Survey: In-store shopping makes a comeback in Canada

Photo by Anastasia Shuraeva from Pexels

It looks like 2021 is the year many Canadians are ready to do some in-store shopping. According to the 2021 Holiday Shopping Report from Accenture, 57% of Canadian consumers plan to do most of their holiday shopping in-store, and 75% plan to do their shopping in December, with 47% admitting they'll be doing a lot of last-minute shopping. Six out of 10 Gen Z consumers plan to do most of their holiday shopping in-stores, while 44% of baby boomers intend to do theirs online.

The baby boomers also intend to increase their spending by over $100, and those with children will spend the most. They are expected to spend an average of $713. While Canadians, on average, plan to spend $635, which is $119 up from last year's survey. An emerging trend across the demographics is increased support for BIPOC retailers, with 50% of Gen Z consumers supporting diverse retailers this year.

Spotify's experimenting with its own TikTok-like video feed

Spotify joins the many platforms trying to attract people to engage more with its services by testing out a new TikTok-style video feed in its app. There's a new Discover tab in the navigation bar where it looks like the videos are similar to the ones they use for its Canvas feature. It'll allow users to scroll and like individual tracks or access other options for the song via the three-dot menu icon.

We get trying to attract users to stay in the app, but we wonder if it'll be a useful feature. The streaming service confirms it is testing the feature, but it won't say if it'll be widely rolled out.

Source: The Verge

Report: Apple's mixed reality headset works as a standalone device

Photo by Laurenz Heymann on Unsplash

The latest report about Apple's long-rumoured mixed reality headset suggests it can work independently without being linked to an iPhone or Mac device. Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reported that the headset will need two processors to make this happen. The main chip will have the same computing power as the M1 processor, while a second one will handle all the computing related to the sensors.

Click to read more ...

Square Photo Studio app wants to help businesses take product shots on mobile

Square has a new mobile app designed to make it easier for Canadian businesses to get better product shots right from their smartphones. The Square Photo Studio app offers easy-to-follow prompts for taking the best photo. It can then isolate the product from its background so you can choose from the provided backgrounds, shadows, and colours. 

You can then easily link these images to your Square catalogue or create a new item for selling. But the app isn't limited to Square sellers. Anyone with products to sell can snap and style a photo and then sell it with a Square Online Checkout link. The Square Photo Studio app is available on the Apple App Store.