By Osvaldo López, Marketing Strategist, BORN Group

Introduction

In the rapidly evolving landscape of digital solutions, generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has emerged as a powerful tool for creating rich personalization experiences. As consumers become increasingly discerning, businesses must adapt to meet their expectations. Generative AI not only facilitates this adaptation but also redefines how organizations engage with their customers, fostering deeper relationships and driving business growth.

Understanding Generative AI

Generative AI refers to algorithms that can create new content—such as text, images, or entire experiences—based on the input data they are trained on. Unlike traditional AI systems that primarily focus on recognizing patterns, generative AI can produce novel outputs that mimic human-like creativity. This capability opens numerous possibilities for businesses, particularly in tailoring interactions and products to individual customer preferences.

The Importance of Personalization

Personalization is no longer a luxury; it has become a necessity. With the sheer volume of choices available to consumers, organizations that can deliver personalized experiences gain a competitive edge. Personalization enhances customer satisfaction, increases engagement, and drives loyalty. Studies show that companies excelling in personalization can experience a revenue uplift of up to 15%.

How Generative AI Enhances Personalization

1. Dynamic Content Generation

 Generative AI can create tailored content in real-time, allowing businesses to deliver unique experiences to each user. For example, in retail, it can analyze customer preferences and generate personalized product recommendations, promotional emails, or targeted advertisements, increasing conversions and fostering a sense of connection with the brand.

2. Predictive Analytics

By leveraging generative AI, organizations can analyze vast amounts of data to predict future customer behavior. This capability enables businesses to proactively tailor their offerings to meet evolving needs, such as streaming services generating personalized playlists based on viewing habits.

3. Enhanced Customer Interactions

Generative AI can improve customer service through intelligent chatbots and virtual assistants that simulate human-like conversations, offering personalized assistance based on individual histories and preferences, enhancing the overall customer experience.

4. Content Customization at Scale

In media and publishing, generative AI can produce a range of content variations tailored to specific audience segments, distributing personalized articles, videos, or social media posts that resonate with diverse demographics.

5. Product Design and Development

Generative AI can inform product design by analyzing consumer feedback and trends, identifying market gaps, and creating products that closely align with customer desires, leading to successful launches and greater satisfaction.

Implementing Generative AI for Personalization

1. Data Collection and Management

The foundation of effective generative AI lies in high-quality data. Organizations must invest in robust data collection and management systems to gather insights on customer preferences, behaviors, and feedback, enabling meaningful outputs.

2. Selecting the Right Technology

Businesses must evaluate and select generative AI tools that align with their objectives, considering factors such as ease of integration and scalability.

3. Creating a Culture of Innovation

Successful implementation requires a cultural shift within organizations, encouraging employees to experiment with new technologies and embrace data-driven decision-making.

4. Monitoring and Iteration

Personalization requires ongoing monitoring and refinement. Organizations must continuously analyze the effectiveness of their generative AI initiatives and adjust based on customer feedback and performance metrics.

Challenges and Considerations

While generative AI offers significant opportunities for rich personalization, it also presents challenges. Privacy concerns are paramount; organizations must navigate data protection regulations and ensure ethical use of customer data. Striking a balance between leveraging AI capabilities and maintaining a human touch in interactions is crucial, as the best results often come from a hybrid approach where AI enhances human creativity.

Conclusion

Generative AI is revolutionizing how businesses approach personalization.
By harnessing its capabilities, organizations can create richer, more engaging experiences that resonate with customers on a deeper level. As the digital landscape continues to evolve, embracing generative AI will help businesses meet today’s consumer demands and position them for future success.

At BORN, we have vigorously embraced AI and possess deep expertise in the field.
We can help your brand fully leverage generative AI, ensuring that your personalization efforts are both effective and innovative. Together, we can navigate the complexities of the digital world and create meaningful, sustainable experiences that will set your business apart.

 By Caitlin Gebhard – Senior Content Strategist

Content warnings: harm to members of the LGBTQIA+ community, trauma, suicide

As Pride Month celebrations begin to wrap up, we take this moment to remind ourselves that acknowledgement, respect, and celebration of the LGBTQIA+ community shouldn’t end. Nor should our work to improve the lives of the queer community.  Across the US, there is a growing wave of new efforts to minimize, and in some cases actively harm, queer, trans, Black, POC, disabled, and other marginalized people. Through our work in design and in industries across the globe, we can start to change the tide and make positive change for everyone.

Today, we focus on the LGBTQIA+ community. We’ll share how we can use inclusive design to continue our acknowledgement, respect, and celebration of people along the gender and sexuality spectrum all year long.

Our understanding of gender is changing. The American Medical Association (AMA), the American Academy of Pediatricians (AAP), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), and others define gender as more than a binary. Gender is best understood as a spectrum of different ways we can think about ourselves, our roles in society, and how we represent ourselves and interact with the world. Some people identify as men or women, but there are myriad genders that don’t fit neatly into those labels.

Many people who exist outside of the gender binary identify as LGBTQIA+. This acronym encompasses the broad range of gender and sexual identities other than straight and cisgender, including: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Pansexual, Transgender, Genderqueer, Queer, Nonbinary, Intersex, Agender, and Asexual people.

Information about gender identity can help drive better personalization outcomes, address erasure, and improve diversity and equity in many other sectors, from fashion to education and beyond – all of which contribute to the wellbeing of the LGBTQIA+ (or queer) community.

But when we ask people about their gender, such as during enrollment or onboarding experiences, we need to pay attention to how we ask for it. Many people will identify with one of the ubiquitous male/female options. When they don’t, it can be a hurtful indication that this experience wasn’t designed for them.

The way we ask about someone’s gender is particularly important in healthcare. Our mental and physical wellbeing are, in many ways, closely tied to the complexities of our identities. By collecting gender information in an inclusive way, institutions can provide more accurate and effective health care services.

Regardless of the products and services we provide, we can look to the healthcare industry to help us reframe the conversation on gender and design. The conversation isn’t always easy. Building inclusive design practices can be challenging. But with recipes to help ground our work in community-based, proven best practices, we can start to do better.

“Queer”

“Queer” is an umbrella term often used to describe sexual preferences, orientations, and habits of people outside the cisgender, heterosexual, and monogamous majority. But queer is complicated. This word has been used as a slur to insult, belittle, and harm LGBTQIA+ people throughout history. Today, many LGBTQIA+ people are reclaiming the label, and in younger generations, even favoring it. Queer is used to express that gender and sexuality are complicated. They might not always fit into labelled identities, and they may evolve over time. “Queer” is used as a political identity and a community-building affirmation. More and more, it is considered the most respectful and inclusive way to refer to people with diverse genders and sexualities.

As with all labels and descriptions, asking individuals about their preference, particularly regarding words with complicated histories, is important. This article uses “queer” to encompass and respect the vast range of gender identities and sexualities beyond the majority.

The Queer American Landscape

The percentage of Americans who identify as queer is rapidly increasing, particularly in younger generations. According to recent Gallup polls, 7.6% of U.S. adults identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or something other than straight or heterosexual.^[1] For younger generations, the numbers are higher: roughly 22% of Generation Z Americans who have reached adulthood – those born between 1997 and 2012 – identify as LGBT.

Pew Research also revealed that 1.6% of U.S. adults identify as trans or gender-nonbinary. For adults younger than 30, the population is more than 5%.

[1] While this survey included transgender in a grouping of sexualities, we understand that transgender is a gender label and is not a sexuality.

While some queer people are thriving and finding new ways to support and celebrate their community, many others face myriad hardships. Queer, particularly transgender, people are more likely to experience unstable housing, underemployment, wage disparities, limited access to healthcare, and discrimination and violence at school, at work, and at home. The prevalence is even higher for people who are Black, People of Color, and/or disabled.

Queer Health

Queer people also experience a host of health disparities, including undiagnosed or untreated diseases, lack of gender-affirming care, lack of health insurance, under-representation in medical research, and even face-to-face discrimination and harm in healthcare settings.

Queer people are also more likely to experience certain physical health issues, often related to the stigma and discrimination they experience in their daily lives. Unfortunately, some health issues pose unique risks to queer people and queer bodies. For example, while tobacco use is more prevalent in the queer and transgender community, smoking is a particular risk for transgender people who take estrogen, as the combination increases the chances of blood clots.

Studies also show that lesbian, gay, and bisexual adults are twice as likely as heterosexual adults to experience a mental health condition. Transgender adults are nearly four times as likely. This is especially true for LGBTQ+ youth, who consistently report significantly higher rates of depression and suicidal ideation than their straight and cisgender peers.

Access to Healthcare

Health concerns are partly caused by the mistreatment and discrimination queer people experience when trying to access healthcare. According to the 2022 Health Equality Index Report, more than half of queer respondents reported that they had experienced at least one type of discrimination, from being refused care to being verbally harassed.

A resurgence of anti-queer hostility and rhetoric across the U.S. political landscape is making things worse. 2024 marks the fifth consecutive record-breaking year for anti-trans legislation, targeting education, legal recognition, and the right to publicly exist – with an escalating focus on healthcare. Last year, 86 anti-trans bills passed in 24 states, 23 of which create significant barriers to gender-affirming care. As of June 2024, an unprecedented 61 bills are being considered at the federal level.

These experiences have driven a great distrust in the healthcare system. Studies show that some queer people avoid seeking healthcare out of concern that they would face discrimination or poor treatment. In one report, 73% of transgender respondents and 29% of lesbian, gay, and bisexual respondents reported that they believed they would be treated differently by healthcare providers because of their identity.

Progress

But there has also been significant progress. The number of healthcare institutions that embrace and make progress on queer equality is growing. Institutions are working to build safer spaces and more culturally sensitive services. When providers demonstrate knowledge of and sensitivity about queer communities, queer patients are more likely to build trust and establish relationships and practices that support their health.

Best Practices: Learning from healthcare

Grounded in research and collaboration with the queer community, healthcare institutions have developed best practices for asking people about their gender identity and sexual orientation. Collecting this information not only helps to provide culturally sensitive and effective treatment, but also helps to end queer erasure in health care and to measure quality and progress in eliminating disparities.

We’ll explore recommendations and best practices for patient intake, enrollment, and digital health experiences. For some organizations, these recommendations may be a first step to developing queer inclusive practices. They can help us better understand the nuances of gender, the queer experience, and how we can best support people of all genders, within the healthcare industry and beyond.

Collecting information

Choose your words carefully.

The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) strongly urges providers to use appropriate language in their practices and policies. This can help providers and their patients build a more trusting, effective relationship – and help patients get the care they need.

As with any population, it is important to talk to and about queer people in the way that they want to be referred to.

In general, avoid gendered language. Use singular “they” instead of “he/she” or “s/he”. Consider using “people” or “people of all genders” instead of “men and women”, as appropriate.

Neutral language can also help us check our assumptions about queer identities. For example, instead of “transgender men and women,” say “transgender people.” Not all transgender people are (trans) men or (trans) women; in fact, about one-third of trans people are non-binary.

Additional best practices:

For more comprehensive guidance, see:

• GLAAD Media Reference Guide: Transgender Terms
• National LGBTQIA+ Health Education Center: Glossary of Terms for Healthcare Teams

Collect multiple data points.

Many healthcare institutions recommend collecting information about someone’s gender using a set of multiple questions, for example:

• Current gender identity
• Sex assigned at birth
• Trans identity or experience

It is essential to ask a range of questions about someone’s identity while also providing a diverse and inclusive list of gender identities to choose from.

While some people assigned a different gender at birth refer to themselves as transgender, others do not. Many use the labels “trans men” or “trans women.” Others may be a combination of genders or outside of the male/female binary altogether (e.g., nonbinary, genderqueer, agender, etc.). Nonbinary people may or may not also identify as transgender.

By asking about current gender identity, sex assigned at birth, and trans experience, organizations can better understand the full range of an individual’s needs – such as anatomically appropriate preventive screenings – and provide more accurate and effective services.

Example from Fenway Health

An alternative way to separate transgender from the binary of man/woman is to list the transgender option separately, and allow for multiple selection:

• Female/Woman
• Male/Man
• Transgender
• Nonbinary, genderqueer, Two Spirit, or not exclusively male or female
• Another gender ______

If you need to use the binary…

You may need to include a question that only offers the binary male/female option. For example, your databases or a third-party partner, such as an insurance company, may not collect or be able to integrate more diverse data.

This type of question should be additional and separate and include an explanation of why it provides only the two options. In the following two examples, the healthcare institutions also acknowledge that the question does not align with their own inclusive practices, which may help mitigate any discomfort with this question.

Create space for unlisted genders.

Some people may feel overwhelmed when presented with a long list of gender options. But excluding some gender identities can cause harm – and introduce inaccurate data.

When providing a shorter list of options, as above, include space for someone to write-in their gender identity if it is not listed explicitly on the form. Be sure to phrase this option without using “other” (e.g., “other gender”). This language explicitly others people who fall outside of the acknowledged genders on the form. Instead, label the field with “another gender” or something similar.

Allow more than one selection.

Gender identity is also fluid and may be described in different ways. A transgender person may be trans as well as nonbinary. Someone may identify as man, woman, and genderfluid.

When asking about someone’s gender identity, let them select multiple options.

Ask for name and pronouns.

In addition to asking about someone’s gender identity, healthcare organizations suggest asking for their pronouns and their current name or alias. In healthcare settings and in general, routinely using a name or pronoun that doesn’t match someone’s current identity (i.e., their “deadname”) is stigmatizing and can create a more hostile environment.

Note that someone’s pronouns aren’t their preferred pronouns; they are simply the pronouns that someone uses. They also aren’t inherently tied to gender identity or biology. Avoid describing pronouns as:

• preferred pronouns
• masculine/male pronouns
• feminine/female pronouns
• non-binary pronouns

The CDC recommends listing the most common pronouns and leaving space for people to write-in their own if they aren’t listed (e.g., neopronouns):

• He/him
• She/her
• They/them
• Not listed:______________________

Collect anatomical information with care.

Someone’s gender identity doesn’t necessarily reveal details about their anatomy – an important consideration when providing healthcare. If you need to collect this information, the Healthcare Equality Index recommends explicitly and inclusively collecting anatomical information (e.g., “organ inventory”).

Using neutral language helps us ask about someone’s body with sensitivity and respect. It also helps us check our assumptions about gender and biology. For example, not everyone who can get pregnant identifies as a woman or a mother—just as not everyone who identifies as a woman or a mother can get pregnant. Instead, healthcare providers and others should use more generic or broad terminology, such as “people who can become pregnant”.

Being sensitive about someone’s body and anatomy isn’t just about respect. People with gender dysphoria may be deeply triggered when gendered language is used to describe their body, particularly reproductive anatomy. Instead, use more generic terminology (e.g., genitals, reproductive organs, chest) instead of gender-loaded words (e.g., vagina, penis, breasts).

Make it easy to change.

Gender is fluid, and someone’s understanding of their own identity can change over time. Their name and pronouns might change. They may make changes to their anatomy. But expressing and sharing these changes can be challenging – and traumatic – in many areas of someone’s life.

In healthcare and other spaces, make it easy for someone to change their record or profile as their life evolves.

Transparency

If you need it, explain why.

For healthcare settings, collecting gender, orientation, and anatomy information is critical to providing effective, patient-centered care to queer patients. This information can be important in other settings and industries, too.

However, we need to ask ourselves why we need this information and communicate those reasons to our audience:

• Are you monitoring diversity and acting on the data?
• Are you determining if they are eligible for services?
• Are your required to communicate this information to a third-party (e.g., insurance company)?
• Is it for segmenting personalized services?
• Is it for marketing and communication purposes?

Be honest about what you’re asking and why. This transparency is an important step towards providing a safe experience and fostering trust between individual and organization.

Make it optional.

Even if you explain why you’re asking questions about someone’s identity, some people may still have (valid) concerns about the data collection. They may wonder:

• Will there be consequences if they answer incorrectly (e.g., they didn’t find the right label on the form)?
• Will they be outed somehow? (i.e., will their identity be made public?)
• Will this information lead to discrimination or harm?

Your audience knows better than you if it’s safe or appropriate to disclose their identity in certain contexts.

If this data isn’t critical, make questions about gender identity and sexuality optional.

If you don’t need it, don’t ask.

If you don’t know why you’re asking questions about someone’s gender, or if the information will not be used to benefit the user, then don’t ask.

Privacy

While gender and sexuality are not considered PII (personal identifiable information, protected by law), this information is sensitive and should be kept confidential. Let individuals know who will have access to that information and how the data will be protected.

These assurances are particularly important for the safety and trust of transgender people. Research shows that when asked to provide information about their identity, transgender individuals required much more information about the level of confidentiality of data before they would consider answering those questions. While some queer people are “out” and have made their identity public, others may be deeply concerned that they would face discrimination if their identity or experience was inadvertently revealed.

Safety

The confidentiality of gender and sexuality information is even more critical for queer people of certain cultures. There are parts of the world and cultures where discrimination against queer people is dangerous. Some countries block online search terms like ‘gay’ or ‘lesbian’. In other countries, being queer is condemned, criminalized, or even punishable by death. It is no wonder that some queer immigrants and refugees to the U.S. do not identify themselves as queer because the consequences could be dire in their home country or culture.

It is important to note that significant stigma, ostracization and violence against queer people still exist in certain communities of the U.S. too.

Consider your visual design.

When we consider queer inclusivity in our designs, we need to approach it from a perspective that protects people who may face significant consequences if their identities are revealed. Designers must carefully consider overtly queer-focused visual design (e.g., rainbows) and inclusive messaging with a sometimes-necessary covert experience.

Provide escape routes.

Some wellbeing organizations provide a quick and easy way to leave their website if someone feels that viewing the site is no longer safe. For example, if a person who feels unsafe revealing their identity is browsing the Trevor Project website – a crisis support resource for trans and queer young people – and their parent walks into the room, the young person can immediately and covertly close the website using keyboard shortcuts. The Trevor Projects communicates this option as soon as someone visits their site.

The Trevor Project

Listen, learn, and support.

Inclusive design is more than choosing words and components, but also empowering the people we aim to support throughout the design process itself. Talk directly with queer people from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Continually collect feedback as you maintain and iterate on your designs. When you can, enable and support queer people as they take the lead on finding and implementing solutions for the needs of their communities.

Queer-inclusive design isn’t easy. As society continues to evolve, we need to adapt our approach to design along with it. Understanding what needs to change cannot happen alone. Instead, we can turn to community experts, design leaders, and organizations who have already started evolving their inclusive design practices. More importantly, we can listen to the experiences and expertise of the queer community directly – and working together, adapt and implement inclusive best practices together. When we acknowledge, respect, and actively support queer people in our designs – for healthcare and beyond – we can make the world healthier and safer for everyone.

“The views and opinions expressed in this content are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect BORN’s official policy or position. Any content provided by our authors or speakers is their view, and they are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone else.”

By Ramy Youssef, SVP & Global Head of Marketplaces, BORN Group

Just as online marketplaces have reshaped the way people buy and sell tangible products, digital service marketplaces are revolutionizing the way people and companies buy and sell services.

Marketplaces like Upwork and Fiverr have made it possible for businesses to source talent for writing, design, and data entry and for consumers to find resources for small tasks. Online service marketplaces are already substantial—but they have only scratched the surface of the opportunity.

What makes for a successful service marketplace? At one level, success looks a lot like a great product marketplace. A solid service marketplace will feature a strong array of offerings, enable sellers and buyers to find each other, and facilitate fast, reliable, and safe transactions. But successful service marketplaces require special considerations, capabilities and functionalities.

First, marketing and selling services is more complex than selling products. To be a good service marketplace provider, you need a deep understanding of the complexities of service offerings, definitions, and modeling. For example, most service marketplaces operate using one of two models: a bidding model, where providers compete for work with tailored proposals, or a direct hire model, which enables clients to choose a provider based on detailed profiles and explicit service offerings. The platform must have the ability to manage those complexities with your technology architecture.

Second, trust and transparency are critical to any kind of marketplace, but they are even more important for service marketplaces, which means that functionalities like provider ratings and customer feedback are paramount. You’ll need a system capable of managing reputation to ensure marketplace integrity, inform buyer decision-making, and foster public accountability.

Finally, successful service marketplaces tend to be more specialized. A more niche approach is generally better, particularly for higher-end services. Most clients seeking services will gravitate towards a marketplace with a high degree of focus, which makes it easier for them to find the precise set of skills they require and gives them more confidence in the process.

The Blueprint: Getting Started

You start by recognizing how a product marketplace differs from a service marketplace. Product marketplaces require merchants, products, and logistics from ordering to fulfillment. Service marketplaces require service providers and service execution, which is more complex:

• Services involves more significant time considerations including the business/operating hours of the provider, expected response time, lead time and scheduling, and the time required to deliver.
• Services generally involve multiple variants that must be considered for each engagement, such as seasonality, geography/geofencing, and product requirements, all of which make service modeling much more complex.

So when designing, building, and managing a service marketplace, you need to focus on the following elements and best practices to deliver a quality experience and optimal performance:

1. Clear Service Definition and Modeling

As noted, service engagements involve a web of complex variables, including the diversity of service models (discrete services, rentals, subscriptions, and provisioning) and demand a more sophisticated system for matching clients with providers and managing their interactions. This means that service definition and modeling is paramount to the creation of a successful service marketplace. Understanding the dynamics of service time mapping and conversion, especially for national service providers, is vital.

Best practices include:

• Build a proficient team: You’ll want a team with experience in the complexity of service modelling.
• Consistency in the business model: Another component of the partners you choose is ensure some degree of consistency in terms of the services they offer. It’s difficult, and may be impossible, to customize the service model for each provider, and buyers want to be able to make meaningful comparisons between service providers.
• Matching algorithms: A successful service marketplace will use AI and data analytics to create robust algorithms that successfully match customers with appropriate service providers.
• Clarity and confidence: To build lasting client engagement and satisfaction, you’ll want to ensure clarity in terms of the offering and confidence in terms of delivery and execution. When terms are convoluted or uncertain, clients may simply hesitate to engage at all.

2. Attract and Support the Best Service Providers 

This is clear and obvious: You need excellent service providers to make your service marketplace successful. So choose your partnerships wisely to ensure quality and efficiency, prerequisites for building trust. Remember clients will use your marketplace because they trust you as an operator to enable them to find good providers. It also means you should design your marketplace platform in a way that makes the best service providers want to use it.

Best practices include:

• Automate the onboarding process: A smooth and efficient onboarding process can make or break the service provider’s experience. You’ll want to streamline the onboarding journey with automated checks and a minimal number of steps without compromising on the rigorousness needed for trust and safety on the platform.
• Meet the needs of large service providers: In many marketplaces, larger providers are better, so your service marketplace model should be able to handle an intricate configuration of multiple entities under the same provider banner. A large provider will typically need to maintain distinct profiles for different locations and different service tiers, each with its unique pricing, availability, and offerings.
• Subscription and payout structure: Most service marketplaces will need to be able to support single-transaction services as well as subscription-based models with recurring monthly orders. Automated subscription setups have to be carefully designed to manage first order fee, recurring fees, and the associated payout calculations. 
• Payout system: It’s crucial to establish a transparent and reliable payout system that can handle various scenario (such as mid-cycle changes, refunds, or service credits) to maintain provider trust and satisfaction.
• Robust scheduling functionality: Marketplaces need to be flexible, giving providers the tools to indicate their availability accurately while ensuring that customers have access to timely services. A dynamic scheduling system that can handle real-time updates and can integrate with providers’ external calendars is a key component of a successful marketplace.
• Allocation: Most service marketplaces operate on a “first in, first served” (FIFS) booking principle, which can potentially lead to scheduling conflicts and overbooking if not managed properly. Providers must be able to list all their available slots while the marketplace must possess the capability to prevent double-bookings. Well-executed and reliable scheduling is a key component of a positive experience for providers and customers.
• Regulatory and compliance: We noted earlier the incredible importance of trust when it comes to service marketplaces. Marketplaces should invest in automated verification systems that can efficiently validate (initially and as needed) the credentials of providers. A good service marketplace must be able to ascertain and uphold licensing requirements and industry-specific regulations—configured for every service provider and offering—to mitigate risks and ensure marketplace integrity of the marketplace. 
• Incentive strategy: Another key to attracting and retaining high-quality service providers—and boosting provider participation—is designing valuable incentives, such as waiving marketplace fees, a service provider success program, or ways to leverage the network effect. Incentives must be carefully designed to promote marketplace growth without sacrificing profitability.

3. Facilitate Service Execution

Clients expect services to be rendered promptly and competently. Hiccups in scheduling, delivery, or quality will tarnish a platform’s reputation and reliability. Furthermore, the marketplace must provide tangible proof of service completion that satisfies both the provider and the client, safeguarding against disputes and ensuring trust in the platform.

Best practices include:  

• Effective bundling of services with products: The interplay between services and associated products can be complicated by factors such as inventory management, variable pricing, and service quality assurance. For example, consider a service marketplace providing home maintenance. When a provider needs physical products—say, a water filter—this adds a logistical complexity to service delivery. A good service marketplace should enable the creation of linked orders and allow synchronization across payments and returns. This integration reduces the risk of discrepancies and enhances the overall customer experience.
• Encourage the use of the platform: You naturally want to encourage transactions within the platform by making it easy to change the scope of a service engagement. Direct engagements between service providers and clients (negotiated outside the platform) may be valuable in terms of personalized service delivery, they can result in missed revenue opportunities for the marketplace. So create mechanisms and incentives that make it easy to book additional services through the platform itself.
• Enable stackable services: To capitalize on the time spent on service execution, marketplaces could allow for the stacking of compatible services, thus maximizing efficiency and customer value.
• Service completion evidence: Platforms must establish a straightforward and accessible method for documenting and verifying the completion of services.
• Quality assurance: Given the high premium clients place on consistent, high-quality service, marketplaces must implement strict quality control measures. This could include customer feedback systems.

Next Steps

Service marketplaces offer tremendous opportunities for platform operators who understand the nuances and best practices of service marketplaces. Start by thinking carefully about what the needs of the market you want to serve, then work on developing a technology architecture that provides the agility and scalability to go to market and—just as important—to evolve with that market. 

If your brand is looking to learn more about Service Marketplaces and BORN Group’s proven approach, we would love to walk you through it.

By: Caitlyn Shanahan | Sr. Visual Designer, BORN Group

Since ChatGPT was introduced in 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the tech landscape and mainstream media with a mixture of hype (“AI will make everything better!”) and doom (“AI will take over the world and destroy society!”). As a designer, I’m particularly interested in the impact of AI on my livelihood. I’ve read a slew of articles, some claiming that AI will be the end of the designer and others assuring us that AI is just a passing trend. One article I found particularly compelling is Jasmine Oh’s “Yes, AI Will Replace Designers” piece that asserts “while AI will replace designers, it will replace the designers of today, not the designers of tomorrow.”

I want to be one of “the designers of tomorrow,” and I’m convinced that AI-powered design tools will help me get there. After looking into the possibilities of AI for product designers – and all kinds of creative work in all kinds of sectors – I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s time to embrace the burgeoning power of this technological revolution.

In other words: Don’t be afraid of AI – put it to work! Take advantage of AI’s ability to synthesize data and ideas and allow you to focus on the value you add as a creative, strategic thinker.

I’m sure we’ll see plenty more use cases for generative AI in the near future, but here are four ways I’m using AI now to streamline the product/visual design process:

1. Workshop Facilitation & Synthesis
2. User Research &  Persona Generation
3. Image Editing & Generation
4. Automated Content Creation

Accelerate the Workshop Process

How do we start the design process? With workshops that bring stakeholders together to define the problem, create a shared vision, and generate ideas for solutions. Whiteboarding tools such as Miro are often used to help facilitate workshops and brainstorming sessions. Miro recently launched the new AI-powered Miro Assist tool that makes workshop preparation, facilitation, and synthesis a whole lot easier. During a workshop, you can use Miro Assist to easily generate mind maps to help kick-start the brainstorming process. After the workshop, you can highlight groups of sticky notes, and Miro Assist will automatically summarize all the ideas and present them as text, images, and even presentations. These AI-powered tools can even help you prepare for follow-up workshops by analyzing previous workshop notes, activities, and outcomes to automatically populate new workshop templates with suggested agendas, user flows, storyboards, and even information architecture.

Digest User Research & Build Personas Much Faster

Understanding users is, of course, a key component of any product or experience design challenge. AI-powered tools like Dovetail are making it easier, and much, much faster, to transform unstructured and qualitative data – such as open-ended survey responses, user reviews, and support tickets – into actionable insights and comprehensive user personas. 

Dovetail uses natural language processing to automatically analyze unstructured data for sentiment analysis (are users satisfied? Or frustrated?). The tool applies topic modeling and clustering to detect common themes and trends in qualitative user feedback, enabling designers to generate insights and identify key pain points and opportunities. It can automatically segment users based on AI-driven insights into behaviors, attitudes, or demographics. Dovetail features an intelligent recommendation engine that aggregates user data and feedback to generate prioritized suggestions on product improvements and features. The solution also automatically generates interactive dashboards and charts to visualize synthesized user insights and metrics, making it easy for designers to spot trends and patterns.

Leveraging tools like Dovetail can significantly cut down the time it takes for designers to parse through data and derive accurate user personas, pain points, and goals. This robust AI-powered data analysis helps designers gain a deeper understanding of their user base, which leads to more informed product decisions, and ultimately better user experiences.

Automate Image Editing & Generation

Most designers are using, or at least exploring, AI-powered tools for photo editing. Adobe’s Firefly, for example, can significantly accelerate image generation, manipulation and refinement, which is a huge boost to designer productivity. My team uses Adobe’s Generative AI feature regularly to edit out unsightly elements, resize images to conform to existing templates, and create variations of images for review and approval. Edits that used to take our team an entire afternoon (and, sometimes, even days) can now be completed in less than an hour.

Adobe’s entire suite of AI tools (Firefly, Generative AI, and Sensei) can do far more than just photo editing. For example, using only simple text prompts, you can easily generate new color palettes, font treatments, icons, and illustrations. Leveraging these AI tools can help kick-start the creative process and provide designers with a jumping-off point instead of having to start from scratch each time. I am excited to continue my exploration of these tools and am confident that in the near future I will be able to leverage them to generate entire wireframes and page layouts.

Jumpstart the Writing Process

Designers often have to take on the role of copywriters, particularly in the early stages of a project. While ChatGPT is probably the most well-known natural language generation tool, I’ve been using Claude to help me create solid draft copy for wireframes and prototypes in my current project. By expediting the initial copywriting process, Claude lets me focus my efforts on more pressing design challenges.

Two examples demonstrate how useful Claude can be. I’ll ask the tool: “Give me 10 different ways to say ‘X’ in 100 characters or fewer.” Or I’ll paste a sentence in Claude and ask the chatbot to “give me 10 different ways to say ‘X’ without using the word ‘Y.’” While the Claude-generated copy will undoubtedly be edited, refined, and polished by a copywriter before the project goes to market, it saves me a lot of time and effort in the early stages of a project.

I’m also eager to explore a couple of more powerful options, including copy.ai and Jasper. Both leverage natural language generation to create new copy that conforms to style and brand guidelines and is SEO-friendly. These tools can also suggest new content for writers to revise and approve, automatically generate translations for global markets, and can build product-specific follow-up email sequences for marketing efforts.

So…will AI mean the end of the designer? I don’t think so, but I do believe that what we’ve seen to date in terms of AI and digital design is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. I plan to embrace these emerging AI-powered design tools today,

 because I want to be one of the designers of tomorrow. I relish the fact that I am already spending less time on some of the less creative aspects of my work (I’m thinking of you, workshop prep!). Because of AI, I have more time and creative energy to focus on what our clients need as we work to create truly human-centered brand experiences.

For more information about design at BORN Group, please get in touch with us.

“Going green” is not a new trend. In today’s market, sustainability is table stakes.

Consumers can choose from a myriad of sustainable, competitively priced, quality products – which often viewed as more desirable. In this post-pandemic world, a growing consumer base, especially Gen Z, expect businesses to participate in the world even more actively and responsibly. In a recent Nielsen study, three-quarters of Gen Z consumers stated that sustainability is more important to them than brand names and 75% of Millennials are eco-conscious to the point of changing their buying habits to favor environmentally-friendly products.

For businesses, this means adopting policies and practices that benefit not only the environment, but society as well.

Brands can stand out from the sea of “green” by becoming leaders in social impact, whether that is sustainability, equity, or fair employment practices. But for their accountability practices to resonate with consumers, brands need to talk the talk and walk the walk. They must take meaningful action to back up their messaging, or else the perception of “greenwashing” or “virtue-signaling” can drive significant backlash from consumers. At the same time, companies who are making great strides in their purpose-driven work won’t benefit from consumer engagement if they don’t tell their story.

Help the world, and your bottom line

There are financial incentives to adopting sustainable and socially responsible practices. Studies show that sustainable practices:

• lower the cost of capital,
• result in better operational performance, and
• drive positive stock price performance

Purpose-driven practices can also drive innovation. Redesigning products or services to meet environmental standards or social needs creates new business opportunities. In addition, greater corporate responsibility improves morale and loyalty among employees. According to a study cited in Harvard Business Review, average turnover rates at purpose-driven businesses may be reduced by 25%-50%.

A major positive outcome of adopting sustainable and socially responsible practices is the competitive edge that comes with it. Studies show that, when cost and quality are equal, consumers prefer companies with clear purpose and ethical values. According to a global survey by Accenture Strategy, 62% of consumers are more attracted to brands with high ethical values and who are authentic in their purpose-driven work. This attraction translates into sales. A study conducted by Porter Novelli revealed that, holding cost and quality equal, 71% of consumers would rather purchase from a purpose-drive company.

Engage with responsibility

Consumer preference for brands with sustainable and ethical practices may be driven by an increased sense of responsibility. Studies show that nearly two-thirds of consumers across six international markets believe they “have a responsibility to purchase products that are good for the environment and society.”

But consumers feel that businesses have some responsibility, too. A 2020 ICF study found that 85% of consumers “want businesses to leverage their influence to raise awareness of sustainability issues.”A similar study from Accenture Strategy found this desire to be more generalized. 62% of consumers want businesses to “take a stand” on current issues, ranging from sustainability to transparency and fair employment practices. 

Consumers’ interest in businesses taking a stand is showing up in their actions, from commentary on social media to participating in boycotts. Younger generations are increasingly more invested, more likely to praise socially responsible and sustainable brands, and critique brands that are not. As time goes on, these interactions will accelerate.

Tell your story

Social activism is a key part of building an effective brand story. Brand storytelling is the thread that ties every touchpoint in the consumer experience together. Through storytelling, brand values become more deeply embedded in consumer minds, attitudes, and ultimately, their decisions. In other words, purpose-driven brand stories are attractive and engaging.

For example, TATA Consumer, one of India’s leading food & beverage companies, tells their story through a lens of environmental and social activism. Their mission is clear: “At TATA Consumer, we stand For Better products, nutrition, communities, and planet.” TATA approached BORN to strengthen their online presence across multiple markets. BORN worked with TATA to refresh their brand identity. To do this, they amplified brand storytelling throughout the newly developed site, re-aligning it with TATA’s “For Better” philosophy. TATA’s successes – from ranking as the number one food brand in India’s Brand Equity Survey, to becoming the first industrial township to meet international environmental standards – are highlighted on the homepage and in a primary section of the site. Their brand story integrates not only the importance of their mission, but the tangible impact TATA has on the world.

Be honest

Brand storytelling is more than the brand’s voice, heritage, and narrative. It must be a transparent conversation about your brand’s efforts to put their values into practice. Above all, consumers want companies to be honest. Studies show that corporate transparency may be even more important than corporate actions. Two-thirds of consumers think transparency is one of a brand’s most attractive qualities and strongly influences where they buy.

An authentic story helps consumers understand where your company has come from and where you’re going. This means being open about successes as well as failures. Consumers understand that implementing sustainable and socially responsible practices is difficult, complex, and an ongoing journey.  An honest conversation about that journey, with its ups and downs, is not only relatable, but also fosters a more authentic relationship with consumers.

Acknowledging the ways in which a company isn’t perfect builds trust. Studies show that, when a company leads with purpose, consumers are 72% more likely to forgive that company if it makes a misstep.

A strong, purpose-driven brand story can be found threaded throughout the digital presence of Reformation, an American clothing retailer. This retailer has a strong following of loyal consumers who believe in their mission statement: “We have big goals, like reducing more emissions than we make, making all our stuff from recyclable materials and trying to save the Earth while looking damn good doing it.” Reformation proves that the latest trends in fashion can go hand-in-hand with sustainability and green initiatives. They design stylish, vintage-inspired women’s clothes using only recycled, regenerative, or renewable materials in their clothes. Reformation also carefully tracks consumer data and feedback to produce only what they know they can sell in order to prevent “textile” waste. During their manufacturing they also take into account their energy consumption, water waste, greenhouse emissions and human and eco toxicity.

We’re all in this together

Sustainability and social responsibility cannot be accomplished in a vacuum. Built on honesty and trust, the relationship between brands and their consumers can help drive greater impact. Consumers are an important part of a brand’s ecosystem.

As consumers push brands to be more responsible and transparent, brands can work with their consumers to better understand how they can do so. Brands should be asking questions like:

• What do our consumers care about?
• What resonates with our consumers?
• How can our brand work with consumers to innovate, educate, and make an impact?

Collaboration between stakeholders, employees and consumers can help companies discover shared values across the ecosystem and identify where the company can make a difference.

Combining research, service design, and brand storytelling, XDS design agencies BORN and  Mad*Pow work together to help organizations have meaningful conversations with their audiences, drive change within their organizations, and share their stories with the world.

Being sustainable, socially responsible, and authentic is an ongoing journey. Changing the world is hard. We’re here to support the work at every step of the way.

As the popularity of online shopping continues, buy now, pay later (BNPL) platforms are becoming a popular way for businesses to offer their customers flexible payment options. Though larger companies traditionally used this service, BNPL is becoming increasingly popular with companies of all sizes.¹ Providers like Klarna, Affirm, and Afterpay enable shoppers to purchase products online from participating merchants and pay for them through a series of installments, often interest-free.² This app-based hybrid version of layaway and credit is growing in popularity with retailers and consumers alike as brands like Amazon, Walmart, and Target offer installment plans to increase sales.

Buy Now, Pay Later is Gaining Momentum 

The continued growth of online shopping resulting from the pandemic has catapulted BNPL into the mainstream. While BNPL was gaining popularity leading up to the pandemic, BNPL deals exploded when retailers were forced to close brick and mortar stores. Covid-19 produced a shift in consumer spending habits as an increased number of consumers spent more time at home and embraced e-commerce.³ BNPL generated almost $100 billion in transactions in 2020 as millions of shoppers financed their purchases.⁴ The pandemic left millions of consumers out of work and in need of greater flexibility with their purchases, which increased the demand for easy online financing options. Unlike credit cards which were intended to be used multiple times, BNPL solutions are applied to individual transactions, which appeals to consumers wanting to make less of a financial commitment.

Advantages for Consumers

Consumers are more likely to make significant purchases if they can pay for them in installments rather than the total price upfront. Popular among people under thirty with tight finances and less available credit, consumers welcomed the ability to delay payment for goods and access financing.⁵ Many consumers see BNPL as an appealing alternative to racking up another high credit card balance. BNPL services claim they are a better alternative to traditional banking and credit cards because it is easy for consumers to get approved for this type of loan, even with a low credit score.⁶ Provided consumers stick to the payment terms, BNPL offers the chance to pay in interest-free installments. Though BNLP offers many advantages to all parties involved, consumers should ensure they understand the repayment terms. Late payments have the potential to affect an individual’s credit score, and customers who default on their payments may be banned from future purchases.⁷ BNPL is a loan, and consumers should plan their purchases with their income and expected expenditure in mind. 

Advantages to eCommerce

Just as BNPL is a preferred payment method for many consumers, it can also be useful for businesses. By integrating BNPL, companies can attract new shoppers, improve customer relations, and increase sales. It is important to provide many different payment options to give customers their preferred choices and appeal to as many potential first-time shoppers as possible.⁸ Consumers increasingly utilize BNPL platforms, which means companies willing to work with BNPL providers will appeal to a new set of customers. Millennials and Gen Z are more likely to use BNPL platforms when shopping online than any other age group, so if a business is interested in attracting these age groups, they should strongly consider using a BNPL platform.⁹ Additionally, customers are more likely to return to a business that offers BNPL options, and with so many companies providing this service, it is essential to remain competitive. 

BNPL delivers a quick and straightforward payment process and is a viable alternative to traditional payment methods. BNPL platforms allow a business to get paid in full immediately, while the consumer has the instant gratification of receiving the product directly at a low upfront cost. In exchange for providing interest-free loans to customers, these platforms take only around 5%-6% of the purchase cost from retailers.¹⁰ If the customer does not make the payment on time or the payment is not collected, businesses do not have to worry about lost revenue. 

Why Buy now, pay later platforms can be a valuable tool for both businesses and consumers. The potential for BNPL platforms to drive sales and increase income with no risk to the company is an appealing prospect, and customer demand for this payment method is high. While consumers must be mindful of their purchases and not spend beyond their means, BNPL can be a great way to finance items if used responsibly. With research from Kaleido Intelligence estimating that online consumers will double the amount of money they spend using BNPL to $680 billion by 2025, there is a massive opportunity for businesses to profit.¹¹ BNPL is here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Footnotes

1) https://www.paymentsjournal.com/buy-now-pay-later-what-businesses-need-to-know/

2)https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-to-buy-now-pay-later-and-when-to-just-pay-now-11631957401

3)https://www.cnbc.com/2021/09/21/how-buy-now-pay-later-became-a-100-billion-industry.html?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_content=Tech&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1636972847

4)https://www.forbes.com/sites/ronshevlin/2021/09/07/buy-now-pay-later-the-new-payments-trend-generating-100-billion-in-sales/

5) https://www.paymentsjournal.com/buy-now-pay-later-what-businesses-need-to-know/

6)  https://www.investopedia.com/buy-now-pay-later-5182291

7)https://www.wsj.com/articles/when-to-buy-now-pay-later-and-when-to-just-pay-now-11631957401

8)https://www.paymentsjournal.com/buy-now-pay-later-what-businesses-need-to-know/

9)​​https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/07/why-millennials-and-gen-zs-are-jumping-on-the-buy-now-pay-later-trend.html

10)https://gocardless.com/en-au/guides/posts/how-does-buy-now-pay-later-affect-your-business/

11)https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200922005066/en/Buy-Now-Pay-Later-Digital-Spend-Led-by-Klarna-PayPal-Afterpay-to-Double-by-2025-Reaching-680-Billion—Kaleido-Intelligence

Mobile eCommerce or m-commerce is the purchasing of goods and services via mobile devices. You might have thought of mobile phones as being the main device used, and you wouldn’t be wrong. However, there are two devices that fall under this category – smartphones as well as tablets. Tablets sales are still increasing year-on-year and are often not given as much consideration when it comes to builds, while smartphones have been a transformative component of the eCommerce industry and are a main consideration as we develop digital strategies for our clients¹.

Key m-commerce statistics

• M-commerce is growing rapidly and is being driven largely by mobile-first economies in emerging markets. In South Korea, for example, a country that adopted mobile early, 65% of online transaction volume now comes from mobile traffic³. 
• 76% of customers use mobile devices to purchase because it saves time⁴.
• 53% of visitors will abandon the mobile site if it takes more than three seconds to load⁵.
• Salesforce reports that 75% of customers want consistent experiences across multiple channels (web, mobile, in-person, social) and 73% will likely switch brands if they don’t get it⁶. 
• 70% of users abandon their carts on eCommerce websites while up to 85.65% of those on mobile websites do so. Extra costs and steps till checkout were some factors cited⁷.

Mobile versus desktop eCommerce

Even as research finds that consumers order more from desktops than from their mobiles, mobile phones still dominate as the source of web traffic. In some segments, such as fashion, more than 75% of traffic comes from mobile devices. However, conversion rates are lower on mobile (0.6%) when compared to desktop (1.3%)⁸.

Mobile optimization vs mobile apps

Since they store data locally on your smartphone, dedicated apps work up faster than mobile websites. However, there are many steps that customers need to take to search, download and use an app, and thus many more opportunities to abandon the process. App development also uses a lot of resources as the experience has to be rich and rewarding beyond the initial download. Besides websites optimized for mobile, developers these days are turning to progressive web apps which are websites that function like apps.

Design for M-commerce

Any unnecessary steps that take up time till checkout should be eliminated in m-commerce. Fewer steps equals higher conversion rates. 

It’s not enough to reformat your product catalog. Sephora, for instance, included researchers, product and marketing managers as well as developers not to mention customer feedback in its app redesign⁹.

A small screen compared to a desktop means less real estate, so here are a few more things to keep in mind:

Smart and visual search: The search function is probably the most important feature on a mobile-optimized website. The ability for high-intent visitors to find, categorize, view, and eventually buy the product is contingent on it. Visual trends are also key in the space – text is less important on mobile than high-quality images and video, and repurposing user-generated content is another way to up the visual quotient of your site10. An example is on Lush, whose mobile-optimized website is deeply visual with a rolling feed of social-media-worthy product images. It also has a prominent search bar offering not just the product as well as articles related to it. Visual search tools allow users to search for products using images.

Gestures and thumbs: Smartphone-specific gestures such as scroll, swipe and tap can be used to increase user-friendliness on your website or app. Keep in mind that the part of the screen that your thumbs sweep across is the most valuable space, so buttons critical to the customer journey shouldn’t be on top or too close together at the bottom.

Navigation, carts and pop-ups: It’s essential to think through your information architecture. Keep menus up top and easy to access, carts and number of products there in view at all times and pop-ups to a minimum.

One-click checkout: The feature popularized by Amazon is becoming commonplace on mobile sites and apps. It requires shoppers to enter their payment information once, so that they can use the one-click option to check out without having to re-enter it. 

Speed: Your customer experience correlates very closely with how fast your site or app is. Every second you can shave off is crucial. Google is famous for citing the ‘speed budget’, or a way to optimize site or app speed¹¹.

M-commerce trends 

With the global smartphone numbers at three billion and growing every day, the proportion of eCommerce sales via mobile devices is only set to increase¹².

Here are some exciting developments in m-commerce that will be keeping developers and brand managers busy in the foreseeable future. Some trends in eCommerce in general also apply to mobile. 

Omnichannel: With features such as location-based services, barcode scanning and push notifications, retailers can extend the user experience across all their customer touchpoints. 

Personalization: As with the general trend in eCommerce towards personalization, tailored and user-centric content and communications in m-commerce is not just becoming more popular but imperative.

Social commerce: One way to make the experience personal is to integrate key aspects of the social Web that customers are used to – interactions and recommendations from friends, groups, voting, comments and discussions – before and after the purchase. Integrations include pushing purchase information to social feeds or leaving reviews on forums. Moreover, social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Pinterest have all introduced shoppable posts that let shoppers make purchases without having to leave the platform

There are other trends though that are specific to mobile because of the features that smartphones and tablets offer.

Voice shopping: Every smartphone sold these days is equipped with tools such as Alexa and Siri. Moreover, 28% of US households have a smart speaker and that number is expected to rise to 75% by 2025¹³. Voice optimization of your website to make sure your products can be found and purchased in a simple flow using voice commands is becoming a standard feature.

AI, VR & AR: Artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) make it easier for customers to imagine using your products and services. They help replicate the in-store experience in many ways. Amazon offers a ‘see how it looks’ feature. Mobile chatbots are another simple way for customers to ask a question and for a website to funnel customers to the product or answer they are searching for.

Mobile payments: The rise of various digital payment intermediaries such as PayPal, Google Pay and Apple Pay are changing the game in m-commerce. The use of cryptocurrencies is ramping up as PayPal and Venmo now accept all cryptocurrencies for payment14 – but ever more present is the use of mobile or digital wallets to pay for purchases that ensure the security of user details and save even more time. 

As a whole, the array of opportunities that m-commerce can provide for a commerce brand is infinite. For a tangible example of BORN’s work in mobile commerce, check out our case study for Nestlé Gerber here.

_____________

Footnotes

^{1. Tablet shipments grew in 2020, Apple still dominant, gsmarena.com, https://www.gsmarena.com/tablet_shipments_grew_in_2020_apple_still_dominant_at_number_1-news-47634.php}

^{2. Mobile E-commerce is up and Poised for Further Growth, Statista, https://www.statista.com/chart/13139/estimated-worldwide-mobile-e-commerce-sales/}

^{3. E-commerce worldwide – Statistics & Facts, Statista, https://www.statista.com/topics/871/online-shopping/}

^{4. The state of personalization in mobile commerce, XP2 by Dynamic Yield, https://www.dynamicyield.com/article/50-most-important-dynamicyield-personalization-stats/}

^{5. Google Data, Global, n=3,700 aggregated, anonymized Google Analytics data from a sample of mWeb sites opted into sharing benchmark data, March 2016, GoogleData, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/consumer-insights/consumer-trends/mobile-site-load-time-statistics/}

^{6. Customer Expectations Hit All-Time Highs, Salesforce, https://www.salesforce.com/research/customer-expectations/}

^{7. Cart abandonment statistics, Sleeknote, https://sleeknote.com/blog/cart-abandonment-statistics#1}

^{8. 2020 Global Digital Growth Benchmarks for Fashion Marketers, Insider, https://useinsider.com/report/2020-global-digital-growth-benchmarks-for-fashion-marketers/}

^{9. How Sephora gave its app a customer-first makeover, ThinkwithGoogle.com, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/app-user-experience-redesign/}

^{10. The State of Mobile E-Commerce Search and Category Navigation, Baymard Institute, https://baymard.com/blog/mobile-ecommerce-search-and-navigation}

^{11. How speeding up your mobile site can improve your bottom line, ThinkwithGoogle.com, https://www.thinkwithgoogle.com/marketing-strategies/app-and-mobile/mobile-page-speed-data/}

^{12. Number of smartphone users worldwide from 2016 to 2021, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/330695/number-of-smartphone-users-worldwide/}

^{13. Smart speaker household penetration rate in the United States from 2014 to 2025*, Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/1022847/united-states-smart-speaker-household-penetration/}

^{14. PayPal and Venmo will offer and accept cryptocurrency for all online payments, theverge.com, https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/21/21527288/paypal-cryptocurrency-support-buy-sell-venmo-bitcoin}

Last week’s blog post, centered around the rise of B2B eCommerce outlined the immense potential traditional business retailers have by adopting a digital-first strategy. In this article, we’ve gathered our top 5 insights B2B brands can leverage to further develop and grow their B2B offering, to take advantage of the recent surge in online transactions.

Attract customers using organic and paid marketing

An organic, as well as paid marketing media strategy that involves an SEO strategy, will help drive relevant users to your website. This could take the form of social media marketing, display and banners ads, emails, and press releases to drive traffic and generate leads using content offers.

Focus on stellar customer experience

Traditionally, a B2B purchase involves far less emotional appeal compared to a B2C one, and they also involve many more stakeholders in a relatively standardized purchase journey. However, rest assured that customer experience is still at the top of the list of important factors to lock in a B2B sale. 

• A fast, responsive and easily navigable website that offers intuitive search results that can also be accessed from multiple devices is key. Optimization for mobile is a trend in B2B eCommerce that most organizations are adopting to reach the millennials involved in the purchase process. An omnichannel strategy can also help in gathering data around the customer’s preferences. W. W. Grainger, which scores in the top tier on distributor B2B surveys, recently introduced a visual search on its mobile app¹. 
• Order approval workflows should be able to accommodate multiple parties and roles in the buying committees.
• Personalization and user journeys are equally important to take into consideration. Unique personal content such as personalized product catalogs will appeal to your customer’s needs. Further, adjust cross-selling and upselling suggestions based on the user’s purchase history. 
• Sales teams have to be rearranged. With marketplaces taking a chunk out of traditional B2B sales, sales teams have to be reconfigured to offer personal connection, advice, broader expertise and build relationships². According to a Forrester Research study, 68% of B2B buyers prefer doing business online versus with a salesperson, and when they engage with sales, they want that experience to be in a more problem-solving, consultative manner³.
• Take customer feedback into account. Reliable customer support both during and after-sale is vital. Existing customers are a goldmine of feedback. 
• AI and automation are increasingly being put to use to take the drudgery and paperwork out of the purchase process. Chatbots that are available 24/7 and also upsell and cross-sell products. At Genesys, the chatbot feature resulted in a whopping 50% less cart abandonment⁴. 
• More information on product pages, different product views, and supporting information such as videos are even more important in B2B eCommerce, especially if you’re selling in bulk. More information will reduce communications, returns, and complaints⁵.

Pick the right B2B eCommerce technology platform

The architecture for your site is based on both customer need and maturity. Is it commerce-led, content-led, side-by-side or a pure headless model? Choosing the right platform that can handle all your needs can make or break your online offer. Developing an MVP (minimum viable product) can also shorten time to market and leave room to develop features based on feedback from customers. 

Flexible ordering, payment and pricing options

B2B customers need much more leeway with their ordering and custom pricing options as opposed to B2C customers. You have to be able to take purchase orders and credit applications into account and offer digital invoices, various payment methods, and a real-time snapshot of inventory. Incentivize new customers with free trials, reduced shipping costs, or a money-back guarantee. You can entice existing customers with easy order replenishment or loyalty rewards for repeat purchases such as discounts, tiered incentives, access to new features or a complimentary service.

Use social media marketing and user-generated content

Social media can not only be used to drive customers to your site but also for customer engagement. LinkedIn and Twitter are highly popular with B2B companies in regard to connecting with their audiences through text, podcasts, and video, gaining insights via feedback, providing thought leadership, and learning about their buyer persona. They can help funnel the customer from the education and awareness stage towards actual promotional content. Intel (@Intel) with its 4.8million followers is a great example of a B2B Twitter presence⁶. Publishing customer reviews are another way of establishing authenticity and credibility by driving user-generated content⁷.

As a leading systems integrator for platforms such as SAP Commerce Cloud, Salesforce Commerce Cloud, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce, Shopify Plus, commercetools, VTEX, and Elastic Path, BORN Group is well-qualified to assess and advise you on the best platform to meet your unique needs.

For more information around BORN Group’s B2B offerings, please visit here.

______________________

Footnotes

^{1. Grainger eyes a big future for its new mobile visual search tool, Nov 2019, Digitalcommerce360.}

^{2. In 2021, B2B Marketing And Sales Become More Human, Thanks To Tech, Forrester Research, Nov 2020, https://go.forrester.com/what-it-means/ep193-b2b-marketing-sales-predictions-2021/}

^{3. The Death Of A (B2B) Salesman, Forrester Research, May 2017, https://go.forrester.com/what-it-means/ep12-death-b2b-salesman/}

^{4. The Total Economic Impact of the Genesys Omnichannel Engagement Centre Solution, Forrester, Feb 2016, https://genbin.genesys.com/old/resources/TEI_Case_Study_Genesys_-_2052016_FINAL.pdf}

^{5. Rethink the B2B Buyer’s Journey, LinkedIn, https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/business/marketing-solutions/global/en_US/campaigns/pdfs/rethink-b2b-buyers-journey-v03.09-eng-us.pdf}

^{6. 5 Top B2B Brands Delivering Exemplary Twitter Engagement, Toprankblog.com, Sep 2019, https://www.toprankblog.com/2019/09/exemplary-twitter-engagement/}

^{7. The Rise of B2B Product Reviews,  https://business.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/business/en-us/marketing-solutions/resources/pdfs/linkedin-crowd-b2b-product-review-book.pdf}

We’re nearing one year into the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and while in some ways we can begin to look towards an incoming ‘next normal,’ or post-pandemic world, we still must take every precaution we can to stop the spread and reach that finish line. We here at BORN are still committed to protecting our employees by enabling them to work remotely and only return to the office once it’s safe to do so.  

With over a year of remote work, the fatigue of not seeing colleagues and co-workers does take its toll. We’ve connected with BORN Group’s Director of Human Resources, Jamie Weisberg, to review some of the most effective ways to promote mental health and wellbeing while working remotely. Together, we’ve put together six tips to cultivate a better work from home experience.

1. Remember to recharge.

“One of the best things you can do is step away from the computer and take time for yourself.” 

Working remotely often means working from home, which can create a blurred line between work and home. When coupled with the many lockdown rules and COVID-19 precautions that can create difficulties in finding daily recreation, it’s essential to remember to take time for yourself and recharge when possible. It’s perfectly healthy and expected to schedule breaks throughout the day to eat and check in on yourself. Even if travel is not available to the extent it was prior to the pandemic, it’s still important as well to take advantage of vacation time to reflect, disengage, and come back more revitalized.

2. Connect face-to-face whenever possible.

“Not being able to see the facial expressions of co-workers can have an effect of isolation. Whenever possible, in team or client meetings, take advantage of the camera to read another’s body language while you communicate.”

The pandemic has had a sweeping effect on society by disconnecting us from one another physically. Those of us who live alone and don’t get the opportunity to see people at the same intervals as prior may especially feel a sense of isolation from work. It’s a great change from the past to be coordinating on projects and working to the degree that we do without the level of communication that body language provides. Thus, it can go a long way to utilize video conferencing wherever possible. Whether it’s a team meeting, client meeting, whenever possible, take advantage of the camera to better communicate, understand another’s tone and intent, and generally ease your conversation.

3. Dress for success.

“Brightening your appearance even while at home can set you in the mindset of mindful work.”

Another healthy practice that can fall into neglect via remote work is to tend to one’s appearance daily. The rituals of trimming, make-up and skincare, and the regular haircut as well as dressing presentably and geared to work all have noted effects in getting us into a mindset of work and stability. Ruts in life can be magnified by neglecting one’s appearance and it can help make you more inclined to break out of them with the sort of self-care that lets you feel eager to tackle the day and presentable to anyone you might come across. Carve out the time – work will always be there, and taking care of oneself is a key priority.

4. Exercise throughout the day.

“A lot of real world issues have magnified the effect of the pandemic over the past year, and taking the time to remember to breath and walk can serve as an excellent stress reliever throughout the day.”

With the torrent of difficult news this past year, the effects of isolation are often magnified with malaise and frustration at the world’s problems. It’s important to take the time to avoid burnout by putting aside some time throughout the day to breath mindfully, walk mindfully, and let your mind refresh, to help mollify stress and keep health a priority. Burnout as a whole is huge, especially in the tech industry, and it’s essential for senior leaders to give their team the space to get projects done while in the best state of mind.

5. Take advantage of office resources for wellbeing.

“Employees at BORN had already set the precedent of working remotely prior to the pandemic, but one of the challenges of building a work from home culture was reminding our team to take advantage of whatever resources they needed for wellbeing and health.”

Coming up with strategies for teams to check-in and avoid burnout has played a key role in the path of building a work from home culture here at BORN. Without the ease of interaction from physical connections, there’s an increased need for all teams to be visible with the array of resources we offer to help support our employees throughout this intensive time of their career. Being accessible and accommodating to our team is what gets us moving forward each time, and on the employee side, it can go a long way to take advantage of the office resources in context to mental health and wellbeing. Here at BORN, one program that we instituted to help decompress was a biweekly virtual yoga session. 

6. Continue to build team culture.

“Encouraging teams to connect in a remote time can build the camaraderie that makes work so fulfilling. It’s vital to take the time to build and be creative as a unit.”

Much of our fulfillment from work comes from the work we can do together as a team. While conventional events like company-wide happy hours have proven difficult to execute on virtually, we’ve seen team leads come up with innovative and disrupting ways to keep the team culture moving forward. Scheduling one on one meetings wherever possible, going for “walk and talks” as an alternative to the happy hour, or relegating a time for social connection within the team all will yield their own returns in fostering a mindful and productive culture.