Re-commerce: The age of the circular economy

Posted on by Colleen Vaughan
BORN Views
Re-commerce: The age of the circular economy

By Alex Stickelberger | VP BORN

We are all familiar with the linear economy: Natural resources are turned into products, which are sold, consumed, and then thrown away without regard to reuse or recycling. However, the linear economy is clearly less and less viable in today’s world when waste and the other byproducts of production and consumption pose an existential threat to our world.

Today’s enterprises focus more on sustainability in the broad sense, and one way to pursue sustainability is by embracing the circular economy. Instead of the take, make, waste dynamic of the linear economy, the circular economy encourages recycling, reuse, and repurposing in an effort to minimize waste through the entire value chain of a product. In a circular economy, all stakeholders benefit: companies and consumers as well as society as a whole through the obvious benefit of greater sustainability.

The term “circular economy” may not yet have the widespread currency of “sustainability,” but examples are all around us. More and more companies support re-commerce, a new-ish term for the age-old practice of buying and selling used products. Online platforms have amplified and magnified this business tremendously for every imaginable good (think Poshmark for clothes and Amazon and eBay for virtually every category).

Another example of the circular economy is the growing trend of “product as a service.” Aircraft engines, to cite just one example, are often sold as a service: Instead of buying a jet engine outright, an airline can essentially rent one on a per-hour basis. With this model, manufacturers take on the responsibility for product maintenance and recycling, and sometimes even outcomes; users of the service save in terms of capital expense and ongoing maintenance. Product as a service is becoming more common with the renewed interest in the circular economy, but it also has old roots. For decades, printers and copiers have been leased and contracted on a usage model instead of being purchased outright.

Contemporary enterprises engaged in the circular economy rely heavily on digital platforms. This is obvious for online marketplaces in which trading and marketplace platforms do the heavy lifting of onboarding, listing, discovery, transactions, and fulfillment logistics. Digital platforms also enable physical stores to manage similar functionalities with more efficiency. And in B2B marketplaces, digital platforms enable companies to trade or sell unused resources, such as raw materials or equipment, fostering greater efficiency in terms of production and distribution.

One of the key benefits of a circular economic approach is efficiency. But trade-in programs, automated and seamless recycling, and an intelligent customer experience can create a more sustainable consumption model and deepen customer engagement.

We believe it’s clear that the transition from a linear economy to a circular economy is accelerating. Here are some opportunities for rethinking business models and finding new opportunities to make your enterprise more sustainable, create new revenue streams, and deliver more value to your customers:

  • Offer to lease: Consider building a platform that enables users to rent or lease products instead of selling them outright.
  • Embrace re-commerce: Create an aftermarket platform where people can buy, sell, and trade products. This is a powerful way to deliver value to customers and improve sustainability. A good example here is Poshmark for clothes.
  • Make recycling a seamless component of the customer experience: Design a value chain that makes recycling of products and components as straightforward as buying or using them. Apple makes this easy to do with any Apple product and will even accept non-Apple products.
  • Facilitate efficient returns: Customer returns are inevitable and typically costly, so you can greatly improve sustainability and embrace the circular economy with a platform solution that makes returns as efficient as possible (which may involve working hard to avoid the necessity of returns).  

Broadly speaking, you have two possible routes for platform design and development in pursuing circular economy business models: platform-agnostic or using SAP, which has a pre-built re-commerce solution and includes other functionalities that can improve sustainability. We work with clients to help them take the best route by evaluating their current landscape and technology stacks, by creating customized business cases (including ROI), and designing a proof of concept. Each approach has a different set of pros and cons, of course, but either should help you lean into the circular economy.

Finally, when you do embrace the circular economy with these kinds of initiatives, make sure your customers understand the what and the why of your strategies. Showcase the fact that you’re eco-friendly, committed to sustainability, and willing to try new things or change strategies. Promote your initiatives for reuse, recycling, and upcycling. Encourage your suppliers and competitors to join you on the journey. You could, for example, create your own “Green Report Card” and display it prominently on your digital channels.

Sustainability and the circular economy represent one of the best examples of a “win-win” strategy. Creating or adopting new business models that reflect this evolving approach can reduce your overall environmental impact, improve business performance, and deepen customer engagement and trust.

Valentine’s Day Is Coming. Is Your Business Ready for the World’s Most Romantic Holiday?

Posted on by Colleen Vaughan
BORN Views
Valentine’s Day is coming. Is your business ready for the world’s most romantic holiday?

It’s not surprising that Valentine’s Day is a revenue opportunity. But it may be surprising that Valentine’s Day is such an enormous revenue opportunity. Last year, Valentine’s Day spending grew by about 8% and reached $26 billion, and we’re expecting similar growth in 2024. About 38% of last year’s Valentine’s Day sales were online, and that fraction will probably go up.

People are ready to spend during this first retail season of the year. The typical Valentine’s Day categories are clearly defined (though, as with any kind of seasonal merchandising, there is room for new offerings). Chocolates, candy, and other consumables represent about 30% of the total holiday spend, while flowers and jewelry account for about 16% each. Gift cards, clothing, and electronics are also popular Valentine’s Day gifts.

The consumers and the demand are out there. Smart retailers should be ready with a go-to-market strategy to elevate sales and take advantage of this powerful opportunity. As with any seasonal marketing and selling strategies, advance planning and strategy can pay off substantially.

As you gear up for this year’s romantic holiday, consider these key prerequisites for success:

  • Schedule campaigns intelligently: Initiate campaigns early to take advantage of the predictable surge in seasonal searches. Think about keywords and SEO in your planning.
  • Created targeted popup messages: Engage potential customers through targeted popups seamlessly integrated with a dedicated landing page. Your messaging should reflect some strategic realities. For example, men generally outspend women on Valentine’s Day, so targeting these buyers with appropriate messaging can be a great investment.
  • Invest in graphics and copy: Make sure your visual presentation is on-trend for the holiday and for the customers you serve – and make your content pop with engaging copy.
  • Leverage social media: Of course, buyers are going to be looking at social media for ideas and offers, so plan your social media strategy early.
  • Be aggressive with sales and promotions: A lot of Valentine’s Day spending is on predictable products and categories, so sales and promotions – cleverly tied to the holiday, of course – are great ways to stand out in a competitive market. Limited-time offers and perks like free shipping can also turn a browser into a buyer. (Just stay on-brand with all promotions!)
  • Be crystal-clear about ordering deadlines and delivery dates: You know that a lot of Valentine’s Day purchases are last-minute, so you can instill confidence by being absolutely forthright about delivery timelines. Consider ramping up urgency tactfully; for example, dynamic countdown timers can catalyze buying decisions and save your buyers from disappointments.
  • Make meaningful suggestions: Valentine’s Day is the kind of holiday where people want guidance in finding the perfect present. You do a service to buyers (and your revenue figures) by providing personalized recommendations and curated gift guides. You may find opportunities for cross-selling too.
  • Help last-minute shoppers: What can you offer to people who put off their Valentine’s Day shopping until the last days or hours before the holiday? They may represent a substantial portion of your customer base, so be prepared.
  • Optimize your website: Make sure your website is ready to handle increased traffic and transactions during the Valentine’s Day rush.
  • Minimize cart abandonment: A customer who fails to complete a transaction is always bad news, especially during the holiday season. Design cart abandonment reminders that will get them to act now; standard email reminders are generally ineffective in time-sensitive situations.
  • Partner with other businesses or influencers: Explore cross-promotions and other forms of partnership with complementary businesses or influencers to amplify your reach to new customers and segments.

Finally, remember that Valentine’s Day may be an opportunity for you even if you don’t sell “traditional” romantic gifts. Many gift-givers are looking for alternatives to flowers, jewelry, and chocolate, which means you may have an opportunity to create non-traditional offerings for people who want to celebrate their relationships in the context of the holiday season. You may need to develop a new narrative to make your products mesh with Valentine’s Day – which also requires forethought and planning – but this can unlock new possibilities for your brand and business.

Regardless of your approach, don’t forget to celebrate the people you love and care about. Happy Valentine’s Day!

To learn more about BORN Group’s services, please contact us.

Better Personalization – Better Customer Retention: A Strategy for Telecoms

Posted on by Colleen Vaughan
BORN Views
Better Personalization – Better Customer Retention: A Strategy for Telecoms

By Harshvardhan Kabra | Global Practice Head, BORN Group

It wasn’t that long ago that we got our mobile phone services from wireless providers (Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), and we got our cable television from cable companies. But now the landscape is a lot more muddled as the traditional boundaries are being erased: Wireless companies are leveraging their broadband networks by adding video and data services to their voice offerings, while cable companies are adding voice and data to their video offerings.

Consumers generally benefit in situations where competition increases, but competition means providers have to step up as they fight it out in the real world. Telecom companies that want to win this battle must increase their effort along every vector of the customer journey with two objectives in mind: attract new customers and deepen their relationship with existing ones.

We refer to this challenge as ARENA:  Acquire & Retain, Nurture & Amplify. We believe that a strategy driven by personalization – real-time, individualized, and contextualized customer experiences – can lead to much greater differentiation and all the benefits it generates: greater retention and deeper customer relationships.

These 1:1 on-point personalized experiences cut across all customer touchpoints and services, from acquisition marketing to onboarding and activation to ongoing customer support and lifecycle marketing. Doing this well requires recognizing the contextual intricacies of each interaction and understanding customer needs, desires, and situations to be able to deliver the right message at the right time on the right channel.

If you can do this at scale, the rewards are immense. You will provide excellent customer experiences – satisfying in form and content, keeping customers happy, and positioning you well for building deeper, more profitable relationships.

The Foundation for 1:1 On-point Personalization

Most telecoms companies understand that personalization is a powerful strategic tool, but surprisingly few do personalization at scale well. At a foundational level, the first step is to change your focus. Think less about quick tactical wins; think more (much more) about a long-term strategic plan where on-point personalization is the centerpiece.

What does this mean in real-world terms? Identify use cases before you acquire and build a highly sophisticated MarTech stack. Here at the BORN Group, we use a four-tier approach to deliver 1:1 on-point personalization at scale to significant effect in many industries, including telecoms:

Step 1: Create a Personalization Center of Excellence

For large-scale enterprises like telecoms, personalization is important enough that it deserves its own center of excellence (CoE) covering the entire enterprise with a mission to define and articulate your personalization-at-scale strategy, including prioritized use cases and to develop an enterprise-wide solution for implementation.

A personalization CoE focuses on enterprise-wide elements like reusability, a holistic approach, and scalability – ensuring optimized and efficient tools – and ensures that more tactical personalization efforts are on-brand, effective, and privacy-compliant. Telecoms companies deal with a lot of personally identifiable information (PII), and are already careful and vigilant about how customer data is captured, stored, processed, and leveraged to comply with Europe’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA), and other mandates. Navigating the need for privacy and using personalization to compete effectively can be challenging – but it’s easier when you have a personalization CoE that has already thought through this balancing act.

Step 2: Identify and articulate data-driven challenges

Next, look at all your data to understand friction points, business problems, and existing challenges. You’ll want to analyze your data from real-time customer interactions, CRM and POS systems, and your contact center (including demographic and geo-specific data), plus second and third-party data from benchmarking your competitors and market research.

Here are some examples of how data can inform strategy and tactics:

  • Looking at your web analytics, you realize you’re experiencing a high bounce rate. This suggests you’re successfully attracting customers but not effectively converting them into customers. Build a hypothesis around the possible causes of the bounce rate, then use personalization use cases to validate your findings and overcome them.
  • You’re suffering from churn. The “Propensity to Churn” model, which most telecom companies already track, estimates the likelihood of losing individual consumers. The next step is to dive deep into this data and turn insights into personalized actions to help you retain “at-risk” customers.
  • Another helpful data point is the average revenue per user (ARPU). If it’s flat or declining, you can create tailored plans and offers to build loyalty and deliver a better customer experience through personal interactions across relevant touchpoints and channels. A better CX generally has a higher ARPU and can significantly improve the lifetime value of each customer.

Step 3: Define & Prioritize

By now you’ve identified challenges and friction points that your company is facing. There’s a strong temptation to try to solve everything at once, but a better approach is to convert your challenges into well-defined use cases and prioritize them, like short-, medium-, and long-term goals and objectives.

In a recent engagement with a top-tier mobile service provider, we conducted a series of workshops with different groups within the organization as part of Define and Prioritize process. While there was some overlap, each of them had different challenges and different priorities. But by looking at the business holistically, we were able to help them create a comprehensive personalization roadmap that reflected overall business goals and addressed many of the more granular needs. Together, we developed three high-level use cases that aligned to run, crawl, and walk phases for implementation of a short-, medium-, and long-term view of the roadmap. 

Step 4: Build Capabilities

By the time you’ve reached this fourth step, you’re really in a great position to design your marketing stack from a vantage point of strategic insights and prioritized goals. So what do you need in terms of people, processes, and technology to enable your business to begin delivering personalization at scale?

Take the example mentioned above of a telecom company whose ARPU was flat. The provider articulated the strategic goal this way:

“To increase ARPU, we will deliver personalized offers to our customer using an omnichannel strategy focused on cross-selling and upselling.”

To deliver on this strategic goal requires a mix of people, process, and technology:

  • People – the individuals and teams with the skills to deliver: In this case, that meant expertise with the customer data platform, probability modeling, email marketing, web personalization, and offer management.
  • Process – the flows that turn strategy and expertise into execution: Using personalization to increase ARPU, for example, required creating an entire content supply chain to engage customers with helpful content and generate demand for ancillary products and services.
  • Technology – the actual martech stack to enable the process: Sticking with our ARPU example, the tech stack involved a customer data platform with a decisioning engine that could identify the next “best offer” for a unique end-user in real-time. Note that personalization technologies must be scalable.

The Building Blocks for Delivering Successful Personalization

Regardless of where your company finds itself on your personalization journey, a foundational framework can make a huge difference in execution. At the BORN Group, we use a framework called STRIDE, a closed loop approach with four key components:

  • Systematic Tracking: You must think of your entire customer journey, and diligently track data and interactions from all touchpoints and channels during the journey from prospect to customer to customer for life – while being diligent about privacy and compliance!
  • Resolution of Identity: Remember the big goal: personalization. The key component of that word is person – the individual you’re trying to reach, the person who wants useful content and a great experience as a prospect and as a customer. To deliver on this necessity requires that you understand the identity of that person using a unified customer profile and obtaining a 360° view of that customer. Resolution of identity often uses probabilistic and deterministic matching as well as lookalike models.
  • Informed Decision Science: When you have assembled the data and identified the customer profile, you create actionable insights. Then use informed decision science to design the best combination of content, offer, and channel.
  • Effective Activation: Now you’re ready to activate your insights and execute your personalization strategy. Obviously, what you learn from effective activation flows back into the STRIDE framework – an ongoing closed-loop optimization effort.

Given the enormous progress of generative AI in the last year, you’ll want to consider AI in your personalization efforts – it can add value throughout the process. Marketers are already using generative AI to create new personalized content – text, images, and video – at scale, significantly improving time-to-market. But quality and uniqueness depend on user guidance, and there’s a real need for the ability to vet content for copyright issues, privacy concerns, and compliance with branding guidelines before content is deployed.

Generative AI is also playing an important role in gleaning insights from data and helping with decision-making. A good example is sentiment analysis, turning disparate data points into a valid perspective on customer satisfaction. AI and machine learning can also play key roles in determining the “next best experience” (NBX) at scale.

For telecom companies, and companies in many other sectors, the decision to use personalization is a matter of when – not if. The possibility of using data, analytics, and technology to deliver extremely granular and highly customized experiences to your clients and prospects may be the key source of competitive advantage in today’s marketing.

To learn more about how the BORN Group approaches personalization, contact us.

AI & Product Design: Tools to Jumpstart Creativity

Posted on by Colleen Vaughan
BORN Views
AI & Product Design: Tools to Jumpstart Creativity

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.

2023 Top Tech Trends in Banking

Posted on by Jason Modzeleski
BORN Views
2023 Top Tech Trends in Banking

The banking sector has experienced significant changes over the last decade due to new technology, evolving customer expectations, and increasing competition from fintech firms. To stay competitive in the dynamic landscape, banks must strategically adapt their core infrastructure, product offerings, and digital approach to create a truly customer-centric experience.

This article examines five pivotal trends that will continue to shape the banking sector in 2024. By examining recent practices adopted by industry leaders, we will demonstrate how the once-traditional industry is ready to tackle the demands of digitalization and foster innovation.

Trend 1: Core Modernization &
Cloud-Based Infrastructure

In the forthcoming years, big banks will prioritize core modernization as a key element of their long-term strategy. With new improvements made by today’s cloud service providers, more banks will recognize the advantages of migrating their core systems from mainframes to the cloud. The cloud offers greater resilience, agility, innovation, and delivery speed than legacy systems. Its API-based architecture allows banks to better leverage their database to deliver highly personalized customer experiences.

As indicated by Accenture Research,


A significant *63% of leading banks are either in the process of migrating their core systems to the cloud or making preparations for such a transition.

JPMorgan Chase is ahead of the curve with its modernization initiatives. In 2021, it first announced the cloud transition of its retail banking systems to Thought Machine’s Vault platform. By April this year, JPMorgan Chase had spent over $2 billion on building new “cloud-based data centers” and had migrated approximately *38% of its applications to the cloud. According to Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon, the bank’s infrastructure modernization is slated to bring in an additional *$1.5 billion in cost savings and efficiencies over the next three years.

Bank modernization is an ongoing process that requires a substantial investment. However, it paves the foundation for harnessing advanced technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance efficiency and drive long-term profitability. For banks that have yet to form a cloud strategy, now is a good time to evaluate and start with feasible steps within the company’s resources and goals. 

Trend 2: AI-Driven Personalized Banking Solutions 

Cloud-based data centers offer numerous advantages, and one notable benefit is the greater potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The nature of cloud infrastructure provides banks with the computational power required to handle and analyze vast amounts of customer data in real-time. This enables banks to derive valuable insights into customer behaviors and preferences, allowing them to customize products and services to deliver a highly human-centered experience. 

Bank of America (BoA) is an early adopter of Artificial Intelligence as part of its product strategy. Beginning in 2019, Erica, BoA’s AI-driven virtual assistant, has handled customer queries, provided personalized recommendations, and guided customers through various banking processes. The integration of chatbots and virtual assistants has significantly reduced wait times, improved overall satisfaction, and transformed how customers engage with banks.

By leveraging data-driven insights, BoA can provide a tailored product offering and loyalty program. Through analysis of each customer’s purchasing patterns, financial needs, and savings goals, BoA offers a personalized loyalty program that allows clients to conveniently track, manage, and redeem multiple rewards programs in a single place. 

BoA’s AI-driven approach has yielded an impressive customer retention rate of nearly *99%.

In addition to Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase expects to benefit from its AI-driven strategy. The bank has made substantial investments in data analytics and AI technologies, with the expectation of generating *$1.5 billion in business impact by the end of 2023. By leveraging these technologies, JPMorgan Chase aims to enhance customer personalization and gain valuable insights into individuals’ banking preferences, saving goals, and financial aspirations.

Trend 3: Online Banking VS. In-Branch Engagement

After the pandemic, 97% of customers now conduct most of their banking activities on mobile devices, highlighting the prominence of online banking and a seamless omni-channel experience. 

An omni-channel experience involves providing a consistent banking experience across multiple channels, which include mobile apps, websites, and physical branches. Customers today expect the ability to start a transaction on one platform and continue it on another without any disruption. They also expect to have access to their accounts and services anytime, anywhere, on their preferred platform. 

Customers today do most of their banking on their mobile devices, with only *3% of interactions happening face-to-face.

Despite the dominance of online banking, in-branch services remain pivotal for maintaining customer stickiness and strengthening relationships. Accenture’s survey reveals that customers prefer in-person meetings when opening new accounts or products. An in-person meeting remains the preferred option when opening new products— *27% of consumers said it was their first choice, ahead of mobile apps (22%) and websites (21%).

This finding demands banks re-evaluate where physical branches fit into the overall customer experience and reach a balance between hi-tech innovations and in-person interactions. By blending digital convenience with personal engagement, banks can offer the best of both worlds, providing customers with the flexibility of self-service while maintaining the human touch and expert guidance that branches offer.

Trend 4: Embrace partnerships with FinTechs

Moving forward, we’ll witness a significant shift in the dynamics between traditional banks and fintech players, shifting from competition to collaboration. Fintech companies, once perceived as threats, are now viewed as strategic collaborators, particularly as open banking regulations gain traction in the United States. 

Recent data indicates that leading banks have begun to recognize the value of partnering with fintech firms to drive growth and foster innovation. Through the secure sharing of customer data via open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs), the collaboration enables banks to leverage the expertise of fintech and technology partners to offer innovative products and services tailored to individual needs.

89% of banks believed partnerships with FinTechs as somewhat important.

According to a recent survey, *89% of banks consider partnerships with fintech to be somewhat important. Major players like American Express and JPMorgan Chase have already made significant moves in this direction through acquisitions. JPMorgan Chase has acquired multiple fintech startups, including Renovite, a payments startup. American Express also made a strategic purchase of Nipendo, an Israel-based company, to bolster its B2B payments network. *

By joining forces, banks can access innovative solutions, agile technologies, and disruptive business models offered by fintech companies. At the same time, fintech can leverage traditional banks’ established customer base and regulatory knowledge. This collaboration paves the way for traditional banks to enhance their capabilities and expand their market reach, creating a win-win situation that drives innovation, enhances customer experiences, and propels the industry forward in years to come.

Trend 5: Advanced Cybersecurity Measures

As the banking industry embraces digitization, the need for robust cybersecurity measures becomes increasingly important. Investing in advanced technologies like biometrics, encryption, and behavioral analytics becomes crucial to protect customer data and mitigate cyber threats. 

An EY / IIF survey finds that: 

*72% of global Chief Risk Officers (CROs) view cybersecurity as the top year-ahead risk, followed by credit and environment risks.

Major banks are actively investing in cybersecurity measures to stay ahead of evolving threats, including advanced biometric authentication to build trust, improve customer confidence, and protect against fraudulent activities. This year, J.P. Morgan will begin piloting biometrics-based payments with select retailers in the U.S., bringing speed and efficiency benefits to U.S. merchants and their customers*. According to Goode Intelligence, global biometric payments are expected to reach $5.8T and 3B users by 2026.*

Major cloud service providers are also playing a crucial role in enhancing cybersecurity, which provides access to advanced security controls. Incorporating a multi-cloud approach can also further enhance security and avoid the risk of a single point of failure. Integrating artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies also holds immense potential to revolutionize the field of cybersecurity. By leveraging AI and ML, banks can significantly improve the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of threat detection and response. 

As the banking industry continues to evolve, banks face enormous opportunities to drive innovation and deliver customer-centric experiences that will position themselves for success in 2024 and beyond. BORN XDS, with its rich expertise in the banking sector, is well-equipped to help banks navigate challenges and implement innovative solutions. Visit our website to learn more about our offerings and how we can assist your business in delivering exceptional customer experiences. Stay ahead of the competition and revolutionize your financial offerings today.

We Can Help and we’d love to show you how!

*Reference Index
1. https://newsroom.accenture.com/news/accenture-research-finds-four-in-five-banks-planning-to-or-already-migrating-mainframes-to-the-cloud-are-doing-so-quickly.htm
2.  https://www.thestack.technology/jpmorgan-cloud-migration-jamie-dimon/
3. https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/press-releases/consumer-banking/bank-americas-unique-approach-loyalty-rewards-translates-record
4. https://newsroom.bankofamerica.com/press-releases/consumer-banking/bank-americas-unique-approach-loyalty-rewards-translates-record
5. https://www.thestack.technology/jpmorgan-cloud-migration-jamie-dimon/
6. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/banking/consumer-study-banking-reignite-human-connections
7. https://www.accenture.com/us-en/insights/banking/top-10-trends-banking?c=acn_glb_eminence-retailleader_13349052&n=smc_1222#accordion-60340377fc-item-d343cbcb29
8. https://www.pymnts.com/news/banking/2023/us-open-banking-regulations-will-force-more-bank-fintech-collaboration/
9. https://www.jpmorgan.com/news/jp-morgan-to-acquire-renovite-technologies
10. https://nilsonreport.com/mention/1761/american-express/#:~:text=Commercial%20payments%20account%20for%2045,mostly%20driven%20by%20small%20businesses.
11. https://www.ey.com/en_gl/news/2023/01/cybersecurity-is-number-one-risk-for-global-banks-but-geopolitical-risk-tops-european-banks-concerns
12. https://www.jpmorgan.com/solutions/treasury-payments/insights/biometrics-checkout-us-pilot
13. https://www.jpmorgan.com/solutions/treasury-payments/insights/biometrics-checkout-us-pilot

Introducing BORN XDS | Customer Data Platform Services

Posted on by Spencer Frum
BORN Views
Introducing BORN XDS | Customer Data Platform Services

In the rapidly evolving landscape of ecommerce, leveraging first-party data has become paramount in delivering exceptional customer experiences. BORN XDS, as the leading ecommerce agency, is proud to announce our new capacity and service designed to help brands succeed by harnessing the power of customer data platforms (CDPs).

With BORN’s award-winning global expertise and experience in UI/UX and digital experiences, our team of industry leaders knows how to unlock the full potential of real-time, unified data activation and omnichannel customer journeys for leading ecommerce sites.   

At BORN XDS, we understand the negative impact that isolated and “siloed” data can have on the growth and success of a brand’s ecommerce experience. By utilizing a robust CDP to break down these silos, businesses gain a competitive edge via better-targeted marketing spending, increased consumer engagement, and elevated customer lifetime value (LTV). BORN’s technology experts are here to guide you in evaluating, implementing, and actively managing the right CDP that aligns with your unique business needs.

How Can CDP Functions Benefit Your Business?  

Unified Customer Profile: BORN XDS seamlessly consolidates all offline, online, and third-party data sources into a single view. This holistic approach provides an in-depth understanding of your customer’s interactions with your brand, regardless of where those interactions take place – website, in-store, app, email, customer service, or elsewhere. By having a clear picture of your audience, you can tailor your strategies to meet their diverse and evolving needs more effectively.

Personalized Customer Journeys: Our CDP services enable you to create coordinated omnichannel experiences for your customers with unparalleled precision. Each touchpoint becomes an opportunity to deliver the right message, through the right channel, at the right time. Meeting customers where they are is paramount in delivering a tailored customer experience. With personalized customer journeys, you’ll enhance customer satisfaction, foster loyalty, and drive conversions.

Marketing Optimization: Customer Data Platforms also optimize the ‘refinement loop’ for your marketing and promotional tactics via techniques like A/B testing and ‘‘next best action’ modeling. As an added layer of analysis, BORN XDS’s integrations leverage research databases to further enrich your CDP’s data to gain deeper customer insights. With data-driven optimization, you can maximize the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, enhance ROI, and make better informed strategic decisions.

Why Choose BORN XDS?

1. End-to-End Expertise: As an award-winning and globally recognized ecommerce agency, our team of leading professionals brings a wealth of knowledge and experience. With a proven track record of helping global brands succeed in the digital realm, we will provide expert guidance throughout your customer experience (CX) transformation journey – we will actualize your new CX vision, from planning to activation of CDP and beyond.

2. Tailored Solutions: We understand that every business is unique. With our platform-agnostic approach, BORN XDS takes the time to evaluate and understand your business objectives, challenges, and customer landscape. With this understanding, we tailor our CDP service solutions to align with your specific functional and technological requirements, ensuring optimal outcomes and tangible results.

3. Seamless Support: Our implementation process ensures a hassle-free transition to a CDP infrastructure. We provide comprehensive service at every stage, from initial evaluation, and full activation to management. BORN XDS maintains the highest status level of partnership or certification with many of our platform partners, ensuring we always have direct contact for support. With BORN XDS by your side, you can focus on your core business while we handle the technical complexities.

BORN XDS is committed to helping you transform your brand’s customer experience through the power of unified data and omnichannel journey orchestration. Schedule a meeting with our data scientist, Spencer Frum, to discover the boundless opportunities and improvements that await your customer experience.

Schedule a meeting with our Data Scientist, Spencer Frum, who is excited to show the possibilities of truly unified data and omnichannel journey orchestration.

Schedule a meeting here

Top Five CX Trends in Hospitality for 2023

Posted on by Aaron Bell
BORN Views