7 Emerging Business Trends That Will Likely Disrupt Everything
In the United States, there are 58.7 million people employed by small businesses according to government statistics. Working for a small business can be very satisfying but when you’re small, emerging business trends can cause huge disruption.
Understanding upcoming disruptive trends that will change the face of business is vital for any company. In this guide, we’ll give you key business insights about what the future holds and how it will affect you.
Keeping informed can help you stay ahead of the competition and keep your cool when everything is changing. Ready to make your business more prepared for the future?
Then keep reading!
1. The World Will Go Cashless
Being able to take card transactions is already vital for most businesses. In the future, it’s going to be even more essential as we’re fast approaching a cashless world.
One of the most disruptive emerging business trends, its impact can already be seen in China, which is well on its way to going completely cashless. An incredible 75 percent of Chinese citizens already prefer to use cashless payment methods rather than worrying about coins and notes.
If you think this is only going to be the situation in the Far East, think again. In Sweden, 80 percent of people prefer paying with their cards. While this has yet to take hold in the United States, it is only a matter of time before it does.
The coronavirus pandemic has also made cashless societies more attractive as the virus can be carried on coins and notes.
2. Catering to Millenials
A lot of businesses still seem to regard Millenials not as potential consumers but as a scientific curiosity that doesn’t need to be catered to. This is a horrendous mistake: Millenials are not only young people in their 20s: the youngest of the Millenial cohort will be having their 40th birthdays next year.
Millennials are digital natives and are savvy: they have high expectations that businesses need to meet. If the businesses don’t market themselves towards Millennials, they’ll be able to find another company that does with ease.
Marketing towards Baby Boomers and Generation X alone at this point in time is terrible for your company. See Millenials as equal consumers and work to make your products and services attractive to them.
If you don’t, your business may not be able to survive much longer, especially when Millenials become the cohort with the most disposable income.
3. Artificial Intelligence Becomes Mainstream
Artificial intelligence is no longer science-fiction. Already, machine learning and AI are helping to make search algorithms and data management more effective for companies across a range of sizes.
Falling behind in the technological arms race spells disaster for your company, yet a host of companies still don’t even have a website. If you aspire to be a major company, you will need to harness the power of AI to help your business grow.
It’s hard to outline the specifics and consequences of these disruptive technologies in one section. For more information about the future of IT and technology in business, read on here.
4. People Expect the Personal Touch
E-commerce has inculcated people with the idea that shopping should be personalized. We’re all used to those emails from Amazon, eBay, and other online stores telling us when something we bought before or something on our wishlist is on sale.
This kind of personalization is becoming more and more common in brick-and-mortar stores, too. Already, customer loyalty cards track our purchases and tell us when things we buy regularly are cheaper than normal.
While integrating these kinds of algorithms into your business may seem difficult, it’s only a matter of tracking customer purchases and using machine learning to recognize patterns.
More and more industries, such as fast food, are beginning to offer this personal touch to their regular customers. As with the other tech that we’ve mentioned, it’s something that all businesses will eventually need to cater for.
5. Increased Frugality
Frugality is on the rise among customers. The Great Recession and wage stagnation have made people stop and look at their finances much more closely than they ever used to. As such, people are less willing to spend frivolously.
So how do you market to people who are cautious about spending money? You’re going to need to get more creative.
Establish yourself as offering great value products and services that people can’t afford to be without instead of focusing on disposable items. Show off your value and make people want your products not just for today, but for life.
6. Fragmented Entertainment Markets
For those people in creative industries, the fragmentation of entertainment is a worrying trend. Few of us can afford to subscribe to Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, Prime Video, Crunchyroll, and all of the other entertainment services out there.
This means that the creative industries may have to accept getting smaller, especially as television continues to decline. This will also affect the advertising industries, for whom television and radio have been standbys for generations.
There is another issue with fragmentation: people who wish to watch shows from one service without subscribing to it may turn back to piracy. As the market continues to fragment, the ease of piracy will begin to look more appealing, which could cause revenue issues.
7. The Rise of Data
Data is crucial to many businesses’ success. Big data and data science are going to play bigger and bigger parts in business and if you aren’t able to harvest and analyze data, you will be missing out on a massive competitive advantage.
While you don’t need to get a degree in data science, having your departments collect data and making it open to the rest of the company will give your business a big boost.
Prepare for These Emerging Business Trends
The key to a successful business is adaptability. Meet these emerging business trends head-on and be prepared for the changes they’ll bring to businesses around the world. Make sure that you don’t get left behind or your business will be sure to struggle in the coming years.
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