Digital Trends to watch in 2023
The world is now firmly in post-pandemic back to daily business but some of the digital habits acquired by people during lockdown are here to stay. Digital disruption is continuing at a faster pace than ever before. Technological innovation is relentless and it’s hard to keep up with all the change. Is your business ready? To help you cut through all the hype, here are some key trends to watch if you are a small to medium business owner:
E-commerce continues to gain ground
Though Australians are above the world average in preferring brick and mortar shops to online, the choice for e-commerce is growing. Generally, according to sources such as Statistica or ecommerceDB, the compound annual growth is at approximately 18% with a predicted revenue of US$43 million by 2023. The largest e-commerce markets in Australia are: Food & Personal Care, Fashion, DIY & Hobby, Electronics and then furniture. Businesses need to invest in both the personal service in retail and making sure their websites are e-commerce ready, either for click & collect or pure ecommerce.
Mobile Commerce will grow with mobile phone use
People are relying on their mobile phones more and more and the next step is to shop more from the mobile. In 2019, the total value of the Australian mobile commerce market was 12.1 billion U.S. dollars. This market is forecast to increase exponentially in size to over 20 billion U.S. dollars by 2023. Has your website got a messenger customer service? Is it mobile friendly?
Artificial Intelligence – creative robots for marketing?
Launched in November 2022, chat GPT, an automated text generating AI, has taken the world by storm. Coca Cola is beginning to experiment with artificial intelligence in their creative departments. To date, artificial intelligence cannot create something truly original, like a human creative process. Artificial intelligence can synopsize what already exists, is also useful in scanning social media for customer opinions. For simple customer service, a pre-programmed AI based chatbot is an efficient addition to the online presence of a business. It can also be useful in generating social media posts but don’t expect it to provide in depth original content, unique to your business.
Increased use of video in marketing
As use of social media grows, consumers are searching for products or brands on these platforms, where video is the more engaging format. In 2020/2021, as many as 44% of Aussies said that they’d found out about interesting new products from social media, while 33% did the same on video platforms like You Tube. According to a 2020 survey, in Biteable, of 694 marketers and small businesses that used video for marketing purposes, exactly half had been making clips for over a year, and 36% created them a few times a week, while 14% every day. Many businesses host their videos via their website.
