Media Alert

Modest European economic growth will lead to a 2.3% rise in tech spending in 2014 and accelerate to almost 5% in 2015, according to Forrester’s annual European tech market outlook. Software spending will have the highest increase in 2014 across Europe, with customer-facing technologies for sales and marketing, mobile and analytics technologies, and big data most in demand. [...]

Wearable devices are on the rise now, but Forrester Vice President and Principal Analyst James McQuivey predicts that by 2016, their functionality will be absorbed by other devices, such as smartphones and sensor-laden headphones, another possible reason Apple acquired Beats. The digital era has witnessed the ascent and decline of a stunning number of new devices: the [...]

Turkey’s Garanti Bank takes the top spot in Forrester’s 2014 European mobile banking functionality review, closely followed by Spain’s La Caixa and Poland’s mBank. Using Forrester’s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology, the new research evaluates the mobile offerings of 11 leading retail banks across Europe — BNP Paribas and Société Générale in France, Deutsche Postbank in [...]

Some 78% of US online youth use Facebook at least one a month, while 28% say they use the site “all the time,” according to a new Forrester survey of more than 4,500 youth ages 12 to 17. Comparatively, this equates to greater teen usage of Facebook than of Instagram and WhatsApp combined, with 52% and [...]

Barclays takes the top spot in Forrester’s 2014 UK mobile banking functionality review, overtaking last year’s leader, NatWest and closely followed by Santander and Lloyds Bank. Using Forrester’s Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology, the new research evaluates the mobile offerings of the seven largest retail banks in the UK — Barclays, The Co-operative Bank, HSBC, [...]

European online retail sales will reach €233.9 billion by 2018, up from €134.9 billion in 2013 – reflecting a 12% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) over the next five years, according to a new Forrester forecast. While clothing will continue to be the largest online sales category in Europe, online grocery will be the fastest-growing, surpassing [...]

The market is thinking about big data the wrong way. Mastering it is not a one-and-done project, and it’s certainly not a challenge that can be solved with an off-the-shelf technology solution. Vendors need the market to believe this because big data is a complex challenge that businesses need to address now. What simpler way [...]

Dm-drogerie markt takes the lead position in Forrester’s first annual Customer Experience Index (CXi) for Germany. The new CXi report measures and ranks the experience of 25 large brands in Germany across seven different industries, based on a survey of 2,000 German consumers. Only three companies earned an “excellent” CXi score: dm-drogerie markt, Amazon, and ING-DiBa. [...]

In a new Forrester US mobile banking functionality benchmark, Chase and U.S. Bank tie for the top spot for their offerings, followed closely by Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Citi. Using its Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology, Forrester scored each of the five largest US retail banks with an average of 67 out of 100, [...]

In a new Forrester mobile banking functionality benchmark of the five largest retail banks in Canada, CIBC takes the top spot for its offering, followed closely by BMO, Scotiabank, RBC Royal Bank, and TD Canada Trust. Using its Mobile Banking Functionality Benchmark methodology, Forrester scored each of the five Canadian banks with an average of 66 [...]

mBank offers the best secure bank website capabilities in Europe, according to a new Forrester evaluation of the secure websites of 10 large retail banks in Europe. mBank’s secure site stands out for its combination of deeply integrated money management features, secure site search, proactive CRM-driven offers, secure video banking, and a visually stimulating store environment for [...]

Despite an uptick in consumer usage, marketers remain skeptical of social login’s value. Just 17% of recently surveyed marketers offer social login on their websites, while 54% have no plans to implement this tool. But according to a new Forrester report, marketers should not overlook social login as an element in their social depth strategy, [...]

More European consumers will bank on their tablets than on their mobile phones by as soon as 2016, according to Forrester’s European digital banking forecast for 2014 to 2018. While mobile banking use in Europe will grow fast — from 42 million users in 2013 to 99 million in 2018 — tablet banking will grow twice [...]

Mobile has changed the way consumers think. Increasingly, people turn to their mobile device to satisfy every need, and every interaction reinforces the perception that the solution to any problem will be available on this device. This new consumer expectation — to be able to get what you want, anytime, in your immediate context — [...]

US mobile phone and tablet commerce will top $293 billion by 2018 (tablet = $219B; smartphone = $74B) — a whopping 54% of total US eCommerce sales. By the end of this year, combined mobile and tablet sales will reach $114 billion, with the biggest purchase categories including media products, apparel, and consumer electronics, according [...]

Today, Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) announced two Business-To-Employee Forrester Groundswell Award winners for excellence in effective use of social media to advance an organizational or business goal. The winners were announced in conjunction with Forrester’s Forum For Technology Management Leaders in Orlando, Florida. The eighth annual Forrester Groundswell Awards support and recognize the principles [...]

Forrester Research, Inc. (Nasdaq: FORR) today announced its 2014 first-quarter financial results. The company also announced that its board of directors authorized a $25 million increase in the company’s stock repurchase program, bringing the total available repurchase authorization to approximately $45.1 million. First-Quarter Financial Performance Total revenues were $73.1 million for the first quarter of [...]

By 2018, 44% of all in-store retail sales in Europe, or €920 billion, will be influenced by online research, up from 31% and €539 billion in 2013, according to Forrester’s first European cross-channel retail sales forecast. Northern European markets are driving cross-channel sales across Europe, with 72% of cross-channel sales coming from the UK, France, [...]

Fifty-seven percent of US smartphone owners who see in-app ads find them interruptive and only one in five thinks the ads are relevant, according to new Forrester data. So despite impressive mobile revenues from the likes of Twitter and Facebook, most marketers still aren’t delivering when it comes to mobile advertising. How can marketers transform their [...]