Insights

2021

News from the studio in Norwich, and fifteen years of writing on e-commerce, search, paid media and running a digital business.

Articles from 2021

Moments

1936: Alan Turing & The Turing Machine - Pivotal Moments

The Turing Machine was ground-breaking because of its simplicity. Because it was clear about what it could and could not compute, it is still considered the most powerful machine in the world. Any modern computing system as powerful as Turing Complete is called Turing Complete.

Tait Pollack · · 5 min read
Moments

1982: Boston Computer Exchange - Pivotal Moments

Online shopping, or e-commerce, is precisely what it sounds like—buying and selling services via the Internet. You might have looked at the title of this post and thought, wait - we didn’t have the internet in 1982. That's true, but it doesn’t mean e-commerce wasn’t possible.

Tait Pollack · · 6 min read

Four Ecommerce Trends Set to Dominate in 2021

2020 brought about one of the most dramatic shifts in the ecommerce landscape since the advent of online retail. The unfortunate and completely unforeseen events of the year spurred an…

Tait Pollack · · 4 min read

The Latest Digital Marketing Stats from December

The time has come for us to once again share a few interesting and important facts and figures regarding the world of digital marketing. This time, there are snippets in…

Tait Pollack · · 3 min read
Moments

1801: Joseph Marie Jacquard Invents The Loom - Pivotal Moments

Joseph Marie Charles, known as Jacquard, might not be a name that springs to mind when you think of early computers, particularly when you consider that he was born in Lyon, France, in 1752. Jacquard’s innovative loom engineering led to the technological revolution of the entire textile industry.

Tait Pollack · · 5 min read

12 Months of Sales in 4 Weeks - How Notcutts Are Beating COVID

If you live in the UK and you’ve ever considered yourself ‘green-fingered’, then you’ve likely heard of horticultural superstars Notcutts. A high-end garden centre chain, Notcutts offer their customers more…

Tait Pollack · · 7 min read
Moments

1998: The Birth of PayPal - Pivotal Moments

Before PayPal's creation, early retail sites had no choice but to accept payments in cheque form or through money orders. The genius of Levchin and Thiel’s idea is partly due to its innovativeness and partly to the fact that no other company has noticed the gap in the market for an online payment system.

Tait Pollack · · 5 min read