According to Research, The Majority of Buyers Are Unwilling to Spend on Exchanges

With the number of returns increasing year by year, most consumers are refusing to pay for returns. A study found that around 75% of respondents do not feel that they should have to pay for returns.

Purchases are still being pushed by discounts this year, with seventy percent of shoppers demanding a thirty percent discount to complete a transaction. Despite this, 88% of consumers did not give purchases with deep discounts a try because they weren’t sure if they could use the item or not.

An overwhelming majority of consumers are keen on paying the total cost for a product or service if they want it, according to a study. But, almost three-quarters are unwilling to do so if there is a chance of getting a better price somewhere else.

When it comes to returns, consumers are pretty clear on their preferences: Only 7% of consumers are willing to pay a fee for returns. The rest will avoid retailers that charge for returns, which is why Fortune 500 companies should consider helping their customers get their money back.

The hospitality industry is transforming, with more consumers declining to pay for returns. Baby Boomers — mostly women and older — 84 percent, compared to 71 percent of Generation Z and 69 percent of youngsters, are the group most likely to experience this way.

Consumers are not lukewarm about returns. Even in 2016, 92 percent of buyers making two hundred thousand dollars will withdraw buyers away from known companies who charge for refunds, comparable to 70 percent of individuals making less than fifty thousand dollars.

Not only do consumers lack the confidence to make returns, but the majority expect their purchases to take longer than anticipated, like one or two months.

Many consumers refuse to pay the full price. While the majority of shoppers are happy to pay what they agreed on initially, we found there's still plenty of room for negotiation in certain categories -- including kitchen gadgets and entertainment electronics.

Only 12% of consumers are willing to pay for returns, according to a study. But that number jumps to 34% for millennials – those between the ages of 18 and 34 – and 27% for Gen Xers and Boomers, the two oldest generations.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Consumers perspective on brands boycotting Twitter for advertising

Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion. There were a lot of new changes done by the new Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk including laying off almost half of the workforce as well as charging $8 per month to get a verified account containing a blue tick specifically.

Since, advertisers were upset by the decisions of the new CEO Elon Musk as a result they stopped advertising on Twitter which half of the American population think was the right thing to do.

A survey was observed on Tuesday by PollFish containing the perspective of at least 500 adults in order to have an idea about what is the public opinion on the companies that stopped advertising on Twitter.

Surprisingly, (nearly) 50% do agree with the decisions of the brands boycotting Twitter advertising, meanwhile, 27% of the people think brands are making a huge mistake by stopping advertising on Twitter, further, 24% of the people are not quite sure about the decisions brands have made so far.

Musk has given conflicting signals about how he intends to resolve advertisers' concerns after meetings with them, a live public Twitter Q&A to address their issues, and a rumored meeting and deal with anonymous groups pressuring major companies to halt their platform ads purchases.

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Initial reports claimed that Musk had allayed concerns by agreeing to establish a "moderation council" to help regulate what content is allowed on the platform. However, Musk is said to have changed his mind, leaving the matter of content moderation as well as brand safety worries in limbo.

Long-time marketing executive Lou Paskalis remarked in one of a string of sharp tweets condemning Musk that the action also went against what Musk had promised to a group of advertisers at his meeting which took place in Twitter Influence Council on November 4.

The actions and decisions of Elon musk seem to be uncertain at this point, time will tell how effective these decisions were.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Too Many Reviews Might Overwhelm Online Shoppers, New Study Finds

Consumers have been met with a huge influx of online ecommerce stores, and that has provided both benefits as well as disadvantages with all things having been considered and taken into account. Ecommerce can be quite convenient because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up allowing people to buy items from home, but the overwhelming number of products may make it challenging for a consumer to decide between them.

Researchers at Penn State found that featured reviews can help inform customers and allow them to make better choices than might have been the case otherwise. In spite of the fact that this is the case, the study has also found that there is a limit to how many reviews might be useful. Instead of increasing the quantity of featured reviews, platforms need to prioritize showing relevant reviews that have provided a rating that is similar to the overall rating of the product in question.

With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that no more than three featured reviews are required to boost sales for a given product. This would be enough to give the prospective buyer a variety of relevant information, and anything beyond that would do little more than to muddy the waters.

Customers can also endorse other reviews which can make them all the more effective. There is only a limited amount of information and opinion that can be given for a product, so while a million reviews in general may be useful, only three to five of them need to be featured at the topmost region of the product page.

This suggests that an approach the prioritizes quality over quantity will always win out in the end. Consumers can find a lot of value in a detailed featured review that gives an objective representation of the quality of the product. This also means that total number of reviews is less important, since a product doesn’t need that many featured reviews to see an increase in its sales.

Illustration: Filo / Getty Images / iStock

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Watching YouTube Videos Can Decrease Mental Health Prejudice by 8 Percent

Mental health problems are highly prevalent these days, but there is an unfortunate number of people that might feel prejudice towards those who are suffering from them. However, human beings have an extraordinary capacity for kindness, and something as simple as watching some YouTube videos may be enough to help remove some of this prejudice than might have been the case otherwise.

A study conducted at the University of Essex showed that just 17 minutes of watching YouTube videos made people 8% less prejudiced than might have been the case otherwise. With all of that having been said and now out of the way, it is important to note that the videos that were shown to subjects explicitly focused on mental health and the struggles that people go through because of them.

Another metric that was measured was intergroup anxiety, and this fell even more dramatically by 11% with all things having been considered and taken into account. This is a good example of parasocial relationships that form between viewers and the people they watch in videos. These relationships can be good for content creators because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up making viewers feel more connected to them, but reducing prejudice is also another area where it can prove useful.

10% of the people who took part in this survey actually went out and tried to help in various initiatives meant to tackle mental illnesses. Additionally, the results of the survey were made more robust when a subsequent survey conducted a week later confirmed that people still felt the same way.

YouTube has been a huge driving force in helping people to relate to one another. It allows users to submit unfiltered content onto the platform as long as it does not break any rules, and watching these videos can humanize those that many might fail to understand. While YouTube is by no means the only solution to the world’s problems, it goes to show that solving these issues might be easier than anyone would have expected.

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by Zia Muhammad via Digital Information World

Cyber Monday Will Be The Biggest Online Spend Of The Year With Revenue Over $34 Billion

According to Adobe Analytics, Thanksgiving Day to Cyber Monday will see the biggest online spending up to $34.8 billion. It will be 2.8% of YoY by 2022, and about 16.3% of this will be spent from the Holiday season (November to December). It is really impressive because people weren't quite fond of mobile shopping a few years ago. The lead analyst at Adobe Analytics, Vivek Pandya, says that from now on Thanksgiving raises online spending from online shopping because people are getting comfortable with online shopping. The usage of smartphones is also increasing, so online shopping was inevitable.

Mobile shopping made a record on Thanksgiving after 2012. This year 55% of sales were online through mobile phones, which is about 8.3% YoY. Cyber Monday, also known as Cyber Week, will become the biggest shopping day of this year with $11.2 billion. This is up to 5.5% YoY. Right after it will be Black Friday, the second biggest shopping day of the year. It will be 1% YoY which will bring $9 billion.

Adobe Analytics also analyzed the online traffic to different retail websites in the US. According to that analysis, more than one trillion visits were recorded to US retail sites, with 100 million SKUs, with 18 categories of different retail products. Consumers also weren't behind anything because this Thanksgiving, $5.29 billion with 2.9% YoY was spent on online shopping by consumers. This data was only for the people in the US.

However, in the Holiday season, consumers spent $77.7 billion in almost the whole month of November. It is expected that Black Friday will bring more than $9 billion to this amount, and it will be just 1% of YoY. There are many big discounts on Black Friday and they will be the ones to draw many consumers toward them. Toys have a 34% discount, while electronics and computers have a $27% and 18% discount on average respectively. Apparel and Appliances will see a 14% discount this Black Friday on average, and televisions are 13% discounted.

The categories which are performing well this holiday season are strollers. They are 113% discounted as compared to the discount in 2021. Outdoor grills are showing a 131% discount, while cameras are up to 111% discount, as compared to 2021. Consumers are also doing buy now, pay later offers to manage their budgets. The BNPL revenue was 1.3% online while orders were 0.7% on Thanksgiving Day. Curbside pickup was used in 13% of all online orders. It is less than 2021, 21% to be exact. Curbside pickup will increase around Christmas Day and will be 35% of all online orders.

Read next: The Rise Of Black Friday Sales Have Gone Down Dramatically Due To COVID-19, Says New Study
by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

Ecommerce Applications Are Not As Safe As You Think, Researchers Have Alerted Frenzy Black Friday Sales

Shoppers Beware! Retail apps may track your place, messages, and references without any clear warning. Black Friday is one of the busiest shopping weeks of the year, with some retailers loading up apps with extra holiday-themed deals. But while these sales may be tempting, they come with a price: Your data may not be as protected as you think. The investigators looked at 640 famous shopping apps and found 160 of them had privacy issues.

Researchers advise that, contrary to popular belief, clicking the "grant all access" option provides such privileges just to the application they've installed, ecommerce applications is beyond safe. Although you may not notice these permissions being used, they can be exploited by hackers in a variety of ways. One survey showed that 66% of the shopping application examined stored information on the device in plaintext, meaning that user data is at risk of being stolen through social engineering techniques or physical theft.

The apps that have incorporated libraries have swelled the ranks of the 6,000 most popular Android apps on Google Play Store. Not only have they been able to provide their services for free, but some are also making money from displaying ads, which Android apps may not be able to do without enabling ads in their host app.

Developers are increasingly using shopping apps to target ads, some of which install ad libraries without the consumer’s knowledge.

Contrary to popular belief, shopping apps can be dangerous. Researchers warn that malicious code could lurk in your favorite stores and apps that you wouldn’t even think of as specifically designed to spy on you.

In 2016, a Trojan infected some of the popular apps in Google Play Food & Drink category and offered ad revenue. The Trojan, dubbed “Android Spy.305” by researchers and Doctor Web, was found to be tied to an advertising library that helps developers monetize their apps.

Although shopping apps are all the rage this week, researchers warn that they’re anything but harmless. In a new analysis of more than 1,100 apps, researchers found that paid and free apps alike used ad libraries in a way that posed serious privacy threats.

Shopping apps have come under fire since it was discovered that a couple of them were tracking and storing user data, but researchers warn that it may be just the tip of the iceberg.

A new study by personal finance app Pocket Analysis reveals that shopping apps can be dangerous pieces of malware. Three out of every five studied apps have accessibility to your database, the research shows. This indicates that in addition to keeping data on your smartphone, apps also can snap images, recordings, and record videos in another 22.3 percent of all claims.

Smartphones and shopping apps are a marriage made in hell. Researchers started to look into this matter, concerned about what it means that the average usage time of shopping apps is 29 minutes per session, while on your smartphone they have access to tons of personal information. How easy is it to not think twice when agreeing to provide a shopping app with extensive access to both your location and contacts?

Despite the purported benefits of shopping apps, researchers say that for many users, the rewards don't outweigh the risks. App permissions are one of the most powerful ways in which apps can communicate with each other and with the device operating system, so it's important to understand what they are, where you can find them, and how to revoke them. Allowing applications access to your account information also enables them to find (16.7 percent), add or delete (4.4 percent), and also utilize (9.4 percent) your user information.

Although analysts alert us that these applications are essential for purchasing, we are unsure about the need to read our messages and voice recordings.

App permissions are immensely helpful to user experience, but they come with some caveats. The likelihood that an app would seek additional permits increased with its popularity; the highest buying applications in the US requested nearly 22 percent more permits above the industry standard.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World

A Voice Note Feature Will Be Available on WhatsApp Status For Android As Well As IOS Users

WhatsApp is going to introduce voice notes on the status of WhatsApp beta for iOS. This feature is still not even available for beta users of WhatsApp for Android. However, in the new version of WhatsApp for iOS, users will be able to share a voice instead of regular WhatsApp status. iOS users will be able to share a voice note up to 30 seconds long on their status right next to the text section, as the one in the chat.

This feature was well anticipated among the users as many of them had been asking for it for a while now. In another previous update shared by WhatsApp, it was announced that every WhatsApp user will be able to create polls. That feature is now available to everyone so if you do not have it, try to update your app.

Just like any other status updates, your voice notes will also be shared with the people you choose. You can go through the privacy settings of your status to choose which people you want to share your voice note status with. As this feature is still under development, no one can see how the status will look on WhatsApp but what we know is that it will be similar to the ordinary status on the app. Android will also have the same feature soon and it will be just like iOS.

There is a chance that this feature will look different compared to the screenshots when the feature will be available to the beta users. The development of this feature is still happening and we will keep you up-to-date with any new information about this feature. You shouldn't be just excited about this feature, because WhatsApp is constantly rolling out new features which will keep users engaged with the app. There is a chance that soon WhatsApp will no longer be a messenger app, but an app used for entertainment too. Now we will what measures meta will take to roll all the new things users want in the app.

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by Arooj Ahmed via Digital Information World