What Should Small Businesses Do About Digital Transformation?

The word "transformation" brings up ideas of instantaneous transformation. The speed of small business digital transformation hasn't exactly kept up. It has evolved at a much slower rate.

That worked for many organizations until earlier this year, when a worldwide epidemic rocked the world, altering business and consumer behavior patterns almost quickly.

If your company is still catching up, now is the time to start or speed up your digitization efforts.

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Because there are so many components: marketing, sales, customer experience, and loyalty, raising funds, attracting and maintaining people, sourcing, expanding worldwide, and more, it can be overwhelming. On the bright side, you'll have more time to focus on business and growth initiatives once you've gone digital.

The impact of the coronavirus on the digitalization process cannot be overlooked. Most customers have applications on their phones for restaurants and businesses with which they do business frequently, allowing them to order ahead of time and arrange for curbside pickup. That's all part of the digital lifestyle's normality.

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Virtual trade events are becoming more popular

May businesses have taken traditional trade shows and transformed them into 21st-century versions, recognizing the necessity to digitize. Because of the coronavirus, numerous trade shows and exhibitions have been canceled. To fill the void, Alibaba.com launched Alibaba.com Online Trade Shows USA, which are multi-day virtual events that bring together U.S. manufacturers and wholesalers with business customers in real-time.

Don't worry if you think your small firm is too tiny to successfully shift digitally.

E-commerce is becoming more popular

Despite the pandemic, e-commerce revenues are increasing, according to numerous surveys and research. According to data from the United States Census Bureau, online sales increased by 31.8 percent in Q2 2020 compared to Q1 sales and by 44.5 percent compared to Q2 2019. Total online sales in the second quarter were $211.5 billion, or 16.1 percent of total retail sales, up from 10.8 percent in the second quarter of 2019.

And, as we reported a few weeks ago, eMarketer revised its 2021 retail sales projection, predicting that online sales will rise 18 percent to $710 billion this year.

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The future of marketing is digital

Another area where digitization has taken root is marketing. After all, Facebook is just a digitalized version of word-of-mouth marketing. We all know how powerful email marketing is for small businesses, with an average return on investment of 4200 percent, or $42 for every $1 spent. HubSpot, Constant Contact, AWeber, and Mailchimp are just a few of the email marketing businesses that may help you automate the email process.

For some businesses, the ideal method to digitize is to work remotely. If you're a retailer, you should have built a powerful e-commerce platform to offset lost in-store revenues by this point in the COVID-19 epidemic. It's also a good moment to decide whether you should permanently convert your physical store to an online one.

Wallets are being digital

Because many consumers went digital before businesses, consumers now have higher expectations of firms. Digital payments are one area that people are increasingly adopting. While many businesses were already moving in the direction of contactless payment choices, COVID-19 gave it a big boost.

Consumers and employees are wary about handing over money or even a credit card to strangers. Customers can pay securely using their phones or credit cards thanks to contactless payment systems. Stripe, PayPal, Square, Apple Pay,and Google Pay are just a few of the contactless payment systems available.