Abstract
Over recent years, technology has rapidly advanced and is accelerating the emergence to Industry 4.0, particularly due to the connectivity abundance, volume increase of smart devices, and a growing interconnectivity between humans and technology. Within the last two years, 90% of the data in the world today was generated and in the next few years the volume of IoT interactions is said to reach approximately 4800 per day, which equates to a human interaction every 18 seconds. This correlates well with research undertaken regarding how consumers are exchanging information through smart devices and behavioural changes due to the technology adoption. The Generation Y and Z demand for smart devices, consumer behaviour online, and almost immediate data experiences is seeing fast consumption and data exchange without any preconceived concerns of trust, privacy, security, data profiling, or how data is used without their knowledge by third parties. This chapter will also analyse technology innovations to better protect identity data and processing of data through blockchain technology.
TopIntroduction
This chapter takes a deeper look into themes such as smart retailing in the internet era, the adoption of new technologies, and the differences between generations Y and Z and the notion of the millennial versus cyborg. There are differences between generations in terms of the decision-making process regarding smart retailing, which covers the comprehensive idea of young generations of consumers are behaving differently in the era of smart retailing. This also means how they access through devices in decision making and how freely data is given.
To help with an understanding of how generations are labeled, the following Table 1 gives the status and description of each:
Table 1. | Type | Year of Birth | Description |
| Baby Boomers | 1944 - 1964 | After World War II, Population was enjoying new-found prosperity, so the term “baby boom.” |
| Generation X | 1965 – 1979 | Illustrating the undetermined characteristics that followed Baby Boomers so why ‘X’ was used |
| Generation Y | 1980 – 1994 | Generation Y followed as alphabet but was coined by the phrase ‘Millennials’ and although tech-savvy not as fully reliant on smart devices as Generation Z |
| Generation Z | 1995 - 2015 | The newest Generation and different from Millennials as having truly grown up with in the hyper-connected world, heavily reliant on smart devices |
Theories And Principles And Evolution Of Marketing Channels In Digital Era
It is useful to understand marketing transitions so human interactions may be further analysed. During the past couple decades, humanity has experienced the most revolutionary inventions such as the growth of the Internet and World Wide Web which had a very powerful impact on the printed press, eventually leading to the digitalization era. The development of new technologies imposed a powerful impact on organizations, transforming the strategies of the businesses and the way of creating awareness for products and services, moving from traditional advertising (TV ads, direct marketing, etc.) to a digital approach (Pomirleanu, 2013).
The development of new technologies created new opportunities and challenges for education and academic research, likewise for industry practitioners (Weiss, 2011), and the global adoption of digital marketing strategy, has automatically contributed to the growth of marketing for organizations and communication with individual consumers, receiving individual feedback to provide the optimum decision for actual and potential customers for goods and services (Simons, 2008).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Social media: During the Internet decade the social arrangements made up of many actors in the virtual environment/ media which is called social media.
Blockchain: This is viewed as a mechanism to provide further protection and enhance the security of data by using its properties of immutability, auditability and encryption whilst providing transparency amongst parties who may not know each other, so operating in a trustless environment.
Digital Footprint: Is the track of data created and left behind while using the digital platforms.
Digital Marketing: The digitalization of communication channels and media will impact a substantial change in the direction for communication and interactions, and the consumer behaviour and the development of technologies is the main elements of developmental direction in marketing strategy in the digital era.
Data Harvesting: A huge amount of data and wealth of information is regularly generated about our lives with or without knowing and through a set of preferences and routines using data mining a pattern can be harvested.
Biohacking: Sometimes labelled as ‘do it yourself’ biology, is essentially ways to enhance human abilities.
Digital Identity: Digital identities originate from activity online or via the web and shadow data is generated as a collective body of data and recorded as individuals carry out various tasks that may be automated rather than intentionally purposed.
Cyborg: The gap between humans and technology has never been so close and now with the advent and acceptance of biohacking has made this transition to the term cyborg.