Tuesday, January 26, 2016

Smart technology

Smart technology and hyper connection means that we can manage all facets of our lives which reshape the functioning of our society. The number of channels and platforms of communication is continuously rising, all the information that is important for us is transmitted to us through numerous media outlets. Therefore, companies have to revise their marketing and sales strategies. Customized information and fast service is expected. It is important to publish the right content in the right place at the right time, since we live in an information-driven world. 

Due to technological development, consumption is being shifted towards online sites. The development of the industry is happening simultaneously with the development of technology. In e-commerce the only permanent factor is change. Sales people have to be aware of the latest trends in order to react to changes in time and to gain a competitive advantage.
 
 

A current trend of the market is that e-sales managers organize campaigns in specific periods instead of sporadic times. This helps planning ahead. Fixed campaigns are usually related to holidays. The Singly Day introduced by Alibaba 6 years ago generated a 9,3 billion turnover  last year, and this year, people spent 14,34 billion USD over a 24-hour period.  

Consumers continuously share information on social networks, and webshops are present on these sites.  The result of this presence is that 50 % of online sales is generated with the help of social media. An increasing number of people connect to the Internet via smart phones, tablets and other mobile devices, and they are using the net not only for surfing for information, but also for shopping. The estimated annual increase rate of mobile trade is 42 % between 2013-2016.    

There are webshops today using customized avatars to dazzle the customers and help them buy clothing by looking at the chosen pieces on an avatar, which - by copying the customer’s body -  creates a virtual model to try the clothes on. Another alternative solution for e-shopping is when the customers try on the clothes in front of a computer system with a touch screen which reads the barcode of the dress the customer is trying on, checks the available stock, and orders it, if necessary. Customers also receive information about the availability of fitting rooms.

The in-store move of clothing, equipped with RFID chips, provides valuable information to companies. For example, which pieces are popular and which are not. This foreshadows the future direction of e-shopping. Members of younger generations use social media daily, share and like content, use their mobile phones to check Youtube videos, play on their tablets, read eBooks, so basically all new technological innovations are routinely used in daily activities.


From the companies' perspective, we are entering the era of Big Data. There is plenty of information circulating about customers. Based on the digital footprints of visitors, webshops obtain information about them such as: what type of devices they use to log on the webshop, what pages they have visited, etc. Therefore, companies have to store a huge amount of data. Data has become the main element of business, data sources help companies in decision-making and strategy planning to find the most effective and economical solutions.

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