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How Amazon Does Haircuts at Its New Salon; TikTok Takes a Step for Accessibility; Swag as a Service
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Welcome back. Amazon has a surprising new bricks-and-mortar play: a hair salon. TikTok added an automated-caption feature to encourage its users to caption videos for the deaf and hard of hearing. And startups are trying to make swag more effective, and sustainable.
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The first customers to the Amazon Salon are Amazon employees. PHOTO: AMAZON
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Amazon opened its first hair salon in London’s Spitalfields shopping district yesterday, continuing its varied ventures into brick-and-mortar retail and services, Katie Deighton writes for the Experience Report.
The two-story, 1,500-square-foot store includes entertainment streaming on Amazon Fire tablets and augmented reality stations that let customers virtually try out hair colors. Amazon is also using the store to test tech that lets customers point at items on a shelf to display product information on a screen mounted behind.
Amazon called the a collaborative, experiential venue where it can showcase new products and technology that could benefit the salon industry.
It may also reflect Amazon’s ambitions in markets that combine goods and services, said Jason Goldberg, chief commerce strategy officer at Publicis Groupe.
“My immediate knee-jerk reaction is that the professional services aspect is kind of a necessary evil for them, and that they’re doing this to establish some credibility and a foothold” in the professional beauty space, he said.
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Less Typing, More Accessibility
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Users will be able to edit the captions that come up in TikTok’s new feature. PHOTO: ANJUM NAVEED/ASSOCIATED PRESS
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TikTok is introducing automated captions so users can subtitle their posts without having to enter the text themselves, Ann-Marie Alcántara reports.
It’s the latest attempt by a social-media company to make its products more accessible and avoid shutting out large segments of the population.
“Our hope with this release is that we ease the burden for creators as they add captions to their videos, while also making the viewing experience accessible to more users,” said Sean Kim, head of product at TikTok U.S.
Tech companies would benefit from involving people with disabilities more often as they develop new products, said Kate Kalcevich, who is hearing-impaired and works as head of services at Fable Tech Labs, an accessibility platform. “You’re going to find things that you won’t find otherwise.”
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Alyce wants clients to hand out cards with instructions for recipients to pick a gift online and have it delivered to their home or office. PHOTO: ALYCE
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Startups are offering corporate clients a personalized alternative to homogenous corporate swag, hoping that recipients will like their gifts more if they can choose them themselves, Katie Deighton reports.
The nascent “gifting-as-a-service” sector is growing as companies are unable to dish out merchandise at in-person events, and consumers turn away from the cycle of amassing, then ditching, freebies they don’t need. Companies such as Alyce and SnackMagic instead let recipients accept a suggested gift, or swap it for another, before it is mailed.
So far, the new gifting companies largely have delivered to recipients’ homes, but they are looking to incorporate their offers into live events as in-person gatherings resume. Snappy, a company that lets recipients “unwrap” their gifts with a digital scratch-card-style interface and swap them if they wish, has developed a physical scratch card that mimics the experience.
“It’s cheaper for the company, because they don’t have to pay for gifts that aren’t redeemed or that are thrown away,” said Hani Goldstein, the company’s founder and CEO.
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“Balancing the customer experience with fraud detection is a critical requirement to be successful online now.”
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— Gartner analyst Akif Khan. More online shopping is making it crucial for retailers to get better at identifying truly fraudulent online transactions—and correctly approving legitimate ones.
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Tesla made a public apology and pledged to set up a customer-satisfaction unit amid an outcry over its handling of consumer complaints in China. [WSJ]
Kids’ gaming platform Roblox is trying to make its parental controls easier to find and use to stamp out sexual content. [WSJ]
The new dating app Feels is trying to change the usual experience with TikTok-style profiles and other variations on the norm. [TechCrunch]
Now even Uber Eats has a version of the “stories” format popularized by Snapchat and Instagram. [Marketing Dive]
Apple unveiled a subscription podcast service and a product that lets users wirelessly "tag" their items, taking on a similar product from Tile. [WSJ]
The much-maligned stair lift has gotten a user-centered redesign. [Design Week]
Peloton said it will not stop selling its treadmills or recall them despite calls from government officials. [WSJ]
Ford said its planned hands-free driver-assist system will be available as a $600, three-year subscription. [Automotive News]
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