May 2015

Have you ever found yourself on an airplane seven hours into a flight wondering what you were going to do with the last seven hours? I think some of us have spent a lazy Sunday curled up on the couch for 14 hours, but somehow, those same hours on an airplane feel much more painful. Obviously, …

Mobile payment is being adopted all over the world in different ways, whether it is via SMS transactional payments, direct mobile billing, mobile web payments (WAP), mobile banking apps or contactless NFC. In developing countries mobile payment solutions have been used successfully as a way of …

Europe's economy has again gained momentum. Increased domestic demand as well as improved external competitiveness, particularly in several of the economically weakened countries, can contribute to more balanced, sustainable growth to the benefit of retail. While this overarching assessment is …

The Russian market for engine oils is undergoing a shift: After a good 2013, the market began to stagnate in 2014 and experienced a slow start in 2015. Market players are looking to adapt and transform their strategies. Their focus is shifting from segment expansion (the good old days) to price …

The widespread adoption of the smart (connected) home is getting tantalizingly nearer. So it’s not surprising that the competition is circling as more companies look at how to exploit what could be a potentially massive market. Big players such as Google and Apple have already declared their …

We asked our global wearables product lead, Jan Wassman, three key questions about this fast-growing sector. Read the transcript below or scroll down to watch the video interview: How did the wearables market perform in 2014? According to our data, we saw 2.9 million units being sold in …

Despite their love of and ease within the online world, today’s young people are not exclusively virtual shoppers, glued to their screens throughout the purchase journey. This new generation of digital natives loves the environment of the store, and values the interaction it offers. And they …

The connected car will be a reality within a few years, as enhanced safety, economy and entertainment become standard features of most new vehicles. So how do the Chinese feel about the car of the future? In this extensive global project carried out at the end of 2014, we interviewed 5,800 …

Daimler Truck unveiled a few weeks ago what is potentially the future of big rig trucking. The Inspiration Truck is a partially autonomous semi that has driven more than 10,000 miles on Nevada highways and could revolutionize the way that goods are shipped across the country. Instead of …

I spent three days in Miami at Net Finance, a conference dedicated to providing insight into the digital financial services space. On the final day, Marc Andrews of IBM mentioned that as he was preparing his remarks for his talk that day, he noticed that although many are talking much about the …

It may be a status symbol or a means to an end, an office on four wheels or a family car – the car fulfills so many functions for us humans and is still a bestseller worldwide, despite fluctuating markets. Globally there were more than 70 million new car registrations last year alone, and the …

What is an SMB? Having spent a decade conducting business-to-business (B2B) market research across a variety of industries, I’ve learned that if you asked ten clients to define a small and medium-sized business (SMB), you’re very likely to get ten different answers. For some it’s defined by the …