POSTED BY Scarlett Woodford
In recent years, there has been an increase in the use of conversational marketing. This has occurred in tandem with the rise of CPaaS (Communication Platforms-as-a-Service) platforms and brands adopting an omnichannel approach to both sales and customer services. Marketing can now occur over social networking websites and even blogs, as customers increasingly want to interact with brands in a conversational context.
Digital identity is a widely debated concept that is constantly evolving and becoming increasingly entwined with allied areas, such as security, privacy, and management of identity-related data. NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) in the US refers to digital identity as an online persona of a subject or, even more simply, a unique representation of a subject engaged in an online transaction. While this is true, digital identity presents a more complex picture when current multi-use ecosystems, heavily dependent on the sharing of identity credentials, are considered. Such an identity is made up of identifiers and patterns that are unique to the subject of identity, which are broadly described as attributes.
Smart cities as a concept have been around arguably for 20 years or more, but Amsterdam is credited with creating the world’s first ‘digital city’ in 1994, to drive the uptake of Internet use by its citizens. The concept has since moved on from a purely ‘digital’ activation to a more inclusive ‘sustainable' definition. Technology obviously has a key enabler role but the value generated is more broadly spread across social, economic, and environmental dimensions.
eCommerce is a major engine of the world’s economy. It experienced an economic upshift in the year 2020 as a consequence of the economic slowdown that accompanied the global health crisis of COVID-19. At the same time, the continued digitisation of commercial and consumer transactions contributed to even greater upward momentum than expected.