Author Archives: alankent
Are QR codes dead or making a comeback in the US?
QR codes are everywhere in many asian countries. But they are almost nowhere to be found in the US. Why? The following is my Friday afternoon thoughts. Why did QR codes fail to take off initially in the US? I suspect in part because they were hard to use. You had to get another app […]
Do you think easier and secure web payments accelerate ecommerce web innovation?
I find the China ecommerce market very interesting. I don’t live there, have not experienced it in any depth first hand, so much of what I know is from reading articles. That means I may have a slightly warped view of reality, but what I read resonates with me. For example, by having a simpler […]
How can Ecommerce Web Development be made easier?
The following is soul searching, reflecting debates I have been having with myself over recent months. What is the right way to build an ecommerce web frontend? The challenge is there are continual new techniques coming out that deliver improved web performance. Great! The user experience is better! But at what cost? Do we have […]
Headless, PWA, SPA or MPA for Ecommerce?
(Yes, I was going for buzz word density in that title!) There has been increasing talk about concepts like “headless”, “PWA”, “SPA”, “MPA” in the context of ecommerce. In the following I provide a high level introduction to these concepts. (Disclaimer: If you want a deep technical evaluation of the alternatives, this post is not […]
Personal Thoughts on the Australian News Media Bargaining Code
I’ve been watching the developments with the News Media Bargaining Code back home with interest and thought I’d share my personal take here. (And to be up front, I currently work at Google, an Aussie currently living in the USA.) A real challenge seems to be the profitability of news for revenue generation. I say […]
AR and ecommerce – is a spike coming?
With COVID-19 driving more shoppers to ecommerce, is Augmented Reality (AR) going to see a boost in 2020? Possibly, although 2021 is more likely, especially if the Apple leaks of AR glasses and 5G support coming soon are true. 5G AR headsets in 2020? Here is some background reading if you are not up with […]
Musings about 5G and AR
This is a late Friday afternoon rambling on possible directions for ecommerce. No deep research, just daydreaming. Did you know 5G is coming? Really? Okay, so actually there is a lot of coverage already. There is a slight problem however, lack of quality devices and demand. This is where news/leaks from Apple become more interesting. […]
Live stream your products!
Want to engage with customers without in person contact? Consider live streaming! Clearly with store closures, in-person contact with customers has significantly reduced or stopped. It is also not clear when such contact will increase even as restrictions start to lift. So it may be a good time to think about other ways of engaging […]
Engineering and SEO agencies – involve both early in projects
I have been interviewing a number of agencies this year to stay in touch with people at the coal face of ecommerce. One thing that has jumped out is the frequent divide between “engineering agencies” and “SEO agencies”. Engineering agencies build sites, SEO agencies then tune site content after the site is built. There are […]
Know Thy Customer
It is kinda an obvious statement – know your customers to make sure you deliver them what they need and value. Building a great business is not just about adopting the latest technology, but relevant technologies can help build better experiences. I was reading a case study from JH on a site built using Magento’s […]
