Going Into 2021: Biggest Trends in Retail Tech, Sports Tech, and New Media

How Israeli technology is shaping our everyday experiences with the way we consume both goods and entertainment.

In 2020, COVID-19 disrupted our everyday lives alongside the industries we rely on for our essential and non-essential needs. As we approach the final quarter of 2020 and begin to look ahead to what 2021 has in store, emerging trends have appeared that look to be staying permanently.

Retail consumerism has further accelerated away from brick and mortar stores. 2020 has shown us that online sales growth is unstoppable and online sales will reach $4.5 trillion in 2021, with 73% of those completed via mobile devices. The implementation of artificial intelligence changes how consumers interact and purchase from their favourite brands. From the rise of voice commerce and visual commerce to a more personalized online shopping experience, consumers have more options than ever before.

Consumers are also adjusting to the inaccessibility of attending their favourite locations, be it a sporting venue, a new film at the theatre, or even the gym! More than ever before, the pandemic has people searching for new ways to replicate a pre-COVID world as closely as possible.

With large in-person happenings likely not back for the foreseeable future, innovation is what will lead us to the “new normal.” Implementing new engaging technologies across the way we consume fitness, films, sports, and beyond will make for experiences as close to reality as possible.

Our eyes have never committed so much time to devices and screens. With the pandemic still brewing, and most of us at home alternating between iPhone to laptop to TV and back to the iPhone, advertisers are in paradise. Israeli companies like Innovid positioned themselves as a one-stop solution to omnichannel personalized advertising, from serving ads to sharing analytics. The company offers a holistic, cross-device, data-driven solution to meet audience fragmentation demands and personalize the customer journey. Innovid’s patented technology and advanced measurement capabilities allow marketers to thrive in an ever-changing digital television landscape and engage viewers at scale via immersive, interactive storytelling. Innovid powers cross-channel video marketing efforts for some of the largest brands in more than 28 countries, including Bank of America, Best Buy, Citi, Comcast, Kraft, L’Oréal, Microsoft, P&G, Walmart, Samsung, Sprint, and Toyota.

But what good is that advertising if your actual content isn’t compelling to the viewing audience? Luckily for us, Arti.tv is creating a new brand of storytelling with the power of their augmented-reality stories into our regularly broadcast shows. Arti provides content producers, no matter the level of technical knowledge, to implement broadcast-quality AR. Sports show producer? No problem, add infographics and athletes in AR to your broadcast. Movie producer? Implement the grandest of assets all with Arti. Fitness YouTuber? Connect like never before to your followers with interactive assets that are sure to brighten anyone’s workout. Arti.tv provides the ability to create augmented-reality stories full of insights, data, and information.

After some well-deserved relaxation, we can turn on the Vi Trainer from Vi Labs to get back to our active fitness lifestyle, all with the help of a virtual trainer powered by artificial intelligence. Vi develops products to help people get fit through personalized, goal-oriented coaching, and social play. Vi created an outdoor fitness game called Torch, a social running experience featuring one-on-one virtual races with friends and fairly matched competitors worldwide. With the Vi Trainer, an AI-powered coach’s voice guides people through immersive and entertaining workouts matched to their unique goals and abilities.

After an exhilarating run and a purifying sweat, what better way to show your newfound fitness lifestyle than through what you wear. But what if you could forego the age-old text search to find that perfect summer top? Donde is one such example, an Israeli based company that focuses on ways to improve online retail UX (User Experience). Donde is a platform that enhances the customers’ online shopping experience by utilizing artificial intelligence to think like the shopper and display results that they have in mind. Rather than traditional text-based searches. Donde uses visual cues coupled with proprietary algorithms that aim to mimic the way customers engage with products, providing the most relevant recommendations. Forever 21, one of the largest female apparel brands, has adopted Donde Search. With shopping moving further and further online, the pressure of creating a best-in-class shopping experience is permeating the e-commerce space. Donde Search continues to lead the way with their vision of visual shopping.

Too tired to move your fingers to order your next outfit, meal, or household good? With VoiceFront, a SaaS platform for eCommerce merchants provides a solution to enable voice sales on virtual storefronts quickly. Using virtual assistants such as Alexa and Google Assistant, your voice is all you need for ordering online. VoiceFront is looking to disrupt Amazon’s over 95% market share of voice-enabled shopping. By 2022, the voice commerce space expects to grow 55%. Positioned to be the leader in enabling shopping with your voice from the comfort of your couch, VoiceFront is shaping a new frontier of e-commerce shopping.

With three months remaining in 2020, our newly adopted habits, lifestyles, and technologies will follow us closely into 2021 and beyond. As we have heard over this year, the “new normal” is upon us. With innovative Israeli technology, the transition into settling into this new reality will be made more seamless. From the industries we discussed and far extending to every industry and facet of life, we must embrace change to continue to move forward in an ever-changing world.