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The world is increasingly becoming digitized, resulting in many online businesses. Although operating on social media is convenient, it can sometimes feel impersonal.

Much has been said about agile market research being a quick fix for B2B organizations that consume market research. While there is some amount of awareness about ‘Agile Market Research’ and ‘B2B research’ as independent concepts; very few service providers deliver a great combination of the two concepts.

There is a lot of pressure on governments around the world to commit to becoming carbon neutral – the Middle East is no exception. Reducing the number of petrol-driven cars on the road is integral to this mission. As a result, we’ve seen steady growth both in Saudi Arabia and the UAE and also worldwide in the number of electric vehicles (EVs) being purchased, and car manufacturers are constantly releasing different models to cater for this broadening market.

Understanding how shoppers think and behave over busy holiday shopping periods can be extremely helpful for brands and retail platforms in order to enhance their customer shopping experience, be it online or in-store. With the retail landscape shifting in a pandemic environment, businesses are looking for creative and insightful ways to tap into shopper drivers in order to maximise revenue generation.

Mapping the global adoption of electric two-wheelers, barriers, consumer preferences and expectations.

A million-dollar question today is how soon the world will shift to electrified transportation and how the competitive dynamics in the global automobile market will change as a result. Scientists, policymakers, and industry experts around the world have been advocating for the electrification of road transportation as a strategy to reduce dependency on oil, CO2 emissions, and urban air pollution. However, electric four-wheelers (E4Ws) has their own set of challenges, as a result, electric two-wheelers (E2Ws) such as e-bikes, e-scooters, and e-motorcycles may offer more immediate opportunities for electrification of road transport, particularly in urban areas.

Tracing shopping trends, popular shopping modes, consumers’ concerns, expectations & shift in buying behaviour, and the overall 2021 holiday shopping landscape.

2020 was an overused but true phrasing — unprecedented. 2021 brought in some hope of returning to “normal” but the newer waves of covid washed away all those hopes and kept many from seeing their loved ones in person or from shopping in physical stores for some more time. Nevertheless, things started to get under control and people moved towards ‘normalcy’, which brought a shift in the mindset of consumers and retailers as they looked ahead to the holiday season. Shoppers have formed new habits, events of the past several months transformed their spending behaviours, new concerns emerged and raised several questions, however, the Omicron wave seems to have further impacted the shopping behaviour.

• Did shoppers flock to stores or stay away?
• What do consumers expect from their shopping experience in-store and online?
• How has 2021 impacted lifestyles, priorities, altered purchasing preferences, and implications for holiday spending?
• The key behavioural insights that can help brands meet and exceed changing consumer expectations?

To decipher these, Borderless access surveyed over 3000 shoppers across 10 countries (US, UK, Germany, France, Italy, India, Singapore, South Africa, Nigeria, UAE) to help retailers and brands understand how consumers planned their shopping for the 2021 holiday shopping season.

Understanding the market landscape of electric vehicles, intenders’ perception, barriers to adoption & marketing opportunities.

"The only constant in life is change!" When it comes to the automotive industry, one of the most significant changes that we have seen in recent years is the introduction of EVs. We are in the midst of an automotive revolution since Tesla revolutionized the industry with its first mass-produced highway-legal electric vehicle (EV) powered by a lithium-ion battery. As a result, automakers of all sizes have been rushing to launch their electric vehicles in order to provide consumers with an alternative to dealing with environmental concerns, rising fuel prices, and shifting consumer preferences. 

Considering the alarming stage of environmental hazards and soaring fuel prices, EV sales are steadily infiltrating the transportation industry. Are these concerns, however, enough to bring in a complete EV adoption worldwide? 

Even though the EV adoption rate is on a rise, they still constitute a small proportion of all vehicles on the road. But that could change very soon. Many industry observers believe that marketers have already passed the tipping point where EV sales will quickly outnumber those of gasoline and diesel vehicles. With technological capabilities improving and societal demand for sustainable solutions, the EV's time has come. However, it begs the question of whether challenges faced due to various infrastructural issues, high cost and limited options can impact the pace of global EV adoption.

Borderless Access examined the current EV landscape, barriers to adoption, brands to watch, and opportunities to market to potential EV buyers in the US, UK, Germany, France, India, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Nigeria, and Brazil markets. 

Remember the ‘Foodarackacycle’ machine from an episode of the 1962 animated series ‘The Jetsons’ that produced any food item at a click of a button? Back then, the home technology featured in the series was considered absurd. Around five decades later, even though we are yet to see floating buildings or flying cars, smart home technology has arrived and is thriving.

Emerging trends, rising desire for convenient lifestyles, tech-savvy consumers, as well as increased acceptance of cloud-based technologies have made the smart home market appear promising. On the flip side, there exist factors that might slow down the otherwise accelerated adoption rate for smart home devices.