Dear Friends,
Happy New Year!
In the beginning of the year, I would like to share with you top 5 digital trends that I think it will impact us all in business.
Top 5 Digital Trends in 2019
- Online shopping is dominating the mass of sales, daily selling strategies must take over seasonal tactics
- Mobile payment is the key to success to win the pie, true for both online & offline
- Building your own (customer) database is the only way to win a longer term success
- Customer service level is determining your sales level when chatbot is getting mature & popular
- Search Engine Optimization & Online Presence must be done properly to increase sales opportunities
1. Online shopping is dominating the mass of sales, daily selling strategies must take over seasonal tactics
We have seen tremendous growth in online sales throughout the last few years. During the last 2-3 months, we even experienced the shift of traditional shopping season from Christmas to a whole month of "sale" & "crazy shopping" when Double-Eleven begins, then follows the Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Cyber Monday...etc. Obviously, merchants are starting to promoting for the shopping "November" as early as in September. We have also seen an increase advertising budget required by 30% in order to do the same thing of the previous year. Both Google & Facebook are encouraging people to do their own advertising and it is relatively easier to start but we think it is very difficult to perform in a real fact. In order to win over this paradigm shift, merchants must take an aggressive stand to plan for a daily selling strategy and there is no need to wait for Christmas sales as consumers are online all the time.
2. Mobile payment is the key to success to win the pie, true for both online & offline
It is so amazing to see elderly people are using mobile payment to pay for their meals in fast-food chains. Alipay, WeChat Pay, Union Pay are really aggressively penetrating the market and you can see so many promotions and gifts are being giving out to attract people of all ages to opt in and jump onto this bandwagon. If your shops (online & offline) are not equipped with these mobile payment methods, you have already lost the game.
3. Building your own (customer) database is the only way to win a longer term success
Where should we build up of customer critical mass? I am sure the answer should not be Facebook, nor Instagram, nor WeChat... It is so important to bear in mind that you will only gain your asset of customer database by building your own from your website or from your shop through loyalty program or membership or any other sorts. When you build up your own database, you may chasing after your customers on Google, Facebook, Instagram and etc...not vice versa. I hate to say, e-Mail marketing is still the most cost effective way to convert businesses and sales. However, having said that, it is very costly to gain a quality customer on your database in the beginning.
4. Customer service level is determining your sales level when chatbot is getting mature & popular
We have seen a lot of Chatbot installation on websites, facebook...etc in 2018 and the growth will continue in 2019 with even fasting pace. When Chatbot can entertain the initial needs of a consumer, you have a higher chance in converting it into a sales order. Mobile age is all about online 7x24 and it is a very tiring and challenging game for any merchant. If you are not ready to sacrifice, you are not going to win. Nonetheless, human touch is always important, we also have seen a trend when some merchants are really using real persons to reply, the conversion rate is even greater. For a very good reason, customer service outsourcing is going to be a very good business in its own right.
5. Search Engine Optimization & Online Presence must be done properly to increase sales opportunities
If you cannot be found by your target customers, you are losing the game totally. It is not an easy job at all if you want to gain a place on search engines, on social media, on anything that is digital. It requires a lot of works in order to increase your ranking and presence online. We still see a lot of companies are very ignorant on this point. In certain case, they don't even know their competitors are really stealing their supposed business by using their own names. Very depressing fact! Moreover, we recommend our clients often if they can 30-40% of their incoming new traffic organically rather than 80% by advertising, then they will potentially win a lot more business with higher return on investment.
The above is a brief outlook I would like to share with you this time of the year though I have a lot more to share. If we can all act well on these 5 points, I believe business will grow and we can have a better chance to win in 2019.
May I wish you a prosperous & great year in 2019!
Warm wishes,
Matthew
Adams Company Limited
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