Continente has become the first food retailer in Portugal to launch an electronic invoice service that allows customers to receive invoices directly in their email in real time, at the time of purchase. The service will be available to Continente or Universo card subscribers, and is currently live in more than 270 stores. Continente intends to roll the service out to 700 stores by mid 2019 and if all their customers begin using the service, more than 193 tons (4,000) trees would be saved. Electronic invoicing allows customers to save time and preserve the environment while being able to conduct a more integrated management of their expenditures. As part of Simplex 2018, the Portuguese Government will exempt all retailers and service providers starting January 1st from delivering paper invoices as long as they have a certified software program that transmits invoices in real time to the Portuguese Tax Authority (Autoridade Tributária).
In addition to receiving the invoice through email, customers will also be able to check their invoices for the last 30 days through the Continente card app and website. Continente has stated that since the service became available on November 26, more than 10,000 Continente customers have joined the service. Click here to read the full article.
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Hertz, the car rental company, will expand biometric checkouts during car rentals to 40 locations next year. The technology is powered by Clear, an airport security company, and uses fingerprint verification and facial recognition technology to provide speedier car rentals checkouts at airports. The biometric checkout will shorten the checkout process for renters to 30 seconds or less. The use of biometric security is spreading in airports all across the world as airlines and transportation security organizations experiment with biometric tech during bag drops, check-ins, boarding and security screening.
The biometric check out lane is called "Hertz Fast Lane powered by Clear," and is already in use at the Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The lane will only be available to Hertz Gold Plus Rewards program members, and these members must also enroll with the technology provider, Clear, separately. Although Hertz will not charge members for using the service, members will have to pay Clear to do so. British Airways and Delta have also experimented with biometric tech in airports and the TSA (Transportation Security Administration) announced a roadmap this year to roll out biometric security for domestic flights in the United States. Click here to read the full article. For the first time, adults in the USA now rely more on social media than print newspapers to get their news according to a new report from the Pew Research Center. Television is still the most popular source of news with 49% of respondents reporting they often get news from TV, followed by news websites with 33%, radio with 26%, social media with 20% and print newspaper with 16%. Although TV still tops the list, it has declined since 2016 when 57% of respondents identified it as a regular source of news and when online news sources are combined (social media and news websites), they are quickly catching TV as the top news source - 43% for online new sources and 47% for TV.
As the graph above demonstrates, there are some dramatic differences in news sources between age groups. Social media is significantly more popular among the 18-29 age group, while TV dominates the older age groups. Interestingly, the 30-49 age group's most popular news source is news websites. Earlier in 2018, another report by the Pew Research Center showed that 89% of college students surveyed reported receiving some news through social media. Interestingly, college students identified Snapchat and Facebook as the top social media news sources. Click here to read the full article. For the first time, Cubans will be able to buy 3G internet access for their mobile phones on Thursday as Cuba became one of the last nations to offer its citizens full internet access for their mobile phones. Previously, Cubans were only able to access state-run email accounts through their mobile phones unless they were connected to Wi-Fi connections at home or on a limited number of government sponsored Wi-Fi Spots. The Cuban government first authorized home internet for their citizens in 2017.
The new 3G internet service will cost citizens 10 cents per megabyte, and available packages range from 600 megabytes for $7 to 4 gigabytes for $30. Click here to read the full article. General Motors recently announced that it would cut over 14,000 jobs in Canada and the United States. While the layoffs are reportedly due to business-cycle adjustments and possibly slowing demand in key markets, the layoffs are definitely a sign of the incoming disruption that the company's current transition from analog to digital will bring. The digitalization of the auto industry, which is also occurring in nearly every other industry, has resulted in a massive reorientation of the workforce needs of companies like GM. The layoffs and eventual future hirings are likely evidence of the acceleration of GM's response to the diffusion of technology driven changes in their industry and the need to adjust its labor force to it.
Over the last 15 years, the digital content of work in the auto industry has soared as consumer electronics, battery and electric powered drivetrains, IT, and autonomy place new demands on auto companies and their workers. In fact, the fastest growing occupations in the auto sector as of 2016 have been software developers and computer network support specialists. The occupations which have seen the fastest decrease as of 2016 have been sheet metal workers and drilling and boring machine operators. Evidence of this can be seen in one of GM's statements last week which noted that their transformation "includes adding technology and engineering jobs to support the future of mobility, such as new jobs in electrification and autonomous vehicles." This shift in the layoff decisions and hiring needs of the auto industry is only likely to continue in the future as many jobs in auto-sector jobs are highly susceptible to automation over the next 10 to 15 years. It is vital that companies, industries and nations respond to the diffusion of digitalization by embracing the changes technology brings and increasing their investments in digitally focused training (re-training) and education in order to empower workers to be a part of the change. Click here to read the full article. Close to 41.4 million shoppers chose to shop only online from Thanksgiving to Cyber Monday, more than the 34.7 million who chose to shop exclusively in stores according to the National Retail Federation. Cyber Monday and Black Friday both saw double-digit sales growth compared to last year and broke online sales records in the United States. Interestingly, the Wednesday before Thanksgiving saw the highest increase from last year with online sales experiencing a growth of 31.8%. It is clear that each year, more and more customers make their holiday purchases online.
Here are the online sales figures for this year:
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