go before customers will happily scrap the desktop to shop online.

The future of m-commerce

By 2026, providing a fast experience will be vital for a retailer's success, according to Ovum. This applies if they are providing an experience on desktop or mobile. Whatever a customer is doing, they'll be able to purchase something instantly and know that it will be on the way to their office or home as soon as they click the "confirm" button.

Furthermore, this also applies to the way in which a customer expects their items to be physically shipped to them. Due to the rise of schemes like Amazon Prime, customers expect items to be shipped and delivered the next day at the very least, with some businesses like Argos offering same-day delivery. Obviously, as the e-commerce sector expands and digitalises, this will become increasingly important.

Similar to other sectors, customers now expect their shopping experience to be increasingly relevant to their lives, which means AI and data analysis will become an essential aspect of m-commerce. Recommendations and suggestions will be a crucial tool for retailers, allowing them to combine friend recommendations, social media activity, and previous searches to tailor the experience to them, whether they are using the store online through a web browser or an app.

To become more secure, payments will also have to adapt. It is probable that we will see retailers experiment more with authentication, which could be in the form of biometric methods, two-factor authentication or relying on third parties like PayPal to securely process the transaction.

M-commerce is set to provide great opportunities for retailers and increase revenues in the coming years, but the customer experience will be increasingly valued as well, so this should be at the centre of every retailer's business plan – physical store or not.

Although m-commerce has long been blamed for being a threat to brick-and-mortar stores, retailers are now waking up to the opportunity of using smartphones to their advantage. The last year has seen an influx of physical stores enhancing their customer experience with the use of m-commerce in an effort to make shopping as fast and convenient as it is online.

Amazon, Aldi, and Tesco are some of the retailers which have decided to combine the use of mobile apps with the UK’s high street. In all three cases, the companies allow users to streamline their shopping experience by eliminating the inconvenience of queueing to check out items, or having to carry around a wallet. Instead, customers are asked to scan a QR code in the retailer’s app, and then are allowed to choose and pick the items that they wish to purchase and simply walk out, with the receipt mailed to their inbox or made available to view in the app.

So how does the retailer know which item has been chosen by a customer? Amazon Fresh stores, for instance, use depth and motion sensors which hang from the ceiling and monitor what item is chosen, in how many quantities, and whether the customer places it in their shopping bag, or maybe changes their mind and places it back on the shelf instead. Although Amazon Fresh stores avoid the use of any kind of facial recognition technology, Aldi’s Shop&Go shop, which opened in Greenwich earlier this year, uses facial age estimation technology provided by London-based biometrics company Yoti when purchasing age-restricted products such as alcohol.

Whichever technologies m-commerce retailers use, the three trends that they are likely to resonate with customers are relevance, speed, and security – no matter what sector their retail business falls into.

Instagram has quietly begun trialling a set of e-commerce features, allowing some users to pay for goods and services without leaving the app.

A sample of businesses in the UK and the US are now accepting in-app payments for services, such as booking restaurant tables or taking hair appointments, without needing users to leave the app.

The photo and video sharing platform, which in November celebrated reaching 25 million listed business profiles, outlined its plans to "continue evolving business profiles" in March 2017 by rolling out the ability for users to book a service directly from a business' profile.

Shoppers on Instagram are currently redirected off-app to a business' website to process any payments.

Although scheduled to be rolled out later in 2017, in-app purchases failed to materialise. But TechCrunch was tipped-off by one of its readers that users were able to register debit or credit card details to their profile, along with setting a security pin, with a view to begin purchasing goods and services from a sample of businesses.

IT Pro approached Instagram and parent company Facebook, for comment and clarification on the in-app payments but neither company responded at the time of writing.

"As 800 million use Instagram each month to discover and follow their passions, more and more people are using it to connect with businesses they love," Instagram said in a blog post celebrating reaching 25 million listed businesses last November.

"In fact, over 80% of accounts on Instagram follow a business, while 200 million Instagrammers actively visit the profile of a business every day. As a result, the Instagram community is helping spur small business growth in big ways."

Instagram previously trialled shoppable photo tags in 2016, allowing users to see which products were in a post, and allowing them to follow through to purchase it from the business' site.

Facebook, meanwhile, has been exploring e-commerce for years mainly via its Marketplace, also revamping its Messenger platform to make it a more effective bridge between businesses and users, alongside a raft of additional features announced at its F8 conference.

Instagram's expansion into e-commerce speaks to the wider monetisation of social media. While making it easier for businesses to operate by better-integrating them with such platforms, social media giants are increasingly commodifying what have traditionally been more personal spaces.

The Christmas holiday season, like Easter, Halloween and Black Friday, is one of the busiest periods for web retailers, who must prepare in advance to ensure they are able to meet customer demands.

Retail ecommerce in the UK is set to reach a total of almost 70 billion this year, according to eMarketer, and this number is expected to grow to almost 100 billion by 2020. This is a huge increase compared to 2012, when the figure was less than 40 billion.

Bill Fisher, senior analyst at eMarketer, said: "Retail ecommerce will account for 17% of total retail sales in 2016. This outstrips all other countries we cover by this measure, except China. For example, retail ecommerce in the US will account for 8.2% of total retail sales in 2016, less than half the proportion in the UK."

Although shopping online has huge advantages, such as avoiding cues and busy stores, customers might experience other issues, including websites crashing, low product availability, poor customer service or late deliveries.

IT Pro spoke to online gift store Prezzybox and electronic goods retailer Ebuyer to find out about how they cope with the demands of the holiday season.

How do you prepare for Christmas and holiday season sales?

Andy Roberts, head of business intelligence at Ebuyer: "The success of a holiday season is usually down to the planning. The more time we have the better chance we have of delivering across the business. We have overarching legacy plans that give us an idea of when to begin ordering stock. This can vary from weeks to months, especially if it's a product that is in high demand or comes from overseas."

Francesca Prince, PR and marketing executive at Prezzybox: "From ensuring we are stocked up, to dealing with customers and being flexible in our marketing, there's a lot that we do to prepare for holiday season sales. We also make sure delivery dates are achievable and prepare for a rise in customer enquiries."

How do you ensure that your website supports the large amounts of traffic during the Christmas period?

Roberts: "As a company we run a number of load balancing tests over the year to check that our systems are up for the larger workloads required. These are stress tests for both the website and the warehouse system that allow us to handle huge amounts of traffic, while effectively fulfilling the orders."

Prince: "We research and develop technology to make sure the website runs efficiently and can scale itself when under load. This means that the site will grow as needed and stay fast for users."

Do you take any extra precautions online to protect yourself from phishing campaigns or malware during the Christmas period?

Roberts: "We take security very seriously throughout the year and are constantly testing and improving our defences, especially when it comes to malware, protecting customer data or dispersing and preventing DDOS attacks."

What do marketing and analytics experts suggest?

IT Pro spoke to Clicktale, acompany providing marketing and analytics solutions for digital businesses, about how web retailers can best cope during the holiday period.

Yossi Harel, senior project manager and UX consultant at Clicktale, said: "Especially during the holidays, retailers depend on round-the-clock situation rooms to monitor and quickly catch technology glitches to keep sites cruising at peak performance, and many smart retailers are adding customer experience monitoring to their situation room mix."

Customer experience analytics can help web retailers diagnose and address glitches on their website, allowing them to observe the behaviour that led customers to leave feedback.

Harel said: "This way, you can determine what visitors were trying to do when their journey went sour, better diagnose the source of the problem, and - most importantly - quantify business impact of leaving it unfixed, and get IT the exact data they need to fix things fast."

In order to ensure that customer experience does not suffer due to the high requests during peak periods, Clicktale puts forward a series of suggestions.

Eliza Savov, customer experience analyst at Clicktale, said: "A web retailer can take technical precautions in terms of scalability and coping with increased traffic to make sure the site doesn't slow down or crash due to higher demand."

Many major online retailers often introduce a "code freeze", a period during which no new non-essential code changes are introduced. However, this might need to be overridden if a serious problem arises.

Clicktale also suggests trying to minimise the 'out of stock experience' by allowing visitors to reserve items for when they are back in stock.

Big data analysis by SOASTA has revealed that Mondays are the top day for shopping throughout November and December, with the exception of Black Friday.

The company analysed 77 billion beacons of data to see how people were using online shops to make purchases in the five weeks between Thanksgiving and the end of December last year. It concluded that an increasing number of people are using their mobiles and smartphones to shop online, rather than using a computer.

"Mondays are consistently the peak traffic days, outside of Thanksgiving weekend," Everts added. "Our theory: this reflects the growing number of people who do some or all of their online shopping at work, away from the prying eyes of family members."

SOASTA also analysed trends from this year's Black Friday and Cyber Monday and found that, although both days showed strong sales for online retailer, Black Friday generated more sales with 21% more traffic to online stores over the weekend.

"In previous years, Cyber Monday experienced equal or greater traffic," Tammy Everts, director of content at SOASTA said. "However, this year, Black Friday traffic exceeded Cyber Monday traffic by 21%. We speculate that as an increasing number of online shoppers are avoiding crowded stores on the holiday weekend, those shoppers are moving online in droves."

Although retailers may feel a little disappointed by sales next week, they can be sure to see a big jump as we head into 2017, SOASTA's study reassured.

"While the retail traffic dips around Christmas and New Year, it recovers briskly in January and after 2 January, traffic rises steadily," concluded Everts. "By 26 January, traffic has reached almost the same proportions as in mid-December. This is great news for retailers; however, they need to be mindful of the fact that peak days become more unpredictable."

Domino's Pizza and Hitachi Consulting are working together to transform the pizza chain into an innovative and forward-thinking enterprise in the hospitality sector.

Hitachi will lead Domino's software delivery team, advising and helping with all aspects of application development and delivery. It will also provide DevOps consultancy to transform how the organisation rolls out solutions to market.

Specifically, the two companies will work together to improve the customer experience and transform its e-commerce operation, which is its most used channel for completed sales.

"With our eye constantly on innovation, we are always seeking ways to make our customers lives easier,"said Rod Brooks, Domino's Pizza's head of IT (software delivery).

He added that it's important to have the capability to become more agile and have the scalability to keep ahead of the competition.

"Hitachi Consulting provides us with that capability, but in turn we're able to share our experiences, as a rapidly growing e-commerce and m-commerce business," he commented.

Domino's is looking to further transform its digital business in the coming months and needed a way of rolling out applications and services in a more efficient manner. Hitachi's DevOps consultancy services offered such an approach, developing the methodology and working with the pizza delivery company's existing teams to produce more reliable products using automation in a timelier manner.

"With DevOps, there is a strong focus on continuous testing and constant delivery. This means there is more emphasis on testing much earlier in the solution delivery lifecycle. Domino's Pizza has embraced continuous integration and testing to help the software delivery team rapidly build, test, and deliver secure, high-quality applications," said Jonathon Wright, Director, Testing Quality Assurance, at Hitachi Consulting.

Google may be about to make buying products a whole lot easier, launching a 'buy' button on its search listings to enable people to shop with as few clicks as possible.

The buttons will first appear on mobile devices, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. They will only accompany paid or sponsored search results rather than regular results, motivating marketers to consider using Google's advertising services.

If a customer wants to buy the product using the 'buy' button, they will be taken through to another heavily branded page where they can choose extra options, such as sizes or colours and shipping methods. It will give them the impression of being on a retailer's site rather than Google Shopping and when they enter their payment details, these will be stored securely and remembered for next time - much like the way in which Amazon One Click purchasing works.

These branded retailer pages will show related items from that company in the hope customers will fill their virtual baskets with multiple items.

Retailers will still ship the products to customers, but the changes will make the purchasing process much easier for mobile searchers and will mean they don't necessarily need to scout around for the best deal.

Companies will pay Google as if they were advertising rather than the search engine receiving a cut of the money spent.

The WSJ said a number of high-profile retailers are in talks with Google to trial the new feature, including Macy's in the US, although the department store wouldn't comment when it was approached by the publication.

The new feature is likely to undergo some scrutiny from retailers that do not already use sponsored search or mobile advertising, forcing them to spend on the company's advertising platform.

The EU plans to take a closer look at cross-country e-commerce, after it was revealed online transactions were only growing very slowly in comparison to the number of overall transactions taking place.

In 2014, almost half of EU citizens bought products or services online, but only 15 per cent of the transactions used services in other EU states.

Although the EU has noted that part of this may be down to language barriers, consumer preferences and differences in legislation across member states, the body said it suspects some countries are restricting cross-border e-commerce, possibly by geo-blocking consumers from accessing their websites.

Additionally, retailers may only accept credit cards from the host nation, meaning they are unable to complete the purchase online and so will head elsewhere to find the same product - often paying more than on the original website. Not only is this bad cross-border business, it is also a bad experience for the consumer too.

Commissioner Margrethe Vestage, who is responsible for competition policy, said she will refer the inquiry the College of Commissioners and their findings will contribute to the commission's objectives of achieving a Digital Single Market.

Vestager said: "It is high time to remove remaining barriers to e-commerce, which is a vital part of a true Digital Single Market in Europe. The envisaged sector inquiry will help the commission to understand and tackle barriers to e-commerce to the benefit of European citizens and business."

Vestager hopes the study will determine where the key issue lies and will also help enforce competition law in the e-commerce sector.

The aims of the Digital Single Market are to make Europe more competitive in the global economy by boosting cross-country trade and eradicate geoblocking.