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Consumers seem to be embracing shopping technologies.

However, early steps in the shopping cycle can still frustrate some.

The shopping technologies and innovations that consumers say have improved their experience are online (80%), in-store (66%) and mobile (63%), according to a new study comprising a survey of 2,900 U.S. adults conducted by the National Retail Federation (NRF).

The frustration level in the shopping experience is different depending on the stage of shopping.

For example, 37% of consumers find it to be most frustrating when first researching features and reviews, compared to 24% when checking prices, availability or when leaving a review and 15% when placing an order or paying.

Shoppers also have an interest in technologies to help them shop. More than half (55%) of consumers are very interested in technologies to show if a product is in stock, 49% to help compare prices or reviews, 47% to make it easier to find a product or location and 38% to let them try an item before buying, either in person or virtually.

While voice commerce has yet to take off, 64% of consumers have tried a voice assistant and would like to try it again and more than a third (36%) have not tried one but would like to.

Other technologies also are on the horizon for shoppers, with 57% wanting to try a smart dressing room, 54% wanting to try augmented or virtual reality, 56% in-store navigation and 60% visual search.

Consumers are looking for connected retail.

Over the past several years, out-of-home (OOH) advertising has seen strong incremental growth – more than double that of all other forms of traditional media. According to a MAGNA report published earlier this year, OOH ad sales grew by an average +4% per year over the last nine years (2010-2018), compared to -1.5% for all non-digital media sales (linear TV, print, radio). This trend is expected to continue with many analysts predicting the industry will double in total market value by 2023. 

Digital ad sales continue to increase, with expected double-digit growth (+12%), making up over 50% of all ad spend. However, linear ad sales are set to decrease by -5% this year. As radio shifts to streaming formats and television contend with OTT and VOD services, out-of-home media continues to expand both supply and demand. In fact, many predict OOH could double its share of marketing spend by 2025. 

While outdoor advertising has always been an awareness driver for brands, the ability to effectively measure its impact was limited in the past. Today OOH plays a far more strategic role for marketers as they plan and optimize campaigns to not only cut through the noise and capture consumer attention, but also drive store traffic, conversions and sales. 

As media consumption behavior shifts, and more consumers cut the cord in favor of on-demand or streaming services, it’s becoming harder than ever for advertisers to reach their audience as people block or tune out ads.  In contrast to other media, OOH and digital OOH ads can’t be blocked, skipped or fast-forwarded. They aren’t controlled by a newsfeed algorithm or plagued with fraud. OOH has also become the preferred media type for millennials. 

With that overview in mind, let’s take a closer look at some of the biggest factors driving OOH’s growth, and why more brands are investing in the channel: 

Digital Transformation

 The OOH industry had found a way to turn $1 into $8, by transitioning static out-of-home media placements into rotating digital displays, capable of serving eight times the ads every minute. Although, digital OOH makes up less than 15% of total OOH inventory, it represents nearly a third of total spend. 

Not only has this caused supply to increase, also demand as advertisers across technology and other industries shift media dollars to take advantage of digital OOH’s ability to dynamically serve creative and measure impact in real time. 

Access & Automation 

What was once a very antiquated medium has now blossomed in the 21st century with automated and programmatic ad platforms for OOH media. For marketers, planning and buying OOH media can be a very fragmented and labor intensive, given the number of media types, media owners and logistics to sort through. 

With the latest Out-Of-Home platforms (DSPs)  marketers can analyze and programmatically buy the latest OOH media inventory available across literally thousands of different markets, neighborhoods and media types. 

Mobile & Geolocation Data 

Mobile phones act as the new survey for the OOH industry. Every day, billions of location observations are captured and shared as consumers use their smartphones, and opt-in to receive accurate information regarding weather, news or surrounding events. 

Location observations also play a valuable role for brands, making it possible to report (in aggregate) how many consumers are exposed to an OOH ad, what their daily journey is like and whether they visit specific locations. In addition, as marketers begin to understand their audience and who’s being exposed to their ads, they can better personalize and optimize their campaigns – further increasing reach, relevancy and effectiveness. 

Solving For Diminishing Return 

In today’s landscape, social and digital media buys represent the lion’s share of media spend by brands – representing more than 50% of share on average. That said, digital and social buys are not as effective as they once were. For example, CPM rates on Facebook have fluctuated as much as 30 to 50% this year. 

In contrast, OOH media offers historically low CPM rates. According to a recent report by Omnicom Media Group’s Benchmarking, OOH also delivers the highest ROI of any media format, with a $5.97 return for every $1.00 spent. 

Many brands are jumping on the opportunity, leveraging OOH as a bigger part of their marketing strategy, to improve reach and frequency as well as overall business outcomes, such as foot traffic and sales. 

Tangible data, automated platforms and the transition to digital has fueled the out-of-home industry and marketers have taken notice. Brands and agencies that recognize this shift have gained a competitive advantage implementing OOH technology into their marketing tech stack, leveraging consumer data and personalizing OOH at the local level, while taking advantage of unparalleled CPM rates. 

Hulu + Live TV's crash for more than an hour during the first Democratic presidential debate on Wednesday night dealt another blow to consumers' perception of the reliability of pay-for live streaming services.

"Customers voiced their frustrations on Twitter as they tried tuning into the debate, which was hosted by NBC News and aired live on NBC and MSNBC," reports The Verge. "Viewers were met with 'playback failure' and 'error playing this video' messages on both mobile and TV devices. The scope of complaints makes it pretty clear that this outage was nationwide, and it came at a bad time. 

"Live event failures like this are always a terrible look for live TV streaming services. Companies like Hulu, YouTube, Sling TV, AT&T, and Sony are trying to convince consumers to pay for their subscription TV apps instead of going with cable..."

Hulu's live offering costs $44.99 per month.

During the crash, some Hulu Live users streaming through Roku reportedly saw the same two ads over and over again, and U.S. viewers accessing it through the internet were redirected to Telemundo, which was showing the debate with an audio Spanish translation, according to The Verge, which based its story in part on updates posted by Consumer Press.

After hours of no comment from Hulu, Hulu Support on Thursday tweeted out a fix and "suggested 'power-cycling' devices, modems and routers" -- meaning turning them off or unplugging them, and restarting them, according to Business Insider. 

Some viewers threatened on social to switch from Hulu Live to YouTube TV -- which, after a $10 price hike in April, now costs $50 per month.

But YouTube actually streamed both debates for free...sans glitches. 

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Consumers are spending 21% more time reading emails than they did three years ago, according to the State of Email Engagement, a study by Litmus.

Of the emails tracked worldwide, 61% were read for at least eight seconds, 23% were skimmed and 15% were given a glance.

Mobile beat the average, with 66% of all emails being read for more than eight seconds.

Overall, average email engagement time has gone rom 10.4 seconds to 13.4 seconds From 2011 to 2018.

This improvement is due to several factors, from “pervasive mobile access to new interactive functionality, and email marketers' increasing savviness in how to present relevant and exciting content," states Cynthia Price, vice president of marketing for Litmus. 

Another piece of news is that Gmail has emerged as the top email client for the first time, despite the fact that webmail has declined -- beating Apple iPhone, according to the study, which compares both email delivery services and devices 

Gmail and Apple iPhone appear to be tied for first place with 28% apiece.

Outlook and Apple iPad are tied for third, with 9% apiece.

Yahoo Mail accounts for 6.6%, making it the second most popular webmail client, and Google Android accounts for 3%. 

Meanwhile, the study found that 42% of emails are opened on mobile devices. Webmail has fallen to 39.9% (as of March this year), from 44.3% last June. Another 18% are opened on desktops, where Outlook is the most popular client. 

Email reading times vary by country. The most popular time frame in the U.S. is morning, with 21% of reads occurring between 9 a.m. and noon, and 7% taking place between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m.

Mobile opens are steady from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m., but webmail and desktop opens peak in the morning, and then fall off.

The numbers are similar in Canada, where 8% of all reads occur between 10 a.m. and 11 am. Then they all off in all reading environments.

In contrast, the most popular email reading time in the UK is between 4 p.m. And 5 p.m. This is largely driven by n increase in mobile opens, which spike around 6 p.m.

Germany’s read rates are high from 9 a.m. to 10 a.m. and hold steady until about 8 p.m., with rates ranging from 5.5% to 6%. 

Spain sees most emails being read between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. The rate falls off between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m., then hits another peak between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m.

Litmus analyzed over 10 billion emails sent globally by its clients.  

The U.S. will outstrip China as the world’s largest generator of VOD advertising revenue by 2023, according to a new forecast from Digital TV Research.

With estimated OTT movie and TV content ad revenue of $7.78 billion, China commanded a 36% share of global ad revenue associated with OTT movies and TV programming in 2018, according to the research report.

Similar to much of Asia, most OTT viewing in China is on mobile phones, to ad-supported VOD (AVOD) platforms, points out Simon Murray, the research firm’s principal analyst.

Still-expanding use of mobile for video viewing; user-base growth in Tubi, IMBd TV, The Roku Channel and other AVOD platforms (and hybrid Hulu); and in-the-works launches from NBCUniversal and others will drive more than triple growth of AVOD revenue in the U.S., to $19.23 billion, between 2018 and 2024.

That will translate to a U.S. share of 34% of the global (138 countries) total – which is projected to more than double during the period, to $56 billion.

But China’s revenue, also projected to nearly double during the period, to $16.6 billion, will still represent a significant 29% share of the global total.

The Asia Pacific region as a whole — in which AVOD is well-established —will see its AVOD revenue jump from $10.73 billion in 2018 to $25.14 billion in 2024. Nevertheless, due to AVOD's growth in the U.S. and elsewhere, the region’s share of global revenue will decline from 49% to 45%.

North America will contribute $14.2 billion of the $34.4 billion in incremental global revenue forecast for the period, while Asia Pacific will account for $14.41 billion.