BRAND: Need more evidence that Apple’s iPhone dominance is slipping? Market data firm Kantar Worldpanel found, in the three months ending in May, that Apple’s iPhone 6s/6s Plus did worse than Samsung’s Galaxy S7/S7 Edge in terms of sales. According to a report, 16 percent of consumers bought Samsung phones compared to 14.6 percent of consumers who opted for an iPhone. What’s more, the report found Samsung represented 37 percent of smartphone sales compared to 29 percent with Apple in the three-month period.

BRAND: Today, about a third of fashion and luxury ecommerce transactions are done on smartphones, and by 2017, mobile is expected to account for 70 percent of digital sales. Showing consumers’ comfort with spending on mobile, today the ratio of cart totals on mobile compared to desktop is 94 to 100. When looking for fashion online, consumers are apt to comparison shop, looking for merchandise from multiple retailers at the same time. For 43 percent of consumers, the journey from browsing to eventual purchase is completed across more than one device.

ECOMMERCE: Globally, the electronic commerce, or ecommerce, market is worth around $22.1 trillion, according to latest UNCTAD estimates. China is the world's largest business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce market, both in terms of sales and in number of online shoppers, followed by the US and Japan. India, the 10th largest market in terms of buyers, was ahead of Brazil and Russia in per capita ecommerce spend, the report said.

ECOMMERCE: It wouldn’t be too far off the mark to say that customer service affects the success, reputation, and popularity of your company. These three companies recognize the importance of customer service, especially being in the e-commerce sector, where there can be no face-to-face human interaction. They provide great service and have raving reviews to show for it. So without further ado, let’s see which companies are dethroning Amazon and Zappos from their customer service leadership.

BRAND: When presented with a range of choices at the point of making a purchase decision, the average consumer seems to think that his or her purchase decision is guided by rational analysis. The reality however is that emotions play a predominant role in majority of purchase outcomes. Emotions tap into previous and related experiences that seem to attribute subjective values to each option under consideration.These subjective values translate to preferences that lead to our final decision.

MEDIA: In the fast-moving world of social media, where Snapchat is the new Twitter is the new Facebook is the new MySpace, Instagram has managed to mostly steer clear of the are-they-cool-or-aren't-they debate. Less than 6 years old, the company — co-founded by Systrom and owned since 2012 by Facebook as an independent division — recently topped 500 million users (leaving Twitter's 310 million in its wake and nearly a third of the way to Facebook's 1.65 billion) and is the app of choice for a predominantly young, female-skewing audience.

ECOMMERCE: Chinese consumers already make up for almost half of global online retail sales, and are only growing in numbers. Online retail sales amounted to $581.61 billion in 2015, surging 33.3% from the previous year. The volume of online sales in China now exceeds that in the US, and online sales are expected to grow 20% annually by 2020. Furthermore, online shoppers represent the vanguard of China’s growth story, since they tend to be young, urban, and highly educated.

MCOMMERCE: A greater number of overall ecommerce purchases will come from smartphones, per Javelin’s estimate that mcommerce purchases will make up 49 percent of total online retail commerce in 2020, a significant increase from 29 percent in 2015. The enlarging spotlight placed on mobile is partly due to retailers’ ongoing efforts to provide smartphone-friendly offerings and checkout solutions to customers, according to Javelin’s 2016 Online Retail Payments Forecast.

ECOMMERCE: A number of key considerations will dictate retailers’ ability to capitalise on this, however. An essential starting point is understanding just how and when consumers want to be talked to given messaging apps have so far been used primarily for conversing with friends, Hathaway points out. For this reason, many currently testing this area – brands such as Dutch airline KLM and Hyatt Hotels – have focused on using Facebook Messenger for customer service or, in the case of Uniqlo, distributing coupons for gifting to drive footfall into store.

AGENCY: But running your own agency -- whether it's just you or you've hired a few or more people -- is a completely different challenge. Now, you're responsible for everything, from the work to the happiness of clients to hiring to the state of your bill with the electric company.  And you've run into a few too many troublesome situations in your adventure in building an agency -- ones you wish you could have avoided. To prevent making the same mistakes as many others new to ownership, check out these common problems. 

BRAND: It’s in vogue for marketers to think of themselves as storytellers. But much of the marketing that gets passed off as “storytelling” really isn’t that much of a story. There is genuine power in stories and there are inspiring examples of brands that tell stories. But I think that often gets diluted by all of the content produced in the name of storytelling that is really just a thinly veiled marketing pitch. Not all marketing is storytelling. Not all content tells a story. Most case studies are just case studies. Most video testimonials are just video testimonials.

BRAND: Nike is receiving high praise after posting a sports bra ad on Instagram with a curvy model. The post, captioned "Welcome to Sports Bra 101" offered tips for picking the appropriate sports bra. But it was model Paloma Elsesser who stole the show, posing for the photo in a jog bra and leggings. "Way to go @nike@nikewomen for representing body diversity without labeling it plus-sized' ! This is a great post and a big step towards true body equality," one commenter wrote.