Must Reads: 5th June 2020 | Includes great data visualisations, how to fix your WFH posture, making serious cash flipping, what the new cool is on Twitch & the next arms race…the race to win visual search.

This week’s 5 Tips from Trevor Gordon, offering some stand out tips for CX and putting people first.

—Wall-E & Eve?—

Who would have thought Milton Keynes (a large town in 🇬🇧) is showing us the future, 8 robots are now delivering food for Co-Op. Chinese stores and delivery companies have been using these for about a year - Link

—Must Reads—

1. Amazon Flex: Interactive longread on Amazon, their economics and their hierarchy 💯- Link—Another example of a good data vis, the top-earning sports stars - LinkThere has been a lot made of data simulations taking over data visualisations but something as creative and informative can be just as good for marketing and journalism

2. Posture: Working from home ruining your posture, here are simple stretches that will greatly help 🪑- Link

3. Zoom Out: Zoom came under scrutiny earlier this year for its less than secure service, now encryption is going to ramped up on paid-for accounts, not free accounts, this is important as so many use it for private conversations and share very personal information in the chat 🧐- Link

4. Passive Income: Flipping product isn’t new but making serious cash from it is becoming more common, here’s a deep-dive 💵 - Link 

5. Anti Ads: Advertising has been hit hard, Daily Mail Group has lost 70% of its revenue 📰 - Link Expect this to change in the coming months, there is an opportunity for brands to leverage this

6. Going Live: Just when you thought you had seen it all, Twitch’s latest craze, people livestreaming writing code 🎥 - Link

7. Gaming is the past, present and the future: but gaming can confuse advertisers, here are common myths of in-game advertising demystified 👾 - Link

8. Snap and Shop: Pinterest has released shop with lens feature 📍 - LinkVisual search or camera driven shopping has been something we have been looking forward to for years, Pinterest is in prime position to kickstart the market. Expect Facebook (with shop & Instagram) and Google with ‘camera to search’ to follow suit.

9. Space: Why Astronauts get nervous on the launchpad 🚀 - Link

10. Google Being Google: Google is being taken to court for tracking users using incognito browsing mode 🕵️‍♂️ - Link

11. Free: Smart Marketing move by Amazon Prime, allowing its 4 Premier League games free ⚽️ - Link 

12. Not all feedback is equal: Facebook has come under a lot of heat this week, Marks and Spencers released a new Strawberry Clotted Cream, the comments are pretty peak Facebook 🔥 - Link

13. Money Palette: The DNA of banknotes 💴 - Link

14. Challenger Challenging Times: Monzo, unfortunately, is making 120 people redundant, alongside competitor revolut & their culture has come under fire again, with more forced firings.

15. Culture: It is essential for business leaders to talk about mental health and their own mental health experiences. Here are two stories, Ex Police Chief & Buffer founder 👏 - Link

—Free Mental Health App— It’s normal to feel anxious or panicked right now, rather than have to pay out for one of the premium apps, here is ‘free forever’ meditation app you can try 🧘‍♂️- Link

—5 Tips—

This week’s Must Read Tips is from Trevor Gordon, Director of Global Omnichannel Retail Sodexo. Trevor is a thought leader in the omichannel space and offers the following stand out tips:

—As we move towards reopening much of UK non-food retailing over the next 2 weeks, there will be talk that normality is around the corner; but while social distancing is in place, continuing to successfully leverage digital and laser focus on CX is key to help non-food retail stores trade profitably.

1. Care of Customers and Employees. Increased and continued focus on care of customers and employees is essential; make “community” a priority while staying true to your company purpose.

2. Ears to the ground. During the first few days and weeks of reopening, it will be important to understand quickly what is working, and not working. Utilise your customers and colleagues for “ears to the ground” insights, to adapt and move quickly as needed.

3. Leverage a broad range of channels. Retailers should be maximising value from your own ecommerce store. Focus on relevant, fresh and content frequently across your site (in an engaging but not invasive way); and utilising social to connect with your customers.

4. Optimise for mobile. Last year mobile has now overtaken desktop in the UK; so make sure your websites and customer journeys are optimised for mobile.

5. While traditionally seen as a “commodity” in Omnichannel retailing; with the need for contactless and soaring online spend getting the right payment mix is essential for retailers. Considerations include how to deal with higher fraud rates, returns and chargebacks are more common, customer loyalty is difficult to secure, and lower approval rates create a higher risk of lost sales. With so much to contend with, retailers must ensure they get the right set up in place early – or risk losing sales, customers, and revenue.

➡️ Connect with Trevor on Linkedin

—Going A Little Deeper—

Medium’s latest pivot…Newsletters - Link

• Little known “fact” back in 2016 I started Must Reads as a test on Medium, the irony is, Medium had down-weighted articles. Think of an equivalent social media algo on Medium. Meaning articles with loads of external links (like this one) received no internal reach = no views, unless you really promoted outside of Medium which acted like newsletters.

• Medium’s Newsletter is based on Publications currently which means larger publications can flip their email sends to newsletter sends, smart but annoying if you are an active and popular creator on Medium.

• I imagine with the popularity of Pop Culture Monday 🔗 newsletter, I’m sure we might see a newsletter product for writers/curators in the coming months. With the crowded newsletter space, i’m not so convinced Medium can really compete.

• Updated Experience: Medium (aside from The Athletic) has the best reading experience (and composing) on the web, here are the small subtle changes they made recently to improve the reading experience - Link

👋 I am going to be part of a Brand is Back Event on June 24th with the great folks at Nepa, if you would like to join or would like a copy of the insights, let me know by hitting reply or emailing and I will share the details closer to the event.

See you again next Friday.Danny Denhard ~ Advisor & Consultant