Although Gen Alpha is still developing, technology is already a part of their daily life. For example, 36 million children in the US use the internet regularly, outnumbering teenagers by 11.4 million, according to data gathered by Insider Intelligence.

The article defined the future Gen Alpha as those born in the first half of the 2010s.

The graph shows children ages 0-11 that own at least one smartphone and use it at least once per month. The blue line represents the growth rate of the percentage of children as a fraction of overall smartphone users.

By 2026 Gen Alpha is projected to make up over 20% of the smartphone market.

According to fresh data that provided evidence of the momentum Federal Reserve policymakers envision lowering overall inflation, prices for online items in the United States decreased 1% in January compared to the prior year, the fifth consecutive monthly reduction.

Patrick Brown, Adobe’s vice president of growth marketing and insights, predicted that competition for online sales and the impact of inflation on consumers will persist, reported Reuters.

“Current demand levels are driving retailers to hold prices down and continue to clear out excess inventory,” Brown said.

Based on the same categories of goods as the US Labor Department’s Consumer Price Index, Adobe’s Digital Price Index increased month over month from December to January due to strong holiday discounting.

However, according to data published by the US software company, year-over-year price cuts for goods have helped drag total inflation measures lower.

The most recent version of Shopify contains a significant redesign of its checkout pages to offer a more simplified customer experience. This update includes a “one-page” checkout and code-free methods to give features like loyalty memberships, add-ons, or ID verifications.

According to Shopify, the newly released APIs for discount codes and gift cards enable the reading and writing of discounts and gift cards during checkout.

In practice, this means that brands will be able to allow customers to redeem their gift cards or discount codes right at the checkout and obtain confirmation that they were applied to their purchase.

In addition, Shopify is speeding up its stores this year and improving the Shopify mobile app with more functions.

Mani Fazeli, director of product at Shopify, told Modern Retail that the updates will make it easier for customers’ information to automatically pre-fill. At the same time, the ability to add extensions — such as loyalty programs, gift receipt options, or upsell opportunities — will allow merchants to tailor the page to their specific needs.

The new customizable setup could also persuade more shops to adopt Shop Pay, the brand’s fast checkout service that saves client information. According to Shopify, the solution increases conversions by 72% over a standard checkout and 91% on mobile.

The checkout modifications will be implemented progressively over the next few weeks, giving Shopify time to ensure that the product meets customer expectations, according to Fazeli.

Unless commodity costs decrease or the shift to cheaper store-brand products continues, merchants, consumer goods firms, and investors predict that shoppers worldwide will pay even more for groceries this year than they did in 2022.

Retailers and manufacturers of consumer products have been mired in difficult price discussions for over a year, with COVID-related supply chain bottlenecks beginning to cause friction in 2021, reported Reuters.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this has escalated into battles over the high cost of raw commodities and energy, with rising costs of basic consumables ranging from bread to milk and meat exacerbating Europe’s cost-of-living crisis.

According to Kantar, Britons paid a record 16.7% more for food in the four weeks ending January 22 compared to the same period last year. The food index in the United States, which includes meals consumed at home and in cafés and restaurants, climbed 10.4% in the year ending in December.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, told CNBC that the buy now, pay later (BNPL) feature is being beta-tested by Apple staff. Cook added that Apple Pay Later will be “launching soon.”

Apple can profit from the growing BNPL market in the United States, assessed an article published in Insider Intelligence/eMarketer.

According to Insider Intelligence, by 2026, 39% of US internet users will utilize a BNPL service, up from 31% last year.

“We expect overall BNPL payment value will grow by almost 90% between 2022 and 2026—per our forecasts—driven by increased adoption and spend per user,” stated the article.

Apple Pay is accepted in over 1 million retail locations in the United States. According to Insider Intelligence, Apple Pay’s user base is predicted to rise 7.3% year over year in 2023, reaching 48.7 million subscribers.

“But Apple will have to compete in a crowded market that includes fintechs, banks, and payments heavyweights like Mastercard and Visa,” it added.

According to figures from the European Union’s statistics office Eurostat, retail sales in the eurozone declined in December broadly in line with predictions, highlighting the weakness in consumer demand at the end of the year under high inflation.

Eurostat reported that retail sales in the 19 eurozone countries declined 2.7% month on month and 2.8% year on year in December. According to economists polled by Reuters, retail sales were anticipated to dip 2.5% month on month and 2.7% year on year.

This comes as inflation has led to price increases for many products worldwide. For example, Nestle announced that it would be raising prices more this year because of higher production costs, Chief Executive Mark Schneider told the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The world’s largest food firm, which manufactures KitKat chocolate bars and Nescafe, reported organic sales growth of 8.5% in the first nine months of 2022, with price increases accounting for 7.5 percentage points, reported Reuters.

Amazon.com said on Thursday that its operating profit could fall to zero in the current quarter as layoff savings fail to offset the financial impact of consumers and cloud customers cutting down on spending.

Shares slumped 5% in after-hours trading, wiping off most of their 7% rise before the market closed Thursday, reported Reuters.

While Amazon’s holiday earnings exceeded Wall Street projections, the company’s chief financial officer told reporters that sales growth in its long-lucrative cloud division will decrease in the coming quarters.

“We’re going to help our customers find a way to spend less money,” said Chief Executive Andy Jassy. “We’re trying to build a set of relationships in business that outlasts all of us.”

Faced with high inflation and economic fears, Jassy has implemented major cost-cutting measures within Amazon as well.

Last month, the online retailer announced the layoff of more than 18,000 employees, primarily in its commerce and human resources areas. According to CFO Brian Olsavsky, the company recorded a $640 million severance charge in the fourth quarter.

“We remain nervous as everyone else is about the consumer spending and … how people will prioritize their budgets moving forward,” said CFO Brian Olsavsky, according to the report.

According to him, high inflation and the conflict in Ukraine harmed demand in Europe and the United Kingdom, slowing down global growth rates.

Subscribers will gain access to the platform even at peak periods when it can be difficult to log in, as well as “priority access” to new features for $20 (£16) per month, according to chatbot maker OpenAI.

The trial will be expanded in the future, but for the time being, it will only be available to people on a waiting list, reported the BBC.

According to the company, the free version will remain available.

However, ChatGPT does not yet attribute information or comment on its correctness, and there are several examples of it presenting falsehoods as fact.

It is likewise limited to the contents of the internet, just as it was in 2021. The current version is version three, and the company has stated that the next generation is in the works.

The global economy’s prognosis is improving slightly as China relaxes its zero-COVID policies and the world demonstrates unexpected resilience in the face of high inflation, soaring interest rates, and Russia’s prolonged war against Ukraine.

According to the International Monetary Fund, the global economy will rise by 2.9% this year. This forecast is higher than the IMF’s 2.7% growth forecast for 2023 but lower than the 3.4% growth forecast for 2022, reported the AP.

“Global conditions have improved as inflation pressures started to abate,” said the IMF chief economist, Pierre-Olivier Gourinchas.

The IMF now predicts that China’s economy, the world’s second-largest behind the United States, will rise 5.2% this year, up from 4.4% in October.

ChatGPT can generate new content, and its applications are nearly limitless, ranging from whole essays to blog entries and song lyrics to cover letters and resumes.

ChatGPT can be utilized in almost any industry and for companies of any size due to its broad range of features. According to an Entrepreneur article, below are just a few possible applications.

ChatGPT can create blog entries or social media posts that meet your needs while also helping to come up with fresh ideas for content in an online economy where content is king.

You can ask it to generate a list of podcast or video ideas, then build a whole script based on these ideas. If you don’t like the results, ask it to rewrite in a different tone and/or to simplify or make the material more detailed and intricate. It can also edit pre-written text to ensure that the outcomes are error-free and follow the tone and guidelines that have been defined.

ChatGPT can be used to manage client inquiries and answer routine concerns, freeing up time for a customer support team to deal with more sophisticated or demanding situations as an alternative to the frequently noticeably ineffective results of live chat queries on websites.

Reading through cover letters and resumes might be time-consuming, but ChatGPT users can simply copy and paste cover letters and ask it to search for essential job criteria. Then, it will sift through text to see if candidates have relevant experience, perhaps removing the need for outside recruiters and saving time.