With e-commerce on the rise, recycling bins and trash cans across the US are filled with packaging and boxes from consumers’ favorite online retailers. In the US in 2015, corrugated boxes alone measured at 31.3 million tons of generated material while plastic measured in at 14.7 million tons.

Although much of this material ended up either recycled or incinerated, a large portion of it piled up in landfills across the country. Even with those numbers in mind, you don’t need to look at the stats to recognize that single-use packaging — whether made of paper, plastic, metal, or wood — is a huge issue in the US (and elsewhere).

But, is the single-use packaging issue a burden?

Or, is it a golden opportunity to deliver even greater value to customers?

https://medium.com/latitude-elevates/reusable-revolution-how-reusable-packaging-equates-to-opportunity-for-companies-5e7902b8894f

There are sports and then there are eSports. There’s traditional broadcasting and then there’s the internet. Twitch — the eSports and video-game and live-streaming website — represents the culmination of those new digital trends. But, with Twitch receiving 150 million monthly viewers, it’s hard to say that eSports and live-streaming video games are “trends” any longer. As the numbers suggest, they’re here to stay. And, for marketers and content creators, they’re also the future.

https://medium.com/latitude-elevates/esports-for-the-win-why-twitch-is-a-dream-come-true-for-marketers-content-creators-3ece5e0a9cec

What if a brand was able to sell hundreds of $1,600 items within less than 20 seconds? Can it be done?

At this point, the question really isn’t “Can it be done” so much as it is, “How is it done.” Supreme, the urban streetwear company valued at over a billion dollars, made it happen when they sold out of a limited edition batch of suitcases within 16 seconds of releasing the product for sale.

It’s been said that millennials have a way of killing industries. At this point, the list of casualties includes fast-food, mayo, napkins and, of course, shopping malls. And, while millenial’s younger counterparts, Gen Z (born between 97’ and 03’) also chalked-up several of their own casualties (beer potentially being one of them), Gen Z might just prove to be the generation that saves the shopping mall.

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The Latitude Supercharge series is an audio analysis of our weekly Medium & LinkedIn publication originally known as Supercharge.

Each week, the research team at Latitude looks into a topic that is directly affecting retailers and brands looking to create exceptional consumer experiences in the fast-paced world of today.

Looking to learn more? Need help with your next challenge or opportunity? We would love to chat!

Carter Jensen / Retail Innovation — [email protected]

Learn more - www.lat.co

Our Work - www.lat.co/work/

Contact - www.lat.co/contact/

The Latitude Supercharge series is an audio analysis of our weekly Medium & LinkedIn publication originally known as Supercharge.

Each week, the research team at Latitude looks into a topic that is directly affecting retailers and brands looking to create exceptional consumer experiences in the fast-paced world of today.

Looking to learn more? Need help with your next challenge or opportunity? We would love to chat!

Carter Jensen / Retail Innovation — [email protected]

Learn more - www.lat.co

Our Work - www.lat.co/work/

Contact - www.lat.co/contact/

While ads might’ve found their place on social media, commerce is hardly native in these spaces. And, despite efforts made to blend commerce with social media through the addition of shopping tags and shoppable stories, platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat often fail to provide a place where customers make their final purchases.

Perhaps the problem lay in social media’s general approach towards commerce to begin with. While users often know they’re being advertised to on social or are at least aware of the ads in their feed, they’re not always logging onto social media platforms to specifically shop. Discover—very often so, but not always shop.

But, what if a social media platform changed things up by making the experience about shopping first instead of socializing? What if a social platform merged shopping with entertainment and then, from there, blended it all into a social experience?

That’s exactly the approach, Down To Shop (DTS)—the new social media app—takes by integrating online shopping, entertainment, and social media into one experience.

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The Latitude Supercharge series is an audio analysis of our weekly Medium & LinkedIn publication originally known as Supercharge.

Each week, the research team at Latitude looks into a topic that is directly affecting retailers and brands looking to create exceptional consumer experiences in the fast-paced world of today.

Looking to learn more? Need help with your next challenge or opportunity? We would love to chat!

Carter Jensen / Retail Innovation — [email protected]

Learn more - www.lat.co

Our Work - www.lat.co/work/

Contact - www.lat.co/contact/