On today's episode, we discuss data’s role in customer experience (CX), how the pandemic changed the way companies approach customers, and how to measure CX ROI. We then talk about the best loyalty programs in the US, shifting to contactless payments, and whether Gen Z will recover from the pandemic-induced recession. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.

eMarketer principal analysts Mark Dolliver and Sara M. Watson, vice president of research Jennifer Pearson, and junior analyst at Insider Intelligence Blake Droesch discuss the pivotal decision of Facebook's Oversight Board to ban former President Donald Trump, private search engines making a push, whether social media damages teenagers' health, whether baby boomers will want to shop online post-pandemic, Apple's reported paywalled podcast platform, what happens to astronauts when they're in space, and more.

eMarketer principal analysts at Insider Intelligence Mark Dolliver and Jeremy Goldman discuss SMS marketing, calculating the ROI of customer experience, why Gen Z doesn't matter that much and boomers matter more, and what to know about parents in 2021.

“The largest amounts of new users were Gen Z and millennials. We project that there will be around 6.5 million new mobile wallet users per year from 2021 to 2025, of which more than 4 million will be Gen Zers. Millennials will continue accounting for around four in 10 mobile wallet users, although that share will shrink.”. Apple Pay remains the dominant player with 43.9 million users in 2021.

These factors may be particularly important to Gen Zers and millennials because they’re BNPL providers’ core demographic, but the industry’s appeal isn’t confined to young shoppers. BNPL firms have built their businesses up by targeting younger consumers. More than half of Affirm’s consumers are Gen Zers or millennials, CFO Michael Linford told Insider Intelligence.

In 2020, Facebook’s worldwide user base will grow 8.7%, nearly double the rate we had forecast before the global pandemic began.

The pandemic has fueled greater social media usage worldwide and prompted revisions to our earlier forecasts. We now expect the total number of social network users to rise 8.1% in 2020, to 3.23 billion—equivalent to 80.7% of all internet users.

This was a view shared by Lewis Hadley, head of insights and digital marketing at in-game advertising platform Bidstack: “There’s been a big increase in people watching esports, but that’s skewed toward that younger audience, so Gen Z and millennials,” he said.

The pandemic has been able to make common what would previously have stood out as extreme amounts of screen time.