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2020 Commerce Trends: Collinson reports significant YoY spending jumps in electronics and online F&B delivery, as travel purchases dip

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2020 Commerce Trends: Collinson reports significant YoY spending jumps in electronics and online F&B delivery, as travel purchases dip
  • Collinson clients’ commerce platforms are seeing significant year-on-year variations in the habits of online shoppers in 2020, tracking with the ongoing effects of the COVID-19 outbreak
  • The early lockdown stages brought spending jumps in electronics, appliances and F&B delivery as consumers adjusted to life and work at home; while health and beauty sales rose alongside easing restrictions
  • The substantial swing in consumer spending habits in 2020 highlights the growing relevance of loyalty commerce platforms, which give travel and financial service providers a flexible and robust way to continually engage with consumers

Charting the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on commerce trends, Collinson today reveals a new look at how COVID-19 is affecting online shopping habits in Asia Pacific. A global leader in customer benefits and loyalty, Collinson supports over 25 online shopping portals where consumers can earn and spend loyalty currency linked to leading travel and financial services reward programmes. This broad and robust loyalty commerce network gives Collinson unique data insight into shifting online spending patterns in 2020.

At the very early stages of the coronavirus outbreak, with travel purchases down 69% year-on-year (YoY), sales of electronics and appliances from merchants like Kogan.com were up 19% as consumers prepared to work, cook and entertain themselves at home. Food and beverage brands with online delivery capabilities also performed well, including Menulog and PARKnSHOP.

After the initial waves of restrictions and lockdowns, sales of health and beauty brands began to rise, with a 21% YoY sales jump for brands like iHerb, lookfantastic.com and L’Occitane — indicating consumers’ preparations to re-enter daily life and once again be face-to-face with friends and colleagues; and underlining the deeper interest in personal health and wellness in the COVID-19 era. Throughout the period, luxury sales have remained consistent.

James Berry, Commercial Director of Collinson’s Loyalty Commerce, said, “Loyalty commerce platforms are now seeing a massive growth in relevance, especially for travel and financial service providers. The coronavirus pandemic has caused a substantial swing in consumer spending habits and we expect the effects of this to ripple out for the next few years at a minimum. We’ve seen unprecedented shopping spikes and demand over the outbreak period, much of it concentrated around specific commerce categories. Understanding this data, we can help partners to better connect to their customers, in terms of communications and delivering on end-consumer needs with the right products at the right moments.”

Simon Morgan, Country Director for Collinson Australia, said, “This has been a challenging time for both consumers and businesses. For organisations who invested in online earn or redeem platforms — designed to reward customer loyalty — the COVID-led surge in online retail has provided a much needed ancillary revenue stream; while enabling companies to remain in contact with consumers, through value-add touchpoints. With Asia being the world’s fastest-growing ecommerce market, it’s likely the importance of platforms such as these will only grow. We’re eager to continue to leverage our data and insight to help brands deepen their sales and loyalty strategies, while helping the region’s consumers access relevant, exciting and rewarding offers.”

Collinson supports organisations to create a differentiated loyalty strategy that reinforces brand preference and delivers personalised engagement with customers. Collinson’s offerings have continued to evolve in order to deliver on the rising need for an integrated and secure commerce ecosystem that enables the delivery of personalised, low friction earn-and-redeem experiences. This approach enables Collinson to support travel, retail and financial services partners by leveraging the unique size and scale of the Collinson business: more than 5,000 retailers and merchant partners, 1,400 banking partners and over 90 airline and 20 hotel group partners, reaching millions of consumers around the globe.

James Berry added, “Like many businesses in 2020, we’ve been working fast to evaluate and evolve our strategies in order to best support our clients and their customers at this unique moment in time. With a rich history of connecting different members of the travel, retail and loyalty ecosystem together, Collinson is uniquely positioned to help brands navigate their loyalty strategy in the post-COVID world. We are increasingly supporting financial institutions to grow their relevance and frequency of customer interactions, retailers to provide added value and stand out, and travel brands to drive deeper engagement in anticipation of the travel recovery. Going forward, we will continue to uncover meaningful data and explore how we can create mutually valuable networks to engage customers, drive spend, and support diversified revenue streams.”

Acquisition

KaarTech Expands Digital Transformation Footprint with Acquisition of Dunn Solutions Group Inc.

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KaarTech

KaarTech , a global Digital Transformation Consulting company, is excited to announce its latest strategic move in the world of digital transformation. The company has broadened its’ capabilities and geography by successfully acquiring Dunn Solutions Group Inc. , a leading Customer Experience Solutions Consultancy headquartered in Chicago, Illinois.

Founded in 2006, KaarTech has solidified its position as a key player within the SAP ecosystem. With a proven track record of delivering digital transformation success across various sectors, including Discrete Manufacturing, Process Manufacturing, and Consumer Packaged Goods, KaarTech has carved a niche for itself. The company has also developed proprietary intellectual property, KEBS for Professional Services and KTern.AI for SAP Digital Transformation , reinforcing its reputation as a formidable force in the Digital Transformation Arena.

Founded in 1988, Dunn Solutions is headquartered outside of Chicago and has offices both in Minneapolis and Bengaluru. The company has carved its niche as a Digital Commerce and Business Transformation Consultancy. Their core mission revolves around delivering unmatched velocity and transformative solutions to their clients.

This strategic acquisition facilitated by Eiliant Advisors, a Bangalore based Investment Banking Firm, marks a watershed moment for KaarTech as it combines its extensive SAP domain expertise, especially in SAP S/4HANA, with Dunn Solutions’ prowess in Digital Customer Experience.

Speaking about the acquisition, Mr. Maran Nagarajan, CEO of KaarTech, says, “We are excited to join forces with Dunn Solutions to accelerate our vision of redefining Digital Transformation. This partnership brings together the best of both worlds – our SAP expertise and Dunn Solutions’ prowess in Customer Experience – to create a transformative force that will deliver exceptional value to our clients.”

This union not only broadens the horizontal scope of KaarTech’s services but also strengthens its commitment to providing cutting-edge digital solutions that drive business growth and competitiveness. With this partnership, KaarTech solidifies its position as a true leader in the Digital Transformation Arena.

Mr. Bill Dunn, CEO of Dunn Solutions, says “KaarTech has earned a reputation as a key driver of SAP innovation across a number of verticals over the years globally, and we are excited to join them as we look to leverage the assets and experience of Dunn Solutions to continue building on KaarTech’s success in the Digital Transformation Space.”

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Insurtech

Cortical.io Named Among Most Innovative Insurtech Companies by FinTech Global

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Cortical.io

Prestigious InsurTech100 List for 2023 Recognizes the Austrian AI Pioneer’s Contribution to Transforming Insurance Processes

Cortical.io today announced that they have been named to FinTech Global’s Sixth Edition of its prestigious InsurTech100 list for 2023. The ranking celebrates the groundbreaking tech companies that are developing solutions to the insurance industry’s most daunting challenges.

Our approach to intelligent document processing paves the way for insurers to explore a wealth of new opportunities, differentiating them from competitors in the digital transformation journey.

Over the last couple of years, insurance firms have faced an uphill battle to rapidly digitize their services and meet the evolving customer demands, nurturing a competitive landscape of Insurtech companies. This meant this year’s battle to earn a spot amongst the 100 InsurTech visionaries was intense. A select group of analysts and seasoned industry specialists sifted through a list of over 1,900 contenders presented by FinTech Global. The chosen few were acknowledged for their inventive technological applications either to solve a major industry challenge or to bolster efficiency throughout the insurance value chain.

“FinTech Global acknowledges for the second consecutive time Cortical.io’s role in revolutionizing document-centric processes within the insurance sector,” said Rainer Kegel, CEO of Cortical.io. “It’s incredibly gratifying to be recognized for our efforts in addressing a significant industry challenge, namely reducing the need for human intervention in the document review process. Our approach to intelligent document processing paves the way for insurers to explore a wealth of new opportunities, differentiating them from competitors in the digital transformation journey.”

Quoting group benefits is probably one of the most challenging insurance processes as it requires the analysis of many documents of variable types and structures. Cortical.io’s intelligent document processing solution extracts, interprets and classifies complex information found in terms and provisions and is for example able to detect the best plan matching a competitor’s policy. “Large insurance carriers employ hundreds of people to manually review policies before submitting a quote for group benefits,” said Kegel. “Our solutions help them prepare more accurate quotes faster, and consequently close more deals.”

Cortical.io’s Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) solutions leverage a unique approach to natural language understanding called Semantic Folding to reach unmatched levels of accuracy with unstructured text. Cortical.io’s solutions automatically search, extract and classify complex information from various documents such as insurance policies and emails with attachment, helping insurance companies eliminate quoting errors, improve customer response times and reduce labor intensive processes.

FinTech Global director Richard Sachar said, “The widespread availability of generative AI capabilities has opened the doors for even greater innovation within insurance. We’re entering a new wave of digitalization and insurance firms need to be prepared. The InsurTech100 will help top-level insurance executives in discerning the tech pioneers revolutionizing key areas like underwriting, pricing, distribution, and data analytics.”

About Cortical.io

Cortical.io delivers highly efficient AI-based solutions that help enterprises unlock the value of unstructured text by leveraging a game-changing approach to Natural Language Understanding (NLU). Cortical.io SemanticPro is an intelligent document processing solution that accurately extracts, analyzes and classifies information based on meaning and builds the basis for document workflow automation. With more than 10 years expertise in implementing NLU solutions in the enterprise, Cortical.io has demonstrated its ability to solve the challenges of language ambiguity and variability across many use cases and verticals for Fortune 500 companies.

Cortical.io has offices in the U.S. (New York and San Francisco) and Europe (Vienna).

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Funding

Boston based Startup Mona Lee Secures $3.25M Seed Round to Redefine the Clean Energy Experience for Consumers

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Converting to sustainable energy can be a costly and confusing process for consumers. Mona Lee is moving the clean energy industry forward with its innovative and customer-centric approach, allowing homeowners to install solar panels and storage for 40-50% lower costs than what the competition offers.

Mona Lee, a Boston-based startup founded by former Tesla employee Walid Halty, has announced the successful closure of a $3.25 million seed funding round. The round included investments from prominent players in the technology and consumer sectors, such as Ludlow Ventures, Shrug VC, Palm Tree Crew (founded by Norwegian DJ Kygo), Coalition Operators, Plug and Play Ventures, and The Pags Group, owned by Boston Celtics’ owner Steve Pagliuca.

“Residential clean energy is a massive opportunity and we are excited to be redefining the buying and installation experience for eager consumers,” said CEO and Cofounder Walid Halty.

Mona Lee is on a mission to make solar, storage and EV charging installation for homes affordable and hassle-free. Since its launch, the company has experienced remarkable growth, installing in over 7 states with over 150 new customers per month and an average cost-per-order of $28,000.

The potential for growth in the home solar and storage industry is staggering, with an estimated $250 billion opportunity over the next six years alone. With 142 million homes in the U.S. and only 2 million having switched to solar in the past two decades, Mona Lee aims to tap into the remaining 140 million homes expected to adopt solar power alone by 2029.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act has fueled consumer interest in clean energy in recent years and Mona Lee has met the moment. The company’s unique selling proposition lies in its AI-powered buying experience. Mona Lee’s technology demystifies the process of designing and purchasing a complete solar panel and storage system for homes, while cutting costs for consumers by 40-50%.

Mona Lee’s CEO, Walid Halty, shared his excitement about the company’s recent funding success, stating, “This funding round is a testament to the need for Mona Lee’s innovative approach in the home solar and storage industry. We are committed to making solar and storage installation a no-brainer for all homeowners, and this investment will allow us to further accelerate our growth and expand our reach.”

With its innovative technology and commitment to bringing affordable and seamless solar and storage installation to homes across the country, Mona Lee is poised to redefine the clean energy experience for consumers.

About Mona Lee

Mona Lee is a Boston-based startup co-founded by Walid Halty, an ex-Tesla employee. The company is focused on making solar installation affordable and hassle-free for homeowners. With its AI-powered design and buying experience, Mona Lee aims to simplify the process of purchasing and installing a complete solar panel system–enabling every home to fulfill its own energy needs, while contributing to a more sustainable future.

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