Impulse-Buying: How technology is making it easier than ever to spend money

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As household debt rises, so too are online innovations that aim to turn your wants and needs into stuff with minimal interruption. So how can we bring mindfulness back to buyer psychology?

This year, Slide 101 of Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends Report has a simple message: “Making Ends Meet = Difficult.” The bad news continues on the next slide, which states that household debt is at its highest level ever, and it’s rising. People are saving less (3 percent of personal income versus 12 percent 50 years ago) and the debt-to-income ratio is going up (to 22 percent from 15 percent over the same time frame). Many culprits are responsible for this shift, and we can thank technology for making it easier than ever to spend money. Innovations like one-click checkout, browser credit-card storage, and Amazon Dash buttons are swiftly eliminating the roadblocks that stand in the way of people purchasing things. And while these innovations are certainly creating a future when one’s wants and needs can turn into stuff without interruption, it’s also altering how people think about spending and saving (or rather, failing to save) money.

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Tesla’s new solar roof will cost less and keep your house off the Grid all day

We all know that nature is a powerful force. I was reminded just how powerful after last week’s wind storm, when the next day I found shingles from my roof littered on the lawn. I’ve been driving around the last week, and observing all the damage that storm caused, getting quotes from roofers, dealing with insurance, and realizing that I was not alone. One contractor said that they received 300 hundred calls in one day. All that damage caused by one storm. My roof looks like it needs to be replaced, and by the look of the other roofs in my neighborhood, I am not alone. Which of course left me day-dreaming about upgrading to include the new Solar Panels being produced by Tesla and Panasonic in Buffalo.

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Legendary concept artist Syd Mead talks about the problem with wearable technology

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Syd Mead was illustrating “wearable” technology before it even had a name.

If anyone can call himself a “visual futurist” with a straight face, it’s Syd Mead is the legendary concept artist behind Blade RunnerTron, and Aliens. If anyone can call himself a “visual futurist” with a straight face, it’s Mead. No one better qualified to critique the present and future of wearable technologies.

 

 

 

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Sharp develops Free-Form Display that could change consumer electronics forever

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Sharp’s Free-Form Display

Sharp has announced plans to produce a new type of screen dubbed ‘Free-Form Display’ that could radically change the shape of our future electronics. In recent years there has been a number of products with novel form factors, like the curved Samsung Gear Fit and the upcoming circular Moto 360 smartwatch. Sharp’s new display tech could potentially facilitate far more unique designs than presently possible.

 

 

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What the consumer will look like in 2030

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The future consumer is a self-sustaining prosumer, a savvy maker/consumer empowered by their network and data.

Futurists help us envision what the far future will look like. Futurist Jeremy Rifkin’s recent book, The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet Of Things, The Collaborative Commons, And The Eclipse of Capitalism, is a robust 300-page work that crystallizes his thinking about the maturation of the sharing economy and the emergence of new Internets to manage energy and the transports-logistics infrastructure.

 

 

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25 egg-inspired innovations

KasaUovo houses are environmentally friendly straight from the nest.
Eggs are a well-known symbol of the candy-filled holiday, Easter.  .From fashionable meaty breakfast scarves to egg-shaped eco chargers, these features will give you more than just the Easter egg to look forward to at Easter.  Here are 25 egtastic innovations. (Photos)

 

 

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How research misses the human behind the demographic

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Volkswagen recognized that our purpose as people is to lead better lives, not to consume their products.

The word “consumer” is an unavoidable term in marketing.  But the label is counterproductive and misguided.  The word is counterproductive and misguided and puts corporate interests over customer concerns.  It presupposes a response you haven’t earned yet. Their purpose is not to consume your product.

 

 

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TV remains the greatest influence on purchase decisions

TV remains top tops for influencing purchase decisions.

Most consumer commerce transactions still take place offline, in physical stores, yet ecommerce makes deeper inroads every year. Similarly, the majority of online purchases still occur on the desktop, but smartphone and tablet commerce are assuming greater prominence.

 

 

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Chinese e-commerce company had $3 billion in sales in just one day

Three billion dollars is almost triple the entire 2011 Black Friday sales of e-commerce sites in the United States.

The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba shocked the web last week with the news that its subsidiaries Taobao (like a Chinese eBay) and T-mall (like Amazon) sold a massive $3.06 billion in product in a single 24-hour period.

 

 

 

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The rising consumer markets in Africa

Young, urban African consumer generation on the rise.

There is tremendous potential in Africa and most investors and businesses know this by now.  Africa is the world’s second fastest growing region, second to Asia.  And it may come as a surprise to most that Africa’s single-largest business opportunity is the rising consumer market.

 

 

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