The Newsstand - March 2018

Instagram Finally Allows Users to Schedule Posts

Social media managers, marketers, and influencers all over the world will be happy to hear that the visual-intensive platform has finally decided to add a scheduling feature for business profiles.

But wait, there’s a catch!

For now, Instagram is only allowing users to schedule photos, not videos, and that too is only through third-party social media management applications, such as HootSuite, Sprout Social, or any other Facebook or Instagram Partner. This means if you want to grab hold of this feature, you need to spend on a subscription for one of those apps too.

Also, if you thought this feature was available before, we don’t blame you. A lot of third-party apps have previously advertised about offer Instagram scheduling services, but it essentially wasn’t possible until now. What these applications did was enable push notifications or saving pre-written captions you could manually post on the platform later.

This latest announcement from Instagram might not come as a big surprise since most other platforms also support scheduled posts. In fact, even Snapchat has now removed the ugly white border that used to surround content posted from the camera roll. Features like these almost make it seem like social media platforms are looking to distance themselves from real-time sharing.

Optimizing Customer Retail Experience – New Studies

Presence of Physical Stores Still Key to Enhancing Retail Experiences

If you thought e-commerce was chipping away at the significance of physical stores, stop right there. A recent study by JDA Software surveyed around 100 retailers and found that nearly 87% of ‘retail disruptors’ believed in the importance of physical stores when it comes to enhancing customer experience.

So, who are retail disruptors, exactly?

Disrupters are those stores who sell high-quality products and services, are known to be more responsive and fast-paced than most of their competitors, and have significantly brought about a change in customer experience.

The survey results showed that retail disruptors were firm believers in technology as a ‘strategic enabler,’ rather than just a manageable cost. They feel that physical stores are an integral part of a multi-channel approach, and e-commerce or online shopping is a way to enhance the customer’s overall experience, not completely replace it.

For example, most disruptors believed that the buy-online-collect-in-store approach brought in more customers to the physical stores, which in turn enhanced their retail experience.

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