Within the last 20 years, digitization trends have changed the way companies are running. Businesses are now using different types of technology to execute their tasks. Companies must keep up with digital trends if they plan to stay competitive in the future.

At the moment, the world is facing a pandemic with the Coronavirus that is hurting the food industry. Many restaurants who have not yet made their menu available for online ordering, are at risk of closing down.

Digitization trends are still new, but if companies stay informed, it can lead to their success. The way these trends can help is by making time-consuming tasks into automated ones, chatbots for customer service, online collaboration, and more. There is no negative in digital trends other than the amount that a business will pay for them. There are many digital trends, but there are five that stand out the most. The top 6 digital trends for business transformation are artificial intelligence, personalization, analytics, shoppable post, augmented reality, and voice search.

Artificial intelligence

There are two trends within AI that every business needs to follow, which are process automation and commercial AI & machine learning. AI is still new to the world but has allowed companies to automate some of their procedures.

Process automation

Businesses use AI to process automation in office work. For example, a hospital that cares for a large number of patients uses AI to help keep updated information about them. The AI inputs the patient's health problems, the next appointment, responding to emails, updating customer information, and more. This level of intelligent automation allows hospitals to enhance care for their patients.

Machine learning

As it advances, commercial AI and machine learning will help speed things up with production. Smaller businesses can use it to help accelerate their production lines. It will notify their workers about specific problems, fixing errors to make decisions in real-time, and allowing the company to produce accurate numbers with fewer mistakes. Companies will no longer have to worry about getting a customer complaint about their product, knowing that their product is b top quality.

These two trends in AI are the key to a successful business. Most of the large companies have implemented AI into their work culture and are thriving off it. Small to medium businesses (SMBs) can do the same thing by following these trends and seeing the benefits of process automation and commercial AI and machine learning.

Read more about AI Technologies in our previous blog- How to Improve Product User Experience using AI Technologies.

Analytics

Source: Gartner

Looking at numbers is stressful and tedious, but analytics have allowed people to spend less time searching through data. As of now, analytics helps management decide what's the next decision they will take by following digitization trends. Augmented analytics will take a step forward and make it simple.

Augmented analytics

According to Gartner, augmented analytics is using machine learning and natural language processing to enhance data analytics. Augmented analytics will be able to handle extensive data and come out with specific information. For example, a sales manager wants to see the cost of sales and the performance of his/her workers. Augmented analytics will break down the information and show them areas to improve.

Cognitive insight

Next in analytics is cognitive insight. In which analytics will be able to detect specific patterns. Such as, what a customer is likely to buy, detect credit card fraud, identify safety problems, etc. Subscription-based businesses can use cognitive insight. Instead of sending products to a customer every month, they can instead use analytics to predict when the customer needs it. As a result, this will make the customer feel that they are not throwing their money away on something they don't need. At first, it does not make sense to lose sales, but in the long term, customers will appreciate it, and more will subscribe.

Analytics will no longer be a slow process to get facts, but instead, it will be something instant, allowing business owners to have their answers and make accurate decisions fast.

Shoppable post

Source: Later

As social media grows, influencers are not just a way to advertise to the viewers. Many times people see an influencer's post and see a product, but won't go to the product link. Shoppable posts will be the answer to get people to visit the business page or purchase the product on the Instagram post. Shoppable post is the new digital trend for successful retail and e-commerce businesses.

Instagram has become very popular for these posts. Consumers no longer have to search for an item after seeing it online. Instead, when an Instagram post comes up, the item is tagged and sends them directly to the site that sells them. It is convenient for the person because these posts are for mobile optimized.

SMBs can launch a new online channel

Customers can purchase at any time of the day. Not just for clothing but can be done for many types of products, such as beauty products, food, art, furniture, electronics, automotive parts, and more. Also, shoppable posts give a direct path to these business products. From an Instagram post, the viewer can either go to buy or go into the page and see more products. If the person does not buy, he or she will know the brand and, maybe, later on, will purchase.

70% of Instagram users go on the social media platform to look up brands, and 60% of them use it to learn new products. Any business can take advantage of this opportunity to either make sales or to increase their brand awareness.

Augmented Reality

Source: Ikea

Augmented reality is still a new technology but can benefit many retail businesses. Augmented reality is letting consumers see how a product will look inside their home. For example, a furniture store enables a buyer to use AR to see how a couch will look in their living room, fit, and price. Customers will no longer feel unsure of purchasing. Instead, they will feel confident and might want to see other products that will lead to a sale.

AR is not limited to retail but services such as construction companies can also use it. Augmented reality can allow homeowners to imagine what their future house will look and feel.

Shopping is a process that takes a lot of consideration because people don't know if they will like the product. Not only can AR help in-store but also outside of it. AR, later on, will be accessible to almost all households in the states, allowing people to shop with the device without any problems.

Augmented Reality cuts that and just lets the person think if they like it and if they can afford it. This digitization trend will become the new window shopping that will lead to more sales.

Personalization

One of the biggest problems that advertising is facing is that it's advertising to people who are not in their target audience. Online advertising has become negatively looked upon, like telemarketing.

Whenever an ad comes up online through a video or while scrolling through social media, the viewer just ignores it. These ads are shown to anyone but have no interest in what the ad is showing. Personalization, advertising will display ads that are relevant to the viewer by keeping track of the viewer's activity and purchasing history. There is a higher chance for the viewer to purchase from something they already like.

How SMBs can leverage personalization

About 91% of people say that they are more likely to shop from brands that provide offers that are relevant to them. Large companies are using this to advertise their products to their target audience. Small businesses can use this to get more exposure to their brand. For example, a person is interested in buying new rims. He starts searching for rim brands and ends up on the website. He doesn't end up buying, but later on, an ad comes up on his social media of the rims he saw on the site, leads him to a funnel, and orders the rims. This digitization trend is the perfect way to get new buyers and to get more sales. Personalization is the new way of advertising online.

Voice Search

Source: Backlinko

Voice search is still new to the world but has the potential to be the new way to shop. As technology gets smarter, voice searching will be more effective.

According to an article by tech crunch voice search, shopping is on track to grow to $40 billion by the year 2022. Many companies are using this to their advantage. For example, Amazon lets its users buy directly from their devices using voice search. From there, the device puts an order of what the person wants. The person does not have the option to pick what they will be receiving. Amazon does not care what brand it is; they just want to meet their users' needs.

How small businesses can use voice search

Most large companies are the first ones to come up because of the trust they have built with the buyers. Small businesses can do the same thing by improving their algorithms and see results instantly as they rank top in voice search results. Their sales will grow and help their business grow. This digitization trend will become the new SEO and play a significant role in many companies.  Read more about how well-designed algorithms can improve products.

Digitization trends and downturn

Each trend brings a benefit in situations that can be rough. As of now, the business world is going through a survival stage. Those who are up to date with trends are coming out of the pandemic running. Each of these trends brings a benefit for hard times, whether its a natural disaster, pandemic, or economic recession. They allow companies to run still and earn a profit.

Artificial intelligence can also help with the lack of a workforce. It will be able to maintain production lines, customer service centers, and more to run smoothly. If there were to be another situation like economic depression, AI would be able to keep a business running. The way analytics can help is by predicting customer needs. Analytics will allow a company to know what not to overproduce or cut hours for employees. Assisting the business save money and be prepared for worst-case scenarios.

Shoppable posts can help with any downturn if there is to be another pandemic like the one in 2020. These posts can still advertise to the people who are at home. It allows them to spread their business and get sales.

Augmented reality can help during a national quarantine by allowing customers to shop. They don't have to be in store to see if they like something.

An example of how personalization helps promote a product is Sony. Sony announced that they would be using personalization to promote their new Playstation 5 later in 2020. They will be publishing on social media and other forms online. Due to not being able to market in traditional ways. Any business can use this same strategy to promote their product as well.

Voice search is helping right now with the quarantine. Many people are staying home to be safe, but are doing their shopping online, including voice search devices and their ability to order from home. People are placing orders by speaking and getting it delivered at home. Many businesses can be using this tool to survive this pandemic. These trends are the lifeboats of business in times like the 2020 pandemic.

These digital trends are the new revolution of technology. Each digital trend will only get better as time goes. The internet was once slow but now has an impact on how the world runs. AI will help with the automation of the business process, and analytics will become more efficient and break down the question; Shoppable posts will be the new way to sell through social media, AR.

Conclusion

In today's world, it's essential to provide the best products and services user experience to compete with industry leaders as well as upstarts. With the availability of cloud platforms, there is no excuse not to adopt the latest digitization trends to catapult your business ahead of the competition. Does your internal digital team or an external vendor have the expertise to transform your business digitally? We can help. Talk to us.