The Supply Side: Blockchain holds potential for retail applications – Talk Business & Politics

July 19, 2018

Coca-Cola is starting a pilot to use blockchain to identify inhumane labor conditions in its sugar supply chains. Coca-Cola plans to create a secure decentralized registry for workers and their contracts to help securely record their workers’ identities while providing a trail in case employers abuse their power.

Blockverify offers transparency to pharmaceutical, luxury, diamond and electronic supply chains. Blockchain works to verify counterfeit products, diverted goods, stolen merchandise and fraudulent transactions.

VeChain is a blockchain system that embeds customized chips into luxury products and allows manufacturers to trace the product from end to end. Consumers can scan a product with a mobile app to instantly know whether it’s real or fake.

NPD said the next step for retailers is to develop their own cryptocurrency to prevent customers from having to use credit cards when shopping online. NPD said the practice makes sense for the retailer, because if the customer could send the payment transfer via blockchain, it would avoid third-party clearing house fees retailers pay for processing card payments.

Source: The Supply Side: Blockchain holds potential for retail applications – Talk Business & Politics, Kim Souza, July 2, 2018

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Japan Teaches Western Governments a Lesson in Cryptocurrency Regulation | Bitcoin News

November 14, 2017

Japan is a tech-savvy nation whose elected officials have a better appreciation of the transformative power of emerging technologies than most. It follows that the more digitally-inclined countries should be among the first to embrace cryptocurrency. In Europe, Estonia, with its e-Residency digital passports, is another country that’s been positive towards cryptocurrency.

Source: Japan Teaches Western Governments a Lesson in Cryptocurrency Regulation – Bitcoin News, Kai Sedgwick, November 13, 2017

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How retailers can use Blockchain to get granular | TNW

November 12, 2017

Giving users a stake in their own data does much to ensure that the data itself is more pertinent, and more organized for those who need it. This notion is integral in retail, which is increasingly reliant on the ability to find users who are spread over many different applications, physical locales, and rungs on the financial ladder. While a few companies can already comprehend the degree of change that their industry is about to experience, like so many asset trading brokers, shoppers too will be caught be caught by surprise when blockchain-based retail services take over their phones, but it will undoubtedly be a delightful one.

Source: How retailers can use Blockchain to get granular | TNW, Andrei Tiburca, November 08, 2017

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How Retail Can Thrive in a World Without Stores | HBR

July 28, 2017

In the last twenty years, the internet has become the front door to every retail store. Now, that entry point is briskly shifting to mobile devices, and even further with voice-activated personal assistants and other connected devices. New technologies are helping innovative brands to ease the transition as consumers forgo the shopping mall in favor of bringing the store experience into their homes. Retailers that don’t find a way to create a happy marriage between the showroom experience you’d expect in a store and the convenience of personal shopping at home will be left behind.

Source: How Retail Can Thrive in a World Without Stores

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Chatbots for customer service will help businesses save $8 billion per year – Watson

July 28, 2017

A new study released this week estimates that that chatbots will help businesses save more than $8 billion per year by 2022, which is a huge increase from the $20 million estimated for this year. In 2022, the success rate of bot interactions in healthcare sector will increase from the current 12% to over 75%, and in the banking sector this will climb to 90%.

Source: Chatbots for customer service will help businesses save $8 billion per year – Watson

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