Lifestyles

WHAT'S NEXT?: Digital lifestyles are on the rise around the world and AR and VR will likely see us all using wearables, head-mounted displays and smartphones in almost everything we do. And, most of us will be living in cities too with full amenities close by.

• 17.2 million UK consumers say they will now switch permanently to online shopping, which is forecast to generate an additional £4.5 billion of UK online sales in 2020.
• Walmart plans to add 1,200 Shopify sellers to its Marketplace this year as it looks to capitalize on a surge in ecommerce shopping amid the coronavirus pandemic.
• With global e-commerce sales set to reach $4.1 trillion next year, the significance of social shopping forecasted to rise and mobile transactions set to dominate 73% of all online sales in 2021, the user journey is paramount.
• Mastercard highlighted that online shopping gained traction in the UAE, with 54% of UAE consumers expecting online shopping trend to continue post-Covid19, and that users were moving away from cash payments.
• The adoption of a more conscious approach to fashion consumption, changes in consumer behavior during use and reuse, and the introduction by brands of radically new business models could contribute 347 million metric tons of emission abatement in 2030.
• Ecommerce witnessed the strongest growth amongst all channels, suggesting that Indian consumers are beginning to prefer shopping from home compared to visiting markets, a trend which will only increase due to Covid-19.
• German ecommerce is expected to grow by 10% in 2020, as consumers perceive online shopping as 'a direct delivery to my home', followed by 'available round the clock and 'more convenient way of shopping.
• Aside from smartwatches, the UK toys and games market is projected to grow from £4 billion in 2017 to £5 billion in 2022, driven in part by innovation in connected toys as millennials who grew up with technology begin having children.
• The enhanced focus on gender, communities, demand and innovation, and the increased support in prioritising high impact vaccines, and more vaccines, will enable us to reduce the number of children who receive no vaccines at all.
• By 2022, technology will better support clinicians to improve safety and reduce the health risks faced by children.
• The Ninoy Aquino Elementary School in the Philippines is another example of how Epson technology helps create real opportunities for underprivileged children.
• MLH is rolling out a new technology, Enhanced Communication, in the Le Bonheur Children's Hospital that will tap Apple devices so nurses can do rapid, light documentation of vital signs and other information.
• The American Academy of Pediatrics recently endorsed new blood pressure guidelines that recommend increased use of blood-pressure-monitoring technologies outside the clinic for children at risk.
• By 2050 nearly all cancer related deaths in children and adults aged up to 80 years will have become preventable through life style changes and because of the availability of protective technologies and better pharmaceutical and other therapies.
• Com s Echo with its Alexa voice assistant will violate children's privacy and deepen a trend of surrendering intimate human connections to technology that talks and listens.
• A technology that could eventually see every childhood vaccine delivered in a single injection has been developed by US researchers.
• Cutting edge 3D-printing technology could be used to create new biofabricated ears for children with microtia.
• Cognitive computing could be a transformative technology for the child welfare field.
• Advances in reproductive technology are making it possible to delay having children even later, and many couples will choose to do this.
• It is possible automakers could add technologies to detect a child left in a parked vehicle.
• Educational technology resources are getting better and better- the future will make learning less like educational mills and more specialized to meet the needs of each child and prepare them in the path they choice earlier than ever before.
• IBM's groundbreaking Watson technology will be studying rare children's diseases to increase diagnostic accuracy.
• Pedestrians, cyclists, children and the elderly are expected to benefit (in terms of reduced distraction) mostly from technological developments that reduce or cancel the need to interact visually with the nomadic devices they carry (e.g. haptic/tactile feedback technologies).

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Last updated: 17 September 2020