Rebecca Day

The EU has returned to a proposal that would make USB-C the common standard port for charging all smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, headphones, portable speakers and video game consoles. Member states agreed on a negotiating mandate for the common charger proposal, said the European Council Wednesday. A proposal for a common charger was tabled by the European Commission in September.

The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated consumer awareness for home healthcare, telehealth services, stay-at-home fitness and whole-home home ventilation, said Parks Associates analyst Kristen Hanich during Parks' virtual Connected Health Summit.

Logitech scratched the Jaybird line of audio products on a 32% sales drop in the audio and wearables business in fiscal Q3, said Chief Financial Officer Nate Olmstead on the company’s Tuesday earnings call. After a portfolio review, management chose to “redirect resources to new opportunities,” said prepared remarks. Jaybird headphones delivered about $5 million a quarter; Logitech had $8 million of component and other inventory write-offs in the quarter related to Jaybird products it decided not to launch, Olmstead said.

AT&T Fiber pushed speed, reliability and security in a virtual event Monday announcing advanced speeds, new pricing plans for multi-Gbps and initiatives to address the digital divide. It announced new no-contract 2- and 5-Gbps plans for residential and small-business customers.

Conn’s HomePlus is rebranding as part of a three-year strategy to grow its e-commerce business, enlarge its retail footprint and expand its reach to upscale customers, said executives on the company’s virtual investor day meeting Thursday. It’s in the “research and discovery” phase of the rebranding project, with an update expected in six months, said Chandra Holt, former chief merchandising officer at Walmart who joined Conn's as CEO in August.

Consumers are flocking to streaming services, “and advertisers are following them,” said an eMarketer study on U.S. video trends to watch in 2022. The average North American internet user more than doubled the number of subscription VOD services they used from 2016, to an average 8.8 in Q2 2021, eMarketer said, citing TiVo data.

Netflix customers wanting 4K TV content will now have to pay $19.99 a month, up $2, said the Netflix website Friday. The company raised prices across all tiers, with limits on quality and number of screens that can be viewed simultaneously. The basic plan is $9.99 for one standard-definition screen and one mobile device for downloads. The standard plan, raised $1.50 to $15.49, allows viewing of two screens at once and two mobile devices for downloads. The $19.99 premium plan has a four-screen maximum for simultaneous viewing and four mobile download devices. HD content is available on the top two tiers, with Ultra HD only on Premium, it said. All three plans have unlimited movies, TV shows and games, viewable on a laptop, TV, phone or tablet. Prices apply to new members and will gradually take effect for all current members, Netflix said. Current members will receive an email notification 30 days before their price changes, unless they switch plans, said the company. Netflix didn’t respond to questions. Twitter users questioned the quality levels.

Virtual MVPD fuboTV will be the exclusive streaming platform in Canada for England’s Premier League soccer league beginning this season as part of a three-year deal, it said Thursday. It will show all 380 Premier League matches live on fuboTV and on its linear channel, Fubo Sports Network, it said.

Fiserv will showcase its Carat omnichannel commerce ecosystem at NRF 2022 this weekend in New York, as a way to mitigate customer returns, it emailed Thursday. By using payments data to identify consumers with a high propensity to return items, retailers can incentivize “high returners” in real time to not send items back, the company said. With the Fiserv systems, merchants can identify credit or debit cards at the point of sale that have historical payment activity matching an anonymous profile of high return activity, it said. When those cards are presented online or in store, the merchant can present the customer with a discount or digital gift card in real time before the purchase is made, if the consumer agrees to make the sale final, with no option to return. If a consumer planning to price shop between two websites for the same pair of shoes is provided an incentive, “the chance of unnecessary items being purchased or returned is mitigated,” it said. For some merchants, as much as 60% of their return volume comes from just 1% of their consumer base, it said.

OnQ added touchless capability to its Coverage retail display platform, it emailed Thursday. Converge Display Control lets shoppers control interactive experiences on a connected TV by scanning a QR code with their smartphone. After a consumer scans a QR code, their phone acts as a remote to select and control content displayed on the TV, a spokesperson said. A retailer could let the customer search product specifications, watch demonstration videos and scroll through product reviews, he said. He gave the example of sound bars on display in a store, where instead of pressing physical buttons to compare the sound, a customer would enable the same comparison via phone. He also cited an “omnichannel tie-in” that integrates a mobile shopping experience: When a customer scans a code, she can purchase online while still in the store or select from a broader range of products than what’s displayed in the store to create an “expanded aisle” experience. Customers could also choose to buy a product in store and have it delivered to their home. OnQ designs manages CE category displays for retailers including Target, Walmart, Costco and Fred Meyer.