Shimona Mehta, Head of Revenue Acceleration for Shopify Plus, talks about the future of e-commerce and the key trends that are shaping the space. She talks about the three key trends shaping e-commerce today: Constantly shifting consumer behaviour, the need for retailers to innovate, and the rapid growth of direct-to-consumer sales. Watch the video for insights from Mehta on what these trends mean for your business.

"When you have rising monetization, rising growth and rising data collection, it drives a lot of regulatory scrutiny whether it’s related to data privacy, competition or safety in content."

Can You Say Minority Report?
Beacons are taking the world of mobile by storm. They are low-powered radio transmitters that can send signals to smartphones that enter their immediate vicinity, via Bluetooth Low Energy technology. 

In the months and years to come, we’ll see beaconing applied in all kinds of valuable ways.For marketers in particular, beacons are important because they allow more precise targeting of customers in a locale.

A customer approaching a jewelry counter in a department store, for example, can receive a message from a battery-powered beacon installed there, offering information or a promotion that relates specifically to merchandise displayed there.

In a different department of the same store, another beacon transmits a different message. Before beacons, marketers could use geofencing technology, so that a message, advertisement, or coupon could be sent to consumers when they were within a certain range of a geofenced area, such as within a one-block radius of a store.

However, that technology typically relies on GPS tracking, which only works well outside the store. With beaconing, marketers can lead and direct customers to specific areas and products within a store or mall....