In the global smartphone market, two tech giants, Apple and Samsung Electronics Co., have been locked in a long-standing battle for supremacy. Their flagship devices, the iPhone and Samsung Galaxy series, have become synonymous with innovation and style. But in a significant turn of events and for the first time since 2010, Apple has outperformed its longtime rival, Samsung Co., in global smartphone sales.

The iPhone dethroned the Samsung Galaxy to become the best-selling smartphone series globally, marking a notable shift in the industry’s competitive landscape. According to preliminary data from the International Data Corporation’s (IDC) Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, the iPhone accounted for a substantial fifth of the global smartphone market, with nearly 235 million shipments in the past year. 

“The last time a company not named Samsung was at the top of the smartphone market was in 2010, and for 2023, it is now Apple. A shifting of power at the top of the largest consumer electronics market was driven by Apple’s all-time high market share and a first time at the top,” IDC’s report reads. In other words, the unprecedented market share demonstrates Apple’s ability to capture a significant portion of consumer demand. It solidifies its position as a frontrunner in the highly competitive smartphone industry.

Apple’s dominance during the holiday quarter has been a recurring theme in recent years. However, its unprecedented lead over Samsung throughout the year indicates that Apple is navigating the challenges of an industrywide slump more effectively than its competitors.

Apple vs Samsung: a decade-defying achievement

While Samsung remains a formidable player in the smartphone market, its shipments experienced a double-digit slump, totaling 226.6 million. “The overall shift in ranking at the top of the market further highlights the intensity of competition within the smartphone market,” said Ryan Reith, group VP with IDC’s Worldwide Mobility and Consumer Device Trackers. 

Reith believes Apple played a part in Samsung’s drop in rank, but that the overall Android space is diversifying. “Huawei is back and making inroads quickly within China. Brands like OnePlus, Honor, Google, and others are launching very competitive devices in the lower price range of the high-end foldable, and increased discussions around AI capabilities on the smartphone are gaining traction. Overall, the smartphone space is headed towards an exciting time,” he added.

Apple’s surpassing Samsung in global smartphone sales signifies a crucial moment in industry rivalry. It highlights the enduring popularity of the iPhone series and Apple’s ability to connect with a diverse global audience. Consumers can expect more innovations and intense competition between these tech giants as the smartphone landscape evolves.

Global smartphone sales

Overall, IDC said the global smartphone market remains challenged, but momentum is moving quickly toward recovery. According to initial findings, 2023 witnessed a 3.2% decline in global smartphone shipments, reaching 1.17 billion units. It is also the lowest full-year volume in a decade, primarily driven by macroeconomic challenges and elevated inventory early in the year,

The latter half of the year brought a surge, solidifying expectations for a robust recovery in 2024. IDC noted that the fourth quarter saw 8.5% year-over-year growth and 326.1 million shipments, higher than the forecast of 7.3% growth. “While we saw some strong growth from low-end Android players like Transsion and Xiaomi in the second half of 2023, stemming from rapid growth in emerging markets, the biggest winner is clearly Apple,” said Nabila Popal, research director with IDC’s Worldwide Tracker team. 

“Not only is Apple the only player in the Top 3 to show positive growth annually, but it also bags the number 1 spot annually for the first time. All this despite facing increased regulatory challenges and renewed competition from Huawei in China, its largest market. Apple’s ongoing success and resilience is largely due to the increasing trend of premium devices, which now represent over 20% of the market, fueled by aggressive trade-in offers and interest-free financing plans.”

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As a dominant e-commerce player in Southeast Asia, Singapore has seen a significant transformation over recent years. This evolution has been fueled by the widespread use of mobile devices and the growing accessibility of broadband connections, which have led to an online shopping surge.

The journey of the consumer now increasingly intertwines the online and offline, each providing unique benefits. This illustrates that retail isn’t divided into separate online and offline sectors; instead, it is a unified industry swiftly shifting towards digitalization.

According to a ‘Singapore Retail Trends’ report commissioned by Amazon, on average, Singapore consumers explore more than five (5.4) online retailers before settling on a purchase. Interestingly, it’s found that over two-thirds (68.3%) of shoppers in Singapore utilize both online and brick-and-mortar stores to seek the best value deals.

The report, crafted by the esteemed data analytics firm GlobalData, draws attention to the diminishing distinction between physical retail and e-commerce in Singapore. This phenomenon, termed ‘omnichannel retail,’ was responsible for more than half (57.6%) of retail expenditure in 2022, projected to surge by 21.2% in the coming four years.

The balance between online and physical shopping

Despite having physical stores nearby, Singaporean consumers often prefer online platforms for detailed product information and review exploration. This is seen as a fun activity that can also inspire novel purchases.

• 2% of online shoppers in Singapore attribute their shopping habits to price checking or comparing, emphasizing their sensitivity to price and access to diverse shopping channels.
• More than half (57.3%) rely on online reviews and comparison websites before finalizing a purchase. This highlights the need for businesses to provide a smooth shopping experience coupled with high-quality product data to win consumer trust.
• About a third (29.3%) of online shoppers mention browsing for fun as a reason behind their “e-window shopping,” a trend more prevalent in Singapore than any other Southeast Asian country, indicating potential for spontaneous purchases.
• The perceived advantages of online and in-store shopping led to nearly half (48.2%) of shoppers visiting stores for inspiration before buying online. In comparison, another half (48.8%) did the opposite— browsing online before heading to a physical store.

A blend of online browsing, in-store inspiration, and seeking advice from physical stores significantly contributes to the omnichannel expenditure.

Leo Laforgia, the Country Manager for Amazon Singapore, believes these findings mirror the evolving consumer preferences and their access to a broader choice spectrum. Such shifts in shopping patterns open new avenues for businesses to connect with and engage customers at multiple interaction points, underscoring the role of local and cross-border e-commerce in an omnichannel strategy.

“This year particularly, inflation is a key concern for retailers and consumers alike, so price and convenience remain top-of-mind. By investing in sustainable omnichannel strategies, prioritizing customer preferences, protecting their brand, as well as thinking long-term for international growth, businesses can offer unique and holistic value to their customers and succeed,” Laforgia adds.

The emergence of blended shopping experiences, where retailers provide captivating in-store and online experiences, is on the rise to attract and convert shoppers.

How the retail sector facilitates shopping in Singapore

For instance, ION Orchard, a shopping mall, frequently hosts art events and exhibitions, and houses ION Sky, which presents a 360-degree view of Singapore’s skyline along with an immersive multimedia experience. Meanwhile, VicoCity shopping mall boasts an amphitheater, and Paragon Shopping Centre regularly hosts live music events to engage visitors.

In the online sphere, Watsons has built eStores to increase product accessibility. Their in-app feature ‘ColourMe’ allows online shoppers to test different makeup brands and shades through a virtual interface before purchasing. Similarly, Sephora’s Virtual Artist offers the same capability.

The retail sector in Singapore rebounded swiftly post-pandemic and is projected to continue its growth trajectory until 2026. Major international events like the F1 Grand Prix and air travel and tourism improvements will further bolster the retail sector. However, rising inflation is a significant concern for Singaporean consumers – more than nine in ten (93%) express concern or serious concern about the escalating cost of living.

“Consumers in Singapore are most concerned about inflation compared to other shoppers in Southeast Asia – here’s where having access to multiple shopping channels matters. The majority of Singapore consumers are already looking across multiple retailers online and in-store to find the best value for money,” notes Neil Saunders, Managing Director of GlobalData’s retail division.

Saunders further states, “The majority of Singapore consumers are already looking across multiple retailers online and in-store to find the best value for money. As such, the lines between online and offline are becoming increasingly blurred – which is fueling a consumer appetite for omnichannel experiences, whether it’s researching online before buying in-store, click-and-collect or returning online purchases to physical stores.”

Saunders predicts that this behavior will likely surge as consumers become more prudent with their discretionary spending in the face of economic challenges.

Cross-border commerce also a trend

As e-commerce shopping habits have expanded, so too has cross-border commerce. Southeast Asian consumers, including those in Singapore, often buy from neighboring countries and even further afield. Geographically, Singapore, connected to Malaysia via two land crossings (the Johor-Singapore Causeway and the Malaysia-Singapore Second Link), is ideally positioned for cross-border commerce.

Cross-border commerce offers Singaporean consumers access to a broader range of products, often at lower prices due to favorable exchange rates. While Singaporeans travel to neighboring countries for in-store cross-border shopping, online cross-border commerce has experienced a remarkable increase in recent years.

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In late February, it was revealed that Samsung’s collaboration with Naver Financial would promote its mobile payment system, making digital payments more convenient for users. Currently, Naver Pay is Korea’s second-largest mobile payment provider, meaning the deal ensures a much stronger presence for Samsung in the face of incoming competition.

Apple Pay was launched in the US in 2014, allowing Apple device users to make payments in person and online without physical cards. It soon became the second-most popular digital payment system worldwide, totalling $6 trillion worth of transactions in 2021, behind Visa with $10 trillion. Meanwhile, Samsung Pay only reached $200 billion in the same year.

Despite its global shortcomings, Samsung Pay was the most-used financial services app in Korea, with 16 million users as of November, 2022. The service is based on magnetic secure transmission (MST) technology. Apple Pay uses a different method, short-range wireless protocol near-field communication (NFC), which there hasn’t been the infrastructure to suport in Korea. This is all set to change, as the company recently got approval from the Financial Services Commission to bring Apple Pay to Korea.

In preparation for Apple Pay’s launch, Samsung’s statement on Monday said the partnership with Naver Financial seeks business synergy between the two popular payment services. The deal is considered beneficial for both companies: Naver Pay, the top player in online payments in Korea can use Samsung’s offline 5G networks, while Samsung Pay’s offline payments will work at around 550,000 online stores on Naver.

Counterpoint Research data showed that 83% of the Korean market was taken up by Samsung smartphones, while Apple only counted for 13%. Following the iPhone 14 launch, Apple did replace Samsung as the top global player in the fourth quarter of 2022, but the margin was small: 23% for Apple, with Samsung close behind on 19%.

Samsung Pay will benefit from Naver Pay’s existing 35 million members, but the future still seems uncertain. University student community operator Vinu Labs Inc. found in a survey that of 2,000 students, 89% felt the Apple brand was “trendy,” with other responses calling it “refined” and “luxurious”. Gen Z Galaxy users have said they’ll swap smartphones to iPhone with the incentive of Apple Pay.

Samsung partnership to fend off Apple

Local industry will be keen to see how Samsung fares after the launch of Apple Pay. The market share of Samsung is expected to drop, despite its attempts to prevent Apple Pay’s expansion. According to an industry official, to begin with, Apple Pay will be “limited in terms of convenience” as it won’t support services such as transportation payments.

Ultimately, forecasts by Counterpoint suggest that Apple Pay is unlikely to significantly change the Korean smartphone market. Its launch will rouse interest, but it’s unlikely that many people will change devices because of the service. Perhaps Galaxy users stand to benefit from Apple’s expansion into Korea, as Samsung ups its game to stay ahead.

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The retail industry is constantly evolving, and technology plays a vital role in shaping its future. NVIDIA has been focused on helping retailers and solution providers in the retail industry create AI solutions in four areas: intelligence stores, intelligent fast food, supply chain, and omnichannel and ecommerce.

Intelligence stores leverage AI technology to drive operational efficiencies, including preventing theft and facilitating autonomous shopping. Intelligent fast food uses AI to address labor shortages through automated order-taking with branded avatars and computer vision technology to assist in the kitchen. AI is also helping retailers improve demand forecasting accuracy and reduce fuel costs in the supply chain. Lastly, NVIDIA is working on using AI to deliver a personalized shopping experience through omnichannel and ecommerce solutions.

How NVIDIA is using AI in retail

NVIDIA is also revolutionizing the retail industry by leveraging its expertise in AI to solve one of the retailers’ biggest challenges today: shrinkage.

Shrinkage, which is the loss of goods due to theft, damage, and misplacement, costs the global retail industry an estimated US$ 100 billion annually. NVIDIA has addressed this problem by introducing the NVIDIA Retail AI Workflows, a cloud-native microservices that allow developers to quickly build and roll out loss-prevention applications. These workflows come pretrained with images of the most-stolen products and software that can be plugged into existing store applications for point-of-sale machines and object and product tracking across entire stores.

The NVIDIA Retail AI Workflows enable retailers to reduce shrinkage by detecting and preventing theft and tracking and monitoring products across their stores. NVIDIA designs workflows to be easy to use, with no-code or low-code options that can integrate into existing store applications. This allows retailers to implement AI-powered loss-prevention solutions quickly and easily without needing extensive technical expertise.

Retail use cases in APAC

“We have worked with hundreds of software companies and startups that have already been developing these kinds of applications,” said Azita Martin, Vice President of Retail at NVIDIA. “And what we’re doing is making it easier for them and helping more startups and software companies develop these kinds of applications.”

In APAC, NVIDIA is seeing a significant uptake in solutions that allow customers to shop autonomously because of labor shortages, for example, in Japan. There is a big uptake in autonomous shopping, so customers can come in, use their loyalty application, grab items, and walk out with the purchase automatically charged to their account.

According to Martin, NVIDIA has observed product recognition technology, where customers can place items on a counter, and the cameras automatically detect the products and charge their accounts. As a result, NVIDIA has noted an increase in adopting these solutions in countries such as Australia, Japan, and other APAC regions.

NVIDIA and Dell Technologies’ largest AI collaboration

Apart from AI in retail, NVIDIA and Dell Technologies announced their largest joint AI initiative, launching a range of Dell PowerEdge systems equipped with NVIDIA acceleration, allowing companies to effectively implement AI in their operations.

“The broad range of new NVIDIA-accelerated Dell PowerEdge systems draws from an extensive full-stack AI, including NVIDIA GPUs and data processing units (DPUs) and the NVIDIA AI enterprise software suite – providing the foundation required for a wide range of AI applications, including speech recognition, cybersecurity systems, recommendation engines, and a growing number of groundbreaking language-based services,” said Justin Boitano, Vice President of Enterprise and Edge Computing, NVIDIA.

Systems with NVIDIA H100 GPUs have demonstrated the capability to process data 25 times more efficiently, enabling the deployment of various AI models into production. Additionally, NVIDIA-accelerated Dell PowerEdge servers are up to 300 times more energy efficient for running inference on large language models, specifically those exceeding 500 billion parameters, compared to older non-accelerated servers.

“As the amount of data in the world expands, the majority of information technology capacity is going to be in service of machine intelligence,” said Dell. “Building systems for AI first is a huge opportunity for Dell and NVIDIA to collaborate.”

A notable feature among Dell’s offerings is the Dell PowerEdge systems equipped with NVIDIA BlueField-2 DPUs. These units can optimize, accelerate, and separate the networking and operating system stacks in data centers, potentially reducing energy consumption by 25% and significantly saving energy costs. When paired with NVIDIA BlueField DPUs, these servers enhance efficiency and performance for private, hybrid, and multi-cloud deployments, including those utilizing VMware vSphere.

“AI has the power to transform every business by accelerating automation across every industry,” said Huang. “Working closely with Dell Technologies, we’re able to reach organizations around the globe with a powerful, energy-efficient AI computing platform that will boost the IQ of modern enterprise.”

NVIDIA allows companies to experience NVIDIA AI Enterprise in various free hands-on labs on NVIDIA LaunchPad and will introduce new AI workflow labs in the coming week.

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Once a celebration of online shopping excess as digital consumerism took off across the Asia Pacific region (and sparking numerous imitator events such as the monthly one-off sales days in Southeast Asia, similarly labelled 9.9, 10.10 and so on) and led by Alibaba’s effervescent founder Jack Ma, Singles Day has been more muted in recent years as Beijing cracks down on online platforms and state media publicity has dropped off.

Nonetheless, the combined gross value of products sold since late October “may surpass a trillion yuan” for the first time, Xiaofeng Wang, principal analyst at research firm Forrester, said earlier in a note. Sales revenues across platforms operated by tech giants such as Alibaba and JD.com hit around 262 billion yuan (US$36.7 billion) between Thursday evening and Friday afternoon, according to an estimate by research firm Syntun.

Nowadays dubbed the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival, this year’s Singles Day featured over 290,000 brands from over 90 countries and regions across 7,000 product categories. On Alibaba’s Tmall Global platform, over a thousand international brands more than doubled the gross merchandise volume (GMV) they moved  last year.

Social commerce livestreams were also a big winner, with over 300 million watching livestreaming sessions hosted on Taobao Live since the start of the presale period. Over the entire sales period, 62 influencer and merchant-run livestreaming channels surpassed 100 million yuan (US$14.1 million) in GMV, and 632 influencer and merchant-run livestreaming channels surpassed 10 million (US$1.4 million) in GMV. And on Singles Day itself, rural livestreamers on Taobao Live hosted in excess of 100,000 livestreaming sessions featuring local products.

Despite some record profitability and sustainability wins, Singles Day 2022 had some notable losses as well. Analysts said demand was more muted than in previous years, while consumers told AFP that a lack of spending power and an economy groaning under a hardline zero-Covid policy had dampened desire to spend.

Businesses and consumers alike have been laid low by China’s Covid prevention policies, which see officials wield snap lockdowns, mass testing and lengthy quarantines in response to a handful of cases. Beijing resident Li Xiaofeng told AFP that the “state of the whole economy” was likely putting platforms and merchants under more pressure, “so they are offering fewer discounts”.

China is the last major economy wedded to a zero-Covid strategy, with officials insisting they will stick “unswervingly” to the policy. But Beijing announced the relaxation of some of its harsher curbs on November 11, cutting quarantine for overseas arrivals and scrapping COVID-related flight bans.

Even event pioneer Alibaba has had to pull back in the face of a challenging macroeconomic climate and what appears to be lackluster support from the government. In April 2021, regulators fined Alibaba US$2.8 billion for anti-competitive practices, and Ma’s public presence has been noticeably diminished over the past two years.

Alibaba’s 2021 Singles Day sales hit 540.3 billion yuan (US$76.1 billion), but this year, the e-commerce bigwig has not released full sales figures for  the first time ever. “In terms of communications from the platform companies around the festival, there’s been a shift away from celebrating excessive consumption and emphasizing gross merchandise value (GMV),” said Jacob Cooke, the CEO of e-commerce consultancy WPIC Marketing + Technologies.

“The shift has been going on for a few years now, and that’s related to common prosperity, the anti-monopoly drive,” he added, referring to President Xi Jinping’s ongoing drive to curb the influence of big tech.

But nonetheless, there was still silver linings to this cloud — or rather, cloud computing itself was the silver lining. In its second year running wholly on the cloud, the 11.11 Global Shopping Festival saw improved high-performance computing efficiency, more efficient energy consumption and use of more innovative technology on these platforms to offer more immersive shopping experience.

Besides supporting extended reality using Alibaba’s 3D modelling proprietary technology and delivering nearly 2 million packages by Xiaomanlv vehicles, Alibaba’s last-mile logistics unit, Alibaba Cloud’s five hyper-scale data centers across China also doubled the amount of clean energy used to support this year’s 11.11 compared to last year.

With reporting © Agence France-Presse

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This flies in the face of conventional wisdom that shopping enthusiasts would prefer the physical browsing experience, including trying out items in-store first and being helped by sales assistants.

Instead, the 15th Annual Global Shopper Study released by Zebra Technologies highlighted that despite favoring a return to in-store shopping, retail buyers in the APAC have become accustomed to self-serve shopping as they increasingly adopt the use of ‘do it yourself’ (DIY) and mobile retail technology to browse, compare prices and items, as well as make payment for items in stores.

Despite the waning of the pandemic and its heightened ‘need’ for contactless options, the survey of over 4,000 retail decision-makers, associates, and purchasers globally found that 68% in APAC regions said inflation and economic uncertainty had caused them to pull back from making immediate purchase decisions – but that they were still returning to stores.

68% of consumers in APAC want to minimize time spent in physical locations, and self-serve innovations are helping shoppers maintain their newly formed habits. Among APAC respondents, nearly half (47%) said they are using self-checkout options, and a similar quantity (46%) are opting for cashless payment means.

Half of those surveyed in APAC prefer paying with a smartphone or other mobile device. A growing number (48%) have become used to self-checkout, mirroring a similar decline in use of traditional checkout methods, down to 55% globally and 51% in the APAC territories surveyed.

That is a monumental change in traditionally physical-friendly APAC, where even adoption of other physical channels like credit and debit cards was most noticeable in matured markets like Singapore and Australia only. Despite the historical popularity of cash, retailers surveyed indicated a noticeable upsurge in automated technology usage, while physical counters manned by staff continue to decline in popularity.

In fact, more than three-quarters (79%) of retailers in APAC viewed manned checkouts as less necessary these days. More than half surveyed had already converted existing retail space to self-serve areas (53%) and other contactless methods (52%) when the Zebra study was carried out between June and July 2022.

Complementing the shift to self-serve is the continued reliance on mobile devices during shopping trips. More shoppers in APAC are checking for sales, discounted prices, or coupons online than ever before (48%). But what might be considered a very eastern habit has caught on globally thanks to creeping economic uncertainty, with over half (51%) checking their smartphones for better deals worldwide.

Post-pandemic, about eight out of 10 shoppers expect retailers to have the latest technology, demanding a seamless shopping experience that prioritizes convenience when it comes to having their items delivered to them. 73% in APAC prefer the comfort of doorstep delivery, and 64% would go contactless for in-store or curbside pickups of their orders, with APAC in tandem with the rest of the world in this regard.

While nearly half (49%) of retailers are modifying store space to accommodate pickups in accordance with changing buyer preferences, mobile retail ordering is showing the biggest exponential growth amongst certain age groups.

Not only are eight out of 10 shoppers turning to mobile retail channels, but an overwhelming majority (9 out of ten) of millennials name online shopping via their smartphones as the preferred means of purchasing.

“With the convergence of retail channels today, retailers need to step up to meet renewed shopper expectations and ensure a seamless experience across their offline and online platforms,” commented George Pepes, the APAC Vertical Solutions Lead for Retail and Healthcare, Zebra Technologies. “Furthermore, as the retail sector heads into the future of fulfilment, it is more important than ever for retailers to empower associates with the right technology to better perform their tasks.”

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Flipverse is a virtual reality e-commerce platform allowing customers to shop for products and experiences in a 3D environment. The interactive virtual shopping destination was reportedly developed in partnership with social giant Meta and Ethereum Layer-2 scaling startup Polygon, and is slated to be launched in India in time for Diwali, when major retail sales activity can take place.

This is a big move for Flipkart, which has been working on the project for over two years. Flipverse is built on top of the Polygon blockchain and powered by eDAO, and will be made available on desktop and mobile devices, although the first phase will only be introduced for Android smartphones.

At a media briefing earlier this week, Flipkart said “a wide range of brands” including Puma, Nothing Phone, Nivea, Lavie, Tokyo Talkies, Campus, VIP, Ajmal Perfumes, and Himalaya, are partnering to set up ‘experience theatres’ on Flipverse.

These brands will offer customers a range of experiences, including product demonstrations, virtual try-on, and even games. Flipkart said it will also offer a range of virtual events and experiences such as concerts, stand-up comedy acts, and cooking classes.

The company said Flipverse is the “first of its kind” in India and that it is working on bringing “global brands” to the platform in the coming months. Flipkart said that the idea is to have millions of users experience Flipverse, and onboard consumers to the future of e-commerce shopping.

The company’s executives also acknowledged that its Web3 offerings are experimental. Still, they said they are confident it has legs to eventually become a critical part of Flipkart’s future.

The launch of Flipverse is a part of Flipkart’s larger business goal of becoming an immersive “entertainment destination” for Indian users. In addition to shopping and gaming, the metaverse will also offer various social experiences, such as concerts, movie screenings, and sports events.

With more than 200 million active users, Flipkart is one of India’s largest e-commerce platforms. The company is known for its innovative approach to customer loyalty, and its SuperCoins program is a key part of that strategy.

SuperCoins are loyalty points that can be earned by shoppers when they make purchases on Flipkart.com, and can be used to redeem a variety of rewards, including discounts on future purchases, digital collectables from partner brands, and more.

Flipkart’s SuperCoins program is just one example of how the company uses gamification to improve the customer experience. By offering a wide range of rewards and providing an engaging shopping experience, Flipkart is able to keep shoppers coming back for more.

Flipkart is not the only company looking to enter the metaverse space. Facebook, Nvidia, and Microsoft are all working on their metaverse projects. It will be interesting to see how Flipkart’s offering stacks up against these behemoths.

Naren Ravula, VP and head of product strategy and deployment of Flipkart Labs, said, “The future growth of e-commerce will be influenced by the immersive technologies of today, and metaverse is one of the significant revolutions in this arena with immense potential.”

In a recent interview, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal said that e-commerce is one of the killer use cases for the metaverse. “Combining top brands with Flipkart’s e-commerce expertise in a virtual environment stands to revolutionize online retail as we know it,” he added.

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As financial institutions and payment industry players alike look to adopt the latest security standard, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) v4.0, the cybersecurity threats landscape is even more precarious than it was two years ago, as threat actors abound even as organizations scramble to adapt and survive a fast-moving digital payment outlook.

Or at least that’s what the 2022 Verizon Payment Security Report is finding, even as version 4.0 of the payment security standard looks to be implemented by banks, retailers and payment processors worldwide. The Report outlines how, despite significantly sturdier compliance and regulatory apparatus governing a payment landscape that has seen surging online transactions and is easing towards a cashless and contactless digital economy, emerging threats have also been evolving at a frightening pace.

Parallel to the pervasive emergence of new digital dangers ranging from increasing data breaches to financially motivated ransomware attacks, organizations are also grappling with the heightened interest in practically implementing cutting-edge technologies, from 5G to edge computing.

With omnichannel retail now commonplace, and sharp rises in e-commerce, contactless payments and mobile banking, “the speed and stability of 5G could enhance this experience as well as provide greater security by enabling consumers to opt into advanced biometric-based identification and verification methods,” the report quotes Ravi K. Annadanam, 5G and MEC Innovation, of the Verizon Business Group.

The increased speeds and latency benefits of 5G should see organizations layer their approach, both on a project basis and at a strategic level, to maximize their security posture as they prepare to implement strengthened compliances and standardize it over the next two years.

While PCI SSC v4.0 is on track to make significant changes to the sort of outcomes that retailers and financial institutions can expect to see, the core 12 tenets of the PCI Data Security Standard will remain fundamentally the same. FIs and banks will have two years to solidly implement the new requirements, and assessors will hold off until March 2025 to ratify compliance with the       new standards.

PCI DSS compliance saw significant payment security gains in 2020, with nearly half (43.4%) of organizations measured maintaining full compliance, a sizable increase to the 27.9% witnessed in 2019. And despite well over half (56.7%) of companies failing their interim validation assessment as a result of one or more security control omissions, the security control gap still experienced substantial improvement, from a high of 7.7% in 2019 down to a low of 4% the next year.

“Key changes to the standard focus on meeting the evolving security needs of the payments industry, continuously promoting security processes, increasing flexibility for organizations using different methods to achieve security objectives, and enhancing validation procedures,” commented Lance Johnson, the Executive Director of the PCI Security Standards Council.

With skilful cybercriminals exploiting both the well-established payment methods such as card transactions and escalating use of the online business environment, the PCI Security Standards Council has carried out the most significant rewrite of its Data Security Standard since its initial release in 2004. But with such broad and all-encompassing alterations, it falls to Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) and other payment security leaders to ensure their organizations and resources carry out coordinated evaluations to test the limits of PCI DSS v4.0 changes, making sure the complexity of new measures is simplified to be adapted seamlessly while still maintaining data security protocols.

5G is expected to continue accelerating the advancement of the mobile experience within the payments space, as consumers will be able to leverage increasing advancements in biometric-based identification and single sign-on (SSO) verification methods. Along with advanced identity management should come more secure connections for virtual communication and collaboration tools, while companies continue to find innovative means to leverage 5G-enabled functionality, open architecture and multi-access edge computing (MEC) innovations – security practitioners will need to gauge how these advancements will impact their omnichannel payment ecosystem.

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Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been a game changer for the retail experience. In fact, according to a study by Mordor Intelligence, AI has been driving faster business decisions in marketing, e-commerce, product management, and other business areas by decreasing the gap from insights to action.

When it comes to AI in retail, organizations in the retail industry use machine learning and deep learning technology to offer a more personalized experience to the end-users and provide an interactive environment for them. A study by IBM Corporation also showed that the adoption of AI in retail and consumer products industries is expected to leap from 40% of companies currently to more than 80% in three years.

As such, customers today want to be able to get all the information they can about a product when shopping online, This includes avoiding the need of going out to physically test a product out. For example, when it comes to clothing, some apps have now enabled augmented reality (AR) technology whereby users can see how the product looks on them before making a purchase.

For products that do not support virtual try-ons, like facial products, some platforms have opted for shoppertainment, whereby the product is demonstrated live via video by a brand ambassador or even just normal consumers. While shoppertainment has led to a boost in sales for such products, it still lacked the personalization consumers really desired.

Interestingly enough, this may soon change thanks to enhancements in AI for facial recognition. Perfect Corp, a leading AI and AR beauty and fashion tech solutions provider, has unveiled its AI Personality Finder.

The AI Personality Finder is a groundbreaking addition to its comprehensive suite of AI and AR SaaS solutions. The first-of-its-kind solution features precision AI, powered by Perfect Corp’s patented AgileFace technology, to deliver a more personalized product matching experience to consumers. The solution pairs state-of-the-art AI-powered facial features mapping with psychological big data in order to identify key personality traits, and provide consumers with personalized product recommendations across beauty, fashion, and fragrance.

With that said, the retail experience when it comes to facial products may soon be revolutionized by this new recognition technology. Anchored in The Big Five Personality Traits, a gold standard in psychology, which comprises extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism, the advanced AI engine categorizes facial features and detects up to 65 types of unique facial attributes. The AI-powered solution then identifies key personality traits based on this analysis and offers personalized product recommendations best fit the customer’s unique personality.

To ensure the accuracy of the results, the AI Personality Finder leverages big data sourced from over one million face reading results and integrates with facial detection technology to generate personalized analysis. The accuracy of the AI Personality results has been clinically proven to be highly precise.

According to Alice Chang, Perfect Corp. Founder, and CEO, “As consumer demands evolve, personalization has become a top priority, and brands must provide immersive shopping experiences that match each consumer with their perfect-fit product. Our new AI Personality Finder allows brands to enhance their shopping journey with personalized product recommendations powered by advanced AI tech and personality insights.”

Perhaps in the future, the AI Personality Finder can be adapted to other use cases as well, providing consumers the best insights they need.

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The shift to digital presents opportunities for companies to increase efficiency, productivity, and innovation. Digital transformation can help businesses improve efficiencies, reach new markets, and create new revenue streams. 

Investment in digital transformation

The Adyen Malaysia Retail Report 2022 has found that Malaysian companies undertaking digital transformation outperform their industry peers, now worth RM334 billion. 

One key finding from the report was that over one in four businesses connected payment systems to other parts of the organization, such as inventory management and supply chain, to improve operational processes and break down silos in backend processes.

Specifically, companies that connect payment systems with other business sections grow 18% more than those that do not. As a result, 60% of businesses are now in a better position. This is 11% above the global average and the highest in the Asia Pacific (APAC).

Tech-savvy Malaysian consumers

According to a retail report by Facebook and Bain & Co, Malaysian shoppers are more inclined to conduct their shopping activities online. Out of the five aspects studied – online research, price comparisons, convenience, product quality, and brand loyalty – 72% of Malaysian respondents chose convenience as the main reason why they prefer to shop online. 

Malaysia is currently ranked eighth out of 24 countries regarding the percentage of people who shop online. This upward trend is expected to continue as Malaysians become more comfortable transacting digitally.

According to Malaysian Statistics, there were 40.69 million mobile connections in Malaysia, equivalent to 127% of the total population, in 2020.  Meanwhile, Malaysia’s overall e-commerce sales will increase by 1.3 times by 2026.

The Adyen study has shown that 67% of shoppers prefer retailers remembering preferences and previous shopping behaviors, creating a more tailored shopping experience, and 66% like personalized adverts or suggestions. 

To provide this experience, retailers must employ machine learning algorithms and other technological solutions that can crunch consumer data efficiently in real-time. This will allow businesses to understand better what their customers want and need, and subsequently deliver it to them.

Malaysia to accelerate digital transformation

The Malaysian government has been actively pushing for the country to go digital to boost the economy. Through the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (MOSTI), the Malaysian government is setting up a Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution (C4IR).

The new center, to be officially set up in the second half of 2022, aims to champion Industry 4.0 initiatives in the country and will serve to accelerate technology adoption.

C4IR will serve as a one-stop center to provide comprehensive support to all Malaysian businesses – particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs). This will also facilitate their move towards digitalization and Industry 4.0.

 Malaysian businesses need to embrace digital transformation 

With the ubiquity of technology, brick-and-mortar businesses in Malaysia have no choice but to offer shoppers a seamless and satisfying experience. 

Businesses will need to embrace omnichannel retailing and adopt new technologies that make shopping convenient and fuss-free for customers to stay afloat. This includes leveraging big data, cloud computing and mobility to create an interactive and engaging customer experience.

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