Latest news with #Canvas8
National Post
20-05-2025
- Business
- National Post
New Report from Intuit Mailchimp Offers Global Guide to Year-Round Shopper Engagement
Article content The New E-Commerce Calendar explores evolving consumer mindsets and key spending moments to reveal surprising opportunities for marketers through data- and expert-backed insights Article content Article content MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU), the global financial technology platform that makes Intuit TurboTax, Credit Karma, QuickBooks, and Mailchimp, in partnership with behavioral insights practice Canvas8, today released The New E-Commerce Calendar, a global report that explores how the traditional retail calendar is being reshaped. The report finds that 78% of the moments shaping customer behavior today aren't led by retail or price promotions. Instead, shopping unfolds in a rhythm of personal, cultural, and community-driven moments that span the entire calendar year. To help marketers meet these moments, The New E-Commerce Calendar draws from a survey of more than 9,000 shoppers across 13 countries, supplementing this data with expert insights from 6 retail and behavioral science experts. Article content Turning Overwhelm into Opportunity Article content The marketer's calendar has transformed into a dynamic, year-round continuum shaped by culture and community. The end-of-year holiday season now accounts for just 10% of annual engagement opportunities. Brands today navigate up to 15 retail, cultural, and religious moments each month. 'Something's celebrated every day if you look for it,' said Nancy Harhut, author of Using Behavioral Science in Marketing. Article content Research indicates that 39% of shoppers worldwide are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of sales and promotions, leading 25% to actively avoid shopping during major sales events. This saturated promotional landscape presents both opportunities and challenges for brands. Navigating this environment requires careful consideration to determine the optimal timing and approach for engagement. Article content 'Consumers want to buy from brands that make an effort to connect meaningfully year-round, not just during conventional shopping seasons,' said Mark Lodwick, Senior Director of Brand Experience at Intuit Mailchimp. 'With insights from this report, marketers can identify when their target customers expect to engage and more confidently invest in the moments that are most likely to resonate.' Article content The research identifies six categories of moments that make up the New E-Commerce Calendar — Sales Moments, Advocacy Moments, Celebratory Moments, Together Moments, Holiday Moments, and Entertainment Moments — and explores the emotional drivers and shopper missions behind each. Article content Key findings include: Article content Celebratory Moments like Valentine's Day and Halloween have significant emotional resonance, with 54% and 39% of shoppers respectively making related purchases. Holiday Moments, or those that generally take place between November and the New Year, remain strong. But motivations have evolved: during the holiday season, price sensitivity drops by 38%, with shoppers prioritizing joy and tradition over cost consciousness. Entertainment Moments — think Eurovision, the World Cup, or the Super Bowl — prompted 15% of shoppers to make purchases in the last two years. Article content Each moment can be a powerful opportunity for a brand to drive growth and stand out in a crowded market. Finding the right combination—and understanding the leading motivations and emotional prompts associated with different moment types—is key to success. Article content The report also uncovers how these moments resonate differently across demographics and regions. Over half of parent shoppers (54%), for example, say making purchases during moments that include discounts is part of their regular routine, compared with just 45% of non-parents. Younger shoppers (18–34) are more likely to shop during Advocacy and Entertainment Moments but are also more likely to feel overwhelmed by promotions. An occasion like International Women's Day is more than twice as likely to drive purchases among shoppers aged 18 to 34 (19%) than it is among shoppers aged 55 and older (8%). Meanwhile, older shoppers (55+) are more discerning about promotions—they are 22% more likely than younger cohorts to believe that the discounts offered during sales events are exaggerated. Article content By approaching the calendar with greater intention and by centering the customer's mission at each key moment, brands can build stronger loyalty, deeper emotional connections, and long-term growth. Article content A Global Snapshot Article content Preferences vary across countries and geographic regions, too. Globally, for example, loyalty reward perks have prompted a third (33%) of shoppers to make purchases in the last two years, but this rises to 43% amongst UK and Canada shoppers. Meanwhile, 49% of German shoppers tend to set themselves a fixed budget for holiday shopping, slightly outpacing the global average of 45%. In Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands, and Luxembourg), 66% of shoppers say they're not worried about missing out on deals during Sales Moments—the highest of any region surveyed. And only 41% of Scandinavian shoppers (those in Sweden, Denmark, and Norway) say they have been influenced by discounts to make a purchase during Sales Moments—the lowest of all regions surveyed. The New E-Commerce Calendar unpacks these nuances and more by supplementing its full report with eight regional one-pagers, allowing marketers around the world to dive deeper into the preferences of their home and target markets. Article content Download the Full Report Article content Visit to access the full report and further explore the findings. Regions surveyed include the US, Canada, the UK, Australia, Germany, Spain, Italy, Benelux and the Nordics. Article content The New E-Commerce Calendar is a four-step strategic guide for brands looking to navigate this evolving landscape. The full report offers a comprehensive directory of moments, shopper motivations, and practical frameworks for activating across the calendar year with authenticity and impact. The global online survey conducted by Canvas8 in partnership with Intuit Mailchimp, from February 14th to 20th, 2025, was designed to unpack how people shop across different product categories, their attitudes toward promotional events, and what factors influence their purchases more generally throughout the year. We surveyed more than 9,000 people in the UK (n=1005), US (n=1142), Canada (n=1035), Australia (n=1004), Italy (n=1034), Spain (n=1108), Germany (n=1006), Belgium (n=453), the Netherlands (n=455), Luxembourg (n=101), Sweden (n=385), Denmark (n=274), and Norway (n=354) aged 18 and over. We then interviewed 6 experts in retail behavioral science, e-commerce strategy, and business-building from across the world who helped to define these results in terms of the New E-Commerce Calendar. Article content Article content Article content Article content Article content
Forbes
06-04-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How AI Is Impacting Skills Of Gen Zers In The Workplace
AI is proving to be a mixed blessing for some Gen Z workers. The rapidly developing technology, ... More which can shore up their workplace skills, can also pose challenges for them, according to employers. AI is proving to be a mixed blessing for some Gen Z employees. The rapidly developing technology, which can shore up their skills, can also pose challenges for these members of the workforce, according to employers. The downsides of AI should concern corporate executives. 'The technology is weakening the attention spans of Gen Z workers 'even more [and their] ability to do 'deep work.' It's weakening critical skills in evaluating their own work; GenZ who are entering the workforce now may never have learned how to do a certain task without AI support, so how can they 'evaluate' the AI work?,'Maria Gafforio, a senior behavioral analyst at Canvas8, a behavior insight company, pointed out in an email interview. AI 'appears to be making Gen Z 'dumber,' if a new study by Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon University is to be believed. In the research, it showed the more the workers tapped AI for help, the less critical thinking they did,' she pointed out. 'The rise of Generative AI in knowledge workflows raises questions about its impact on critical thinking skills and practices,' according to the research. 'One clear downside I've noticed is that some Gen Z employees struggle with fully understanding concepts end-to-end. When AI fills in gaps for them, they sometimes miss the bigger picture, making it harder to build deep expertise. This can impact problem-solving skills, as they might rely on AI-generated answers without questioning or truly analyzing them. Over time, this could create a knowledge gap—especially when it comes to troubleshooting, root cause analysis, and critical thinking,' Naveen Kumar Ramakrishna, software principle engineer at Dell, observed via email. AI can help close Gen Zers' gaps in conflict resolution, asking or help, and effective ... More communication. AI can help close Gen Zers' gaps in conflict resolution, asking or help, and effective communication, 'thanks to its ability to audit the skills, growth areas and goals of all employees, and create tailored learning paths that address the areas where different employees' skills lack,' Carina Cortez, chief people officer of Cornerstone, observed via email. Embracing the potential of Gen Z in the workplace is essential for driving the long-term success and growth of an organization. Investing in the development of younger generations is mission-critical, and leveraging AI is a powerful tool to make it happen,' she noted. Also on the plus side, AI helps speed up the work of Gen Z employees 'without [their] employers always knowing about it. It gives them more breathing space, which is just as well as Gen Zers are less worried about 'productivity theatre' than their Millennial counterparts,' Gafforio of Canvas8 commented. Thanks to AI, 'Gen Z gets to spend less time doing 'boring' repetitive tasks to focus on the more creative interesting things. This is actually quite a big deal in terms of motivation (extrinsic vs intrinsic),' she pointed out. 'AI is also helping them work more efficiently. Before AI, ramping up on a new tool or project took longer, but now, they can get up to speed much faster. I've also noticed a rise in content creation—more professionals, including Gen Z, are sharing insights and ideas, largely because AI makes it easier to refine and articulate their thoughts,' Ramakrishna at Dell observed. As AI continues to evolve, it can be a continuing challenge for executives to find the best ways to ... More help their companies—and their Gen Z workforce—take full advantage of it without creating more problems than the technology has the potential to solve. 'If I had to advize business leaders, I'd suggest striking a balance. Encourage AI use for efficiency, but also introduce more accountability and ownership in tasks. This ensures Gen Z employees don't just rely on AI blindly but actually validate and refine the outputs they receive. AI should be a tool to enhance work, not replace fundamental learning and critical thinking. Companies that get this balance right will have a workforce that is both highly productive and deeply skilled,' Ramakrishna concluded. ' We've been running an intern program for about a year [where] many of the interns were Gen Z.….Our playbook for onboarding and upskilling Gen Z interns has been evolving a lot. It's been hard to balance mastery vs. AI convenience. We want them to use AI as a tool, not a crutch, so they [can] develop critical thinking and problem solving skills that go beyond just automation. And yes, as an AI company, the irony isn't lost on us,' Omar Kouhlani, CEO of Runmic, a corporate revenue strategy company, commented via email. 'When clients ask us for best practices to implement AI at their company, we consistently tell them: if your AI isn't making your team sharper, you're building it wrong,' he concluded. There are several lessons business leaders need to learn from how AI is impacting their Gen Z workers, Kraig Kleenman founder of the New Workplace, noted via email. 'Unlike previous generations that had to adapt to technological shifts, Gen Z is growing up with AI as an integral part of their workflow. AI, instead of just being a tool, is fundamentally changing how the new generation is learning and building their careers. Business leaders now need to pay close attention to how AI is reshaping the skills and what their new priorities should be,' Kleenman pointed out. 'Gen Z isn't being replaced by AI—they're evolving alongside it. The companies that recognize this shift and empower their workforce accordingly will gain a long-term competitive advantage,' he concluded. As AI continues to evolve, it can be a continuing challenge for executives to find the best ways to help their companies—and their Gen Z workforce—take full advantage of it without creating more problems than the technology has the potential to solve.
