Tag: eCommerce trends
Our digital era is a whirlwind of change, with technology driving transformation at breakneck speed. It’s not just about adopting new gadgets; it’s about recognizing technology’s influence on consumer interactions. Retailers are at a crossroads with fresh opportunities and challenges. However, there’s a bright side – smart retail technologies can enhance the consumer experience, adapting to modern shoppers’ evolving needs and expectations.
In this article, we’ll explore how technology is transforming the retail sector and how businesses can use these innovations to meet the ever-changing demands of modern consumers. Ready to elevate your retail game? Let’s dive in!
Revamping Retail: How Smart Technologies Elevate the Shopping Experience
To remain competitive, retailers are adopting smart retail displays. These technologies are rapidly growing, with a market value of USD 30.25 billion in 2022 and a projected CAGR of 29.1% from 2023 to 2030. The convergence of innovation and retail has given birth to a shopping experience like never before. The retail industry is undergoing a transformation that promises to delight and engage customers. Let us understand how they are making retail smarter and more efficient.
1. Augmented Shopping
Gartner’s 2020 prediction of 100 million AR users was spot-on, and during the same year, the conversion rate for AR users surged by an impressive 90%.
Augmented reality (AR) is no longer limited to entertainment. It’s transforming the way customers interact with your products. By overlaying digital information onto the physical world, AR allows customers to visualize products in their real-life settings. Imagine someone shopping for furniture, using their smartphone to see how that new couch would fit in their living room. It’s a powerful tool for enhancing decision-making and customer engagement.
Did you know? As per research conducted by Deloitte, utilizing virtual try-ons and Augmented Reality (AR) in shopping experiences results in a remarkable 94% increase in conversion rates.
2. Virtual Trial Rooms
The VR retail market is expected to see substantial growth, increasing from USD 3.18 billion in 2023 to USD 18.99 billion by 2032, with a remarkable compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25.00% over the forecast period.
One of the most thrilling advancements in VR and AR in retail is the emergence of virtual fitting rooms. For clothing retailers, virtual trial rooms are a godsend. These digital fitting rooms allow customers to try on clothing virtually, eliminating the need for physical changing rooms. Shoppers can see how garments look and fit without the hassle of undressing. This technology saves time and enhances the overall shopping experience.
3. 3D Web Configurations
Instead of static product images, customers can interact with 3D representations of your products. This technology bridges the gap between online and in-store experiences, making online shopping feel more tactile and immersive. A recent study revealed that 93% of Gen Z have shown keen interest in using AR and 3D configurators for their shopping experiences.
In today’s digital age, attracting customers to your physical store can be challenging. Here, 3D experiences play a crucial role. These immersive technologies enable customers to explore your products thoroughly without visiting the store, helping them make informed decisions. This not only boosts conversion rates but also enhances in-store interactions with your staff, who can better understand customer needs.
4. Staff and Cashier-Free Stores
Staff and cashier-free stores are becoming increasingly popular, thanks to technologies like RFID, computer vision, and automation. Retailers are now investing largely in automated checkout processes. This innovation not only eliminates the need for traditional checkout lines but also enhances security and reduces theft.
Shoppers can grab what they need and simply walk out of the store, with their accounts being charged automatically. This convenience and time-saving aspect of cashier-free stores greatly enhances the overall shopping experience.
5. Data Science-Based Personalization
Data science and artificial intelligence are at the heart of personalization in the retail industry. Retailers collect and analyze vast amounts of customer data to tailor shopping experiences. Machine learning algorithms analyze a customer’s browsing and purchasing history to provide personalized product recommendations, exclusive discounts, and content. This increases sales and makes customers feel valued and understood.
6. Machine Learning for Demand Forecasting
Machine learning is transforming the way retailers manage their inventory and predict customer demand. Traditional methods of demand forecasting often led to overstocking or understocking issues. Machine learning algorithms, however, can analyze real-time data and make more accurate predictions based on various factors like seasonality, customer behavior, and market trends.
This technology ensures that stores have the right products in the right quantities at the right time, reducing waste and ensuring that customers can find what they want when they visit the store. Accurate demand forecasting greatly enhances the shopping experience and minimizes disappointment.
7. Frictionless POS Systems
Frictionless Point of Sale (POS) systems streamline the checkout process. Contactless payments, mobile wallets, and self-checkout kiosks make payments faster and more convenient for customers. With the ability to complete transactions quickly and without hassle, shoppers can spend less time waiting in line and more time enjoying their shopping experience.
Frictionless POS systems also provide a more secure and hygienic way to make payments, which has become increasingly important in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. In a survey of U.S. consumers, tap-to-pay mobile apps emerged as the top retail tech, with 66% giving it a positive rating for improving their shopping experience.
Watch now: How smart malls of the future would look like!
Transforming Retail Experiences: Fingent’s Expertise in Technology Solutions
At Fingent, we take pride in our role as a technology consulting and solutions provider, helping retailers navigate the modern landscape to discover unique opportunities and implement them swiftly with cutting-edge technology.
We believe in staying at the forefront of technological innovation, using data-driven insights to empower you to optimize operations, elevate customer experiences, and respond agilely to market changes. We employ agile development methodologies and support you through change management, ensuring that technology adoption is not just efficient but also seamless. We understand the importance of scalability, compliance, and security and work diligently to safeguard your interests.
By partnering with Fingent, retailers can confidently stay competitive, foster growth, and ensure long-term viability through innovative technology adoption. We are here to help you uncover the endless possibilities in the dynamic world of retail. Connect with our experts today!
The impact of the pandemic on consumers across the globe has dramatically changed their demands, needs, and behavior. Many of these changes have critical implications for businesses in most sectors. To succeed in the next normal, businesses must respond proactively.
COVID-19 jolted consumer demand in a way that sets it apart from past disruptions. As a result, customer loyalty took a hard hit. Executing the four Ps of marketing (optimization of product, price, place, and promotion) became more complex than ever. Businesses must redouble and broaden their efforts toward meeting ever-changing customer demands and behavior.
As with everything else, it is important for an organization to know and understand its customers. If your company is at crossroads with today’s Ecommerce customers’ needs, this article will help you understand how technology can help satisfy these uprising demands quickly and effectively. So then, let’s first understand how customer behavior, needs, and demands change.
Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost Ecommerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?
Ecommerce Customers’ Behavior, Demands, and Needs
Customers are like the moving targets. The key to success is to understand their behavior trends and use technology to help satisfy these uprising needs and demands. Linnworks research pointed to five such trends:
- Convenience is the need of the hour: 76% of consumers feel that convenience is the top priority in choosing a retailer. 90% of shoppers focus on using a trouble-free online store.
- The frictionless shopping experience is most valued: It was noted that 58% of consumers abandoned an online store altogether because they were difficult to use.
- Omnichannel shopping is gaining traction: One in three consumers has purchased an item while on social media. 71% of consumers prefer to complete a purchase on a social site without having to exit to the retailer’s site.
- Consumers demand flexible payment options: Four in five shoppers expect the “buy now, pay later” payment option.
- Delivery convenience: 95% of consumers say that fast and reliable delivery methods play a crucial role in their decision-making.
How Can Technology Help Satisfy these Uprising Needs and Demands of Today’s Consumers?
1. Allow your consumers to experience products before they buy
The biggest roadblock facing Ecommerce businesses has been the inability of consumers to experience products before they buy. Everyone likes to try on clothes they like to buy or see how is their new couch looks in their living room.
This is where AR (Augmented Reality) can help your business. AR can help your consumers try on clothes or closely inspect the components of a mobile device. AR market is expected to reach 2.54 billion by 2023. Online retailers who fail to take full advantage of this technology may likely experience business disruption.
2. Bring your product to life with virtual shopping
Virtual reality shopping can bring your products to life. It helps your customers to have an in-store-like experience, without actually being there. VR technology allows you to tag products so your customers can purchase on the spot. It can instantly connect buyers with customer service executives.
VR can make product recommendations based on customer metrics. It can also cater to both desktop and mobile users. Thus, it provides a better customer experience attracting more customers to your online store.
3. Be omnichannel ready
Todays’ Ecommerce customers like to cross-channel research and purchase. So, they expect smooth interactions across these channels and devices. Technology can help you to provide your customers with what they want, when they want it, and where they want it to. Some of these technologies include video chat, screen sharing, document interaction, e-signature, and more.
Co-browsing is an effective visual engagement system. It can bring your sales executives and customers together on the same page, at the same time. This allows your executive to guide your customers through the complex procedures making their customer journey as smooth as it can be.
Read more: Custom Retail Software Solutions: Everything You Need to Know!
4. Enhance customer communication with chatbots and AI
Artificial Intelligence has a major impact on how we live and work. Voice shopping is expected to jump to $40 billion by 2022, rising from $2 billion today. And 45% of millennials have already been shopping using voice assistants.
Chatbots and AI improve customer experience and boost brand image. These chatbots can be personalized to order food, get recommendations for almost anything, receive details regarding payment or order status, and more.
5. Hassle-free checkout process
Inefficient checkout processes can raise the chances of cart abandonment. However, this problem can be avoided by embracing technology that provides quick and efficient checkout solutions.
Technology enables speedy mobile payment solutions, allows your customers to save card details for repeat purchases. Above all, it proves one-page hassle-free checkouts and offers a range of payment options. All these can alleviate any potential difficulties your customers may face at checkout.
6. Enable m-commerce to enhance Ecommerce
Today many shoppers shop on the go. Hence, mobile platforms have gained greater importance. So much so that m-commerce is emerging as a concept. Given that, providing a mobile-oriented shopping experience will certainly help you win potential customers, maximizing your chances of future success.
Ecommerce mobile apps offer continuous engagement with your brand. It can help them familiarize with new and relevant purchasing opportunities. These apps also allow you to market products relevant to the specific geographical location of your customers.
Read more: 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
How Can Fingent Help Deploy These Evolving Technologies For Ecommerce Businesses?
It is one thing to understand your consumer behavior but another thing entirely to implement technology to satisfy their demands and needs. Fingent is here to help you implement these technologies efficiently. We can help you move the needle and dominate your niche in the Ecommerce industry.
Fingent can help you implement those that make sense and put the rest on the back burner. We can aid in the success of your Ecommerce venture by implementing cutting-edge technologies. Our development experts will help you promote your products in new and innovative ways.
Choosing Fingent as a software development company helps you save time and money and avoid unnecessary complexity, as we can provide all the needed components. Our platforms are easy to manage yet robust enough to house thousands of products. We can handle unique order processes and payment terms for your Ecommerce sales. Let’s get talking.
While Augmented Reality(AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have existed for quite some time, it has only recently had a revolutionary influence on the corporate sector. However, in the next few years, both AR and VR will compel every business to leverage it in some form to drive growth. According to Statista, the AR-VR market will grow up to $209 billion by 2022 worldwide. Additionally, the report states that the AR and VR application downloads are expected to reach 5.5 billion by next year.
A recent study suggests that consumers are more likely to buy from a brand that leverages immersive technologies to market themselves. AR and VR technologies help customers explore virtual showrooms, touch, feel and experience products and completely transform the shopping experience. From a 360-degree catalog to an engaging digital experience, both AR and VR technologies can help shoppers to immerse themselves into the Ecommerce experience and at the same time accelerate sales and drive growth.
Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality Detailed with Real-life Examples
Benefits of AR and VR
According to reports, about 78.65% of shoppers abandon their carts before completing their purchase. This shows the need for new ways to persuade customers to go ahead with the items in their carts and make the payment. Also, the pandemic has changed the customer behavior towards Ecommerce immensely, and customers now want to interact with your products digitally before visiting your store.
Sephora, IKEA, and MOSCOT are a few Ecommerce brands already using AR and VR to help convert prospective customers to clients.
Here are a few benefits!
1. Reduce friction in the online buyer journey
While the pandemic has accelerated Ecommerce adoption, some friction in the online buyer journey still exists. AR and VR help reduce that friction. Both AR and VR technologies enable consumers to find products quickly and try them on before purchasing them. Customers can also use the VTO technology to find answers to their queries without speaking to the customer service team.
Put simply, these immersive technologies disrupt customer experience completely and help convert a prospect to a client.
2. Improves digital marketing efforts
Facebook is piloting AR Ecommerce ads, and Google plans to incorporate AR product images into both paid and organic search results. Going ahead, AR and VR may improve the online marketing efforts of businesses.
3. Reduce returns
The ‘try-before-you-buy’ ability of AR and VR technology gives shoppers the chance to visualize a product and even try it on virtually, making them more confident in their purchasing decision. This eliminates the need to buy several versions of the same product and thus helps reduce returns, especially in the fashion industry.
Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost Ecommerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?
Top 6 Ecommerce AR-VR Trends
1. Virtual Showrooms
Virtual stores are going to change the way people shop. A virtual showroom converts an empty room into a digital one completely and helps customers explore a variety of products. VR glasses allow customers to view distinct products along with their characteristics just as they would in a physical store.
For example, Kia, an automotive brand, is already taking advantage of VR’s benefits in its Ecommerce. Their customers can go through different car models virtually and choose a car easily. In addition, Kia allows their prospective clients to drive their dream cars on a 1-1 scale.
2. Virtual ‘try-on’
It is estimated that a vast majority of Ecommerce stores will incorporate more virtual try-on technologies. This will help customers with what they’re buying. For example, the AR-embedded mirrors enable customers to ‘try on’ their desired clothes or shoes without actually wearing them.
While the virtual try-on solutions are popular in clothing and shoe stores, it is now available for furniture, makeup, eyeglasses, and accessories.
3. In-store Navigation
Augmented Reality makes it possible for customers to easily tour a shopping mall and find what they have been looking for exactly. In-store navigation powered by AR mostly comes in the form of a mobile app. These apps leverage advanced programming language features such as Python try-catch to provide users with much more than just AR routing.
AR-driven apps can help shoppers find an optimized shopping route, show the desired product’s exact location, and even guide them to gifts and discounts sections. For example, Lowe, America’s leading home improvement brand, uses an in-store navigation app to help customers shop conveniently.
4. AR Filters
Many businesses are leveraging AR filters to help their customers visualize products and make informed purchase decisions. Customers can try on products such as sunglasses, makeup products, and more using AR filters.
Warby Parker Sunglasses Company and Sephora are using AR technology to win their customers. Sephora has developed a virtual assistant that uses facial recognition to help customers try on different colors of makeup.
5. VR for In-store Experience
With customer behavior shifting to online shopping, Ecommerce businesses must consider investing in VR to close the gap between traditional stores and online shopping. With 3-D products, customers can move around in a VR store, interact with friends and even ask a virtual staff member for support if need be.
6. Interactive User Manuals
In years to come, interactive user manuals will become the norm, especially for online stores that sell a steep learning curve of a coffee machine. Customers can simply scan the product and get access to a virtual walkthrough of the product and understand its features, set up process, and more.
Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality for Immersive Customer Experiences
Wrapping Up
From furniture, luxury cars to makeup, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality have brought about tangible transformations. As they deliver real and measurable results to online brands, they are indeed here to stay!
As a professional software development agency, we help you realize unique concepts and projects. With our VR and AR services, we help create unusual solutions for your business. Our cost-effective AR/VR apps enable businesses to boost operational efficiency and drive user engagement. As a result, our solutions help businesses unlock unique opportunities that scale business growth and efficiency.
Leverage AR/VR for your Ecommerce business today! Our team of custom software development experts at Fingent can create the best solution for you. Call us now!
How does a Warehousing Management System Simplify Operations and Help Your Business Scale?
A Warehousing Management System is a software application that controls and manages the operations in a warehouse. It can either be a standalone system or part of the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.
Additionally, most consumers today want to buy anywhere and return anywhere. So, businesses must have the ability to respond quickly with Warehousing Management Software that optimizes the fulfillment capabilities.
A modern WMS solution:
- Guides inventory receiving and put-away,
- Optimizes picking and shipping consignments, and
- Advises inventory replenishment.
Simply put, the solution offers visibility into a business’s entire inventory and manages the whole supply chain fulfillment right from the distribution to the store.
While many companies have ERP or Order Management System (OMS) systems that include warehousing functionality, companies can outgrow their warehousing and distribution functionality capabilities by implementing warehousing management software.
In the past, many small and mid-sized companies wanted to increase the functionality of the warehousing management system. However, the entry-level costs were excessive. Today, with cloud-based platforms, the deployment and operational costs have reduced drastically.
Read more: How Transportation Management Systems Benefit Third Party Logistics (3PL) Service Providers
This article discusses the various benefits of a warehousing management system that can support your growing company.
Why is a Warehousing Management System better than a traditional order management system?
There’s no denying that both OMS and ERP systems have warehousing and distribution functions. However, they often lack critical functions such as accepting ASNs (Advanced Shipping Notice) or managing the inbound receiving docks.
Additionally, the traditional system can become obsolete if your company runs several distribution centers. It will not be easy to manage multiple warehouse inventories if you don’t have a warehousing management system. It is also true when retail companies need small parcel shipping for omnichannel commerce like a “ship from a store” or to “manage inventory in stockrooms” in addition to the central warehouse. In such cases, a warehousing management system is a must as they are built from scratch with multiple distribution centers in mind.
A WMS manages activities and functions across the warehouse and will help give you better control over managing the labor to improve the levels of efficiency. Warehouse management software improves inventory visibility, makes it easy to track shipments, monitors expiration dates, and performs cycle counts.
Most OMS and ERP systems are not effective in reporting employee productivity and throughput by job function. The most significant benefit of being barcoded throughout the DC processes or using voice technologies is identifying the work performed by an employee by job function. On the other hand, a warehousing management system improves the company’s gain as the cost of labor increases.
Additionally, most OMS or ERP systems are selected and implemented to improve other departments such as contact centers, accounting, marketing, etc. Warehousing management software will ensure the distribution center organization grows, controls costs, gains efficiency, improves customer service, and extends the life of the OMS or ERP.
Read more: Logistics Management Software – Everything You Should Know
What are the benefits of a Warehousing Management System?
1. Receiving and marking
Typical functions of a WMS include ASN and EDI transactions, carrier scheduling of dock appointments, and receiving and putting-away personnel. Additional functions include:
- Identifying forward and bulk locations after receiving the product and quantity on hand
- Creating barcodes for pallets and carton labels
- Ability to record any vendor or carrier damage claims upon receiving
- The capability of both paper and paperless receiving
- Identifying special processing of product before put-away process
- Eliminating the put-away process by cross-docking from receiving to packing
- Resolving any issues through status reporting of incoming receipts to warehousing and merchandising staff
Quality Assurance(QA):
- Store product specifications for QA
- Support vendor compliance programs and report a vendor scorecard, on-time delivery, errors in shipment and receiving, and more.
- Store vendor, product, SKU sample testing criteria
- Marking direct, retail, and wholesale customer print and ticket formats
2. Put-away
After receiving the inventory, products have to be either cross-docked to packing stations or shipping to fill backorders or put-away. A warehousing management system can help identify storage type, open bin/slot locations, cubic capacity, and more, along with profile characteristics and cube required. Many warehousing management systems will have “directed put-away” options based on products. Storage parameters, system rules, and velocity functions may be available in a few smaller warehouse management systems.
3. Slotting
Slotting products is one of the most significant benefits of warehousing management software. It assigns SKUs to pick locations based on various factors such as size, sales, velocity, weight, category, and more. Sometimes, slotting functionality is available through add-on modules from some WMS vendors at an additional cost.
The slotting functionality reduces picker travel time and recommends changes in bin or slot size requiring less replenishment, thereby improving productivity.
Velocity reporting enables personnel to re-slot primary locations to get more space or change fast-selling items to the “hot pick” slot locations. Advanced operations can use dynamic slotting functionality.
4. Automates restoring of forward pick
A WMS automates refilling of primary or forward pick storage from bulk before the next set of orders is directed to the floor for picking. It reduces warehouse backorder costs and lost time.
Sales velocity data helps plan the size of the forward pick storage according to the item to reduce the number of replenishment tasks. Also, a product’s demand replenishment functions trigger recommended stock movement in an automated way.
Read more: How Robotics in Logistics Helps Improve Supply Chain Efficiency
5. Assembly
Most warehousing management software provides several functions such as work orders, kitting, assembly control of labor and material costs, and more. Other functions such as a single-level bill of material (BOM) or a multi-level BOM and managing component inventory assignment through the work order process are also available.
Other options such as tracking inventory usage and sales at the finished kit and component level, tracking labor usage by work order and assembled product, and also about work in progress reports are available. While ERPs may have a comparable function, it is not the case with OMS.
6. Packing
Packing is as crucial as picking in fulfillment of small parcel eCommerce. To gain customer satisfaction, consider the “pack confirm” verification process in your operations. You can pull aside all missed picks, and incorrect order quantities for correction through the “pack confirm” process. Many warehousing management systems can print-on-demand customer documents, assembly directions, and shipping labels and support the insertion of promotional materials.
Watch video: How custom-developed web app, enabled smarter locker management.
Today, most businesses struggle to keep pace with customer demands. Thanks to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the demand has only increased. At Fingent, we provide you with custom software solutions that streamline business processes and save time and money. We help you develop custom warehousing management software for businesses that deal in logistics, shipping, transportation, eCommerce, third-party logistics (3PL), and more. If you want to discover our services further, please chat with our consultant.
Supercharge Your Business with These 11 Hot Tech Trends
Technology is having an ever-greater impact on our personal lives and most importantly on the way we do business. The business world has transformed rapidly in the past few years and it will evidently continue to change the pace of business in the years to come. Whether it is the production of goods or the computing devices used at the office, new technologies have helped businesses run smoother and more effectively. As information travels more quickly and reliably, businesses are realizing how easy it is to grow globally and across multiple sectors. To gain benefits, however, businesses must keep up with technology and adopt new trends. This article discusses 11 tech trends to look forward to in the next couple of years. First, let us understand what drives these tech trends, and then we will consider their impact on businesses.
What Will Drive the Evolution of Tech Trends?
Two major reasons for the evolution of all kinds of tech trends are our day-to-day business challenges and the passion for innovation. As an intelligent being, it is normal for human beings to innovate to live better. However, from a business standpoint, it is about optimizing all that humans are capable of accomplishing and that includes making profits.
1. Greater predictive levels and programmability will reshape cybersecurity
Cybersecurity will be one of the prominent IT functions to mature. New technologies will bring about a fundamental shift in cybersecurity as they enable greater predictive capabilities and programmability. It will become more predictive with the use of large-scale data along with AI, analytics, and machine learning. As a general rule, the more we have, the more difficult it becomes to protect it from thieves. That is not the case with immense data accumulation. Even as data increases it will become easier to determine and match patterns to both predict and shut down any attack vectors.
As every element of infrastructure becomes programmable, you can put a firewall inside the software of all virtual machines in your architecture, thus limiting the flow of data within the software. This will eliminate the need of storing data on a network from where the data can easily be hacked or stolen. Businesses will continue to see this capability emerge as programmability improves.
Read more: Safeguarding IT Infrastructure From Cyber Attacks – Best Practices
2. Promise of serverless computing
According to IDC’s prediction, “from 2018 to 2023 — with new tools/platforms, more developers, agile methods, and lots of code reuse — 500 million new logical apps will be created, equal to the number built over the past 40 years.” Currently, we are witnessing a distinct change in the application infrastructure with most businesses moving to cloud-native applications.
There are four distinct computing models that are evolving simultaneously such as virtual servers, physical servers, container-based computing, and serverless computing. Virtual servers and container-based computing make it easy to move applications. Whereas the promise of serverless computing offers greater agility and cost savings as the applications do not need to be deployed on a server. Alternatively, functions can be run from a cloud provider platform. It can return outputs and instantly release the associated resources. As businesses see a change in the infrastructure, they will have to make choices about how they approach development.
Read more: 5 Trends That Will Transform Cloud Computing in 2020
Accelerated in part by the long-term shutdown due to COVID-19, industries that design and manufacture products will quickly adopt cloud-based technology trends to aggregate and intelligently transform. In a couple of years, these intelligent algorithms will allow manufacturing assembly lines to optimize towards increased levels of output and enhanced product quality thereby reducing the overall waste in manufacturing by half.
3. IoT and Edge
IoT and Edge can rightly be termed as superpowers of the tech world. The developing, managing, and running of widespread IoT and Edge applications will grow in complexity with numerous endpoints. For example, audiovisual technologies are being used to achieve the same input as you would get when you connect numerous IoT sensors. When compared to individual sensors, these tech trends provide reasonable mass coverage at a minimum cost. This is only possible when AI and ML are integrated into the IoT platform. Powering and maintaining thousands of sensors is a daunting prospect. Audiovisual solutions can thus make this a significant growth area. As a result, these changes will have a profound impact on how the businesses get value out of new data that they are able to collect and process.
Read more: Gearing up for IoT in 2020
4. Everything will revolve around data
Enormous amounts of data collected from IoT devices and digital platforms can now be made available through application programming interfaces for business insights, analysis and to develop other applications. Collecting information from a sufficient amount of data-points enables you to model behavior and understand patterns and come to more accurate conclusions quickly with minimum cost. With abundant data from multiple touchpoints and new analytic tools, businesses are able to customize products and services by creating ever-finer consumer microsegments. Businesses that do not build around data will find themselves swamped by its enormity.
5. Voice control is the next evolution of human-machine interaction
The advent of voice technology such as Apple’s Siri, Google’s Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa is disrupting businesses as it creates a three-way interaction between devices, services, and people. It has completely changed the way consumers interact with smart devices.
According to recent research, by 2024, the global voice-based smart speaker market could be worth $30 billion. This technology trend has a huge impact on how online searches will happen. Businesses will have to adapt their way of promoting their products and services. It will also affect the way companies are organized as internal knowledge can be shared more easily which improves the possibility of multitasking. This will result in increased productivity.
In the next couple of years, we will see a transformation of voice technology from being an information tool to a transaction tool. It offers the possibility to directly order from brands and perhaps even pay.
Read more: 6 Key Predictions for AI-Driven Voice Computing in 2020
6. Blockchain platform market
Blockchain started as an offshoot of the cryptocurrency movement. Now, it is evolving to find use cases beyond just the international settlement areas. According to Gartner, Blockchain will grow to slightly more than $176 billion by 2025 and continue to exceed $3.1 trillion by 2030. The marriage of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence can significantly change the nature of transactional businesses. This is possible as Blockchain is a decentralized unchangeable space for encrypted data and AI will assist you in analyzing and interpreting that data quickly and reliably to drive actionable insights. There is great potential for this technology to have an immense impact on cybersecurity.
Read more: How Blockchain Enables the Insurance Industry to Tackle Data Challenges
7. Seamless blend of the digital twin
Applied technology will intersect between the physical and digital worlds, the digital twin. For example, the digital twin will have a perfect digital copy of the physical world. Applied technology will allow you to blend these two worlds seamlessly. The resulting immersive environments will have a pervasive impact on the industry. This twin will allow you to collaborate virtually, simulate conditions quickly, understand what-if scenarios clearly, predict results more accurately, and more. Most businesses are already aware of the benefits of applying the digital world to enhance the physical world. They are digitizing physical processes to reduce inconsistencies, redundancies, and human error.
Explore: Learn more about Digital Twin Technology
This pandemic has shown us that communication is not just for work but is required to form real emotional connections. In the next couple of years, AI technology will be used to connect people at a human level and drive them closer to each other. There has been a lot of concern over the security of video conferencing companies. However, these concerns will move companies to ensure that they provide secure digital connectivity for their consumers.
Being a secure video conferencing software, InfinCE has been a game-changer for enterprises of all sizes. Click here to explore
8. 5G will be the game-changer
5G has innumerable use cases beginning from healthcare to more reliable security. With 5G, the audio-video experience will be faster and clearer than it has ever been. On the flip side, 5G will enable businesses to provide remote opportunities for their employees with work experience that would be similar to that inside the office. It will bolster recruitment and retention efforts for top talent.
As more businesses move their critical tasks to the cloud, employees will become increasingly productive from wherever they work and with whatever device they use. Though currently, 5G coverage is limited, according to Ericson’s Mobility report, 5G subscriptions could cover up to 65% of the world’s population by 2025. Businesses that anticipate and embrace these emerging technology trends will see a positive impact in the years to come. Low latency 5G networks can help resolve the challenges caused by the absence of reliable networks and can facilitate more high-capacity services. Private 5G networks can offset the high cost of mobility with economy-boosting activities.
Read more: From Remote Work to Virtual Work, 5G is Reinventing the Way We Work
9. Data lakes enable new analytic models
Data lakes are storage repositories that contain quantitative and qualitative data. Data lakes enable new models of predictive analytics and help unlock the potential of digital twins. Since they can hold enormous amounts of data, organizations can leverage the insights, including discrete data points to create a ‘digital twin’ of each customer. You can gain access to customer details such as demographic data, browsing behavior, purchasing patterns, and payment preferences. The ability to gauge qualitative data will increase the demand for robust ERP systems and AI-driven automation. This would mean that businesses should acquire the skills to set up, manage, and secure their data lakes and build data models that will help extract the insights they require for ongoing innovation.
Read more: 7 Key Differences Between Data Lake and Data Warehouse
10. Sophisticated sentiment analysis for real-time insights
Sentiment analysis uses techniques to interpret and classify the ‘mood’ of your customers. Sophisticated sentiment analytical tools allow businesses to recognize the customers’ sentiment towards a product, a service, or a brand. It can also be used by the businesses to respond to the feedback with a proactive approach. It allows businesses to understand how people are feeling in real-time and proactively position products, services, and visual merchandise. In the future, this technology will be used in addition to tools such as conversation intelligence, text analysis, and natural language processing. It can enable innovation on demand. Businesses will find it advantageous to incorporate sentimental analysis into their data analysis in the areas of customer feedback, marketing, CRM, and e-commerce.
Read more: CTOs Guide – How Robotics and AI Can Improve Customer Experience
11. Micro-fulfillment for e-commerce fulfillment
Robotics has turned around numerous industries except for a few sectors such as grocery retail. With the new robotic application termed micro-fulfillment, grocery retailing will no longer remain the same. Micro fulfillment allows you to convert personal garages into storage spaces and can operate 5-10% more economically than a brick and mortar store. This rising trend is captured in tiny, urban warehouses that leverage high-end automated systems to complete online orders with greater efficiency. These centers are used to deliver goods rapidly, in as fast as an hour. Robotic arms can be used to pick up items. The application of robotics downstream at a ‘hyper-local’ level will disrupt the grocery retail industry. This technology trend will unlock wider access to food and a better customer proposition such as product availability, speed, and cost.
Read more: 5 Transformative Trends Ushered by B2B E-commerce in Healthcare and Life Sciences
How Technology will Continue to Disrupt Businesses?
The transformative potential of innovative technology trends is exciting businesses today. It will change the way businesses plan, start, manage, operate, market, and make a profit. The next couple of years will see profound improvements in addressing most business challenges as organizations develop and deploy solutions that will deliver tangible results. Driverless cars, 3d printing, artificial and business intelligence tools, robotics, and IoT are just a few examples of how technology has transformed or disrupted the business world and has the potential to continue to disrupt.
The COVID-19 pandemic has necessitated worldwide collaboration, transparency of data, and speed at the highest levels to navigate the human and business impacts. Now is the time to recognize and support the opportunities for technology trends that can best and most rapidly address business challenges. Partner with us to capitalize on these trends and scale your business quickly.
How e-commerce adoption benefits B2B healthcare providers and device makers
The healthcare and life sciences industry is expanding at an exponential rate. The complexity and regulatory nature of the industry have made it imperative that technology catches up with its pace and offers solutions to meet this expansion. This need is being felt more acutely at the moment with the COVID-19 pandemic on the loose. As the pandemic spreads its poison and puts the B2B healthcare and life sciences e-commerce market into a state of flux, it forces large and small organizations to cope with a range of problems that include difficult purchase decisions, supply chain disruptions, and fulfillment and delivery issues. This calls for a technological solution tailored to suit the B2B healthcare and life sciences industry.
With over 17 years of experience in delivering customized technological solutions including developing e-commerce platforms for B2B clients, we provide B2B e-commerce web application development services for manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, and so on. Also, our mobile app development services specialize in the designing and development of custom B2B e-commerce apps.
Case Study: Fingent’s solution for our client Bonanza – Streamlining Online Listing and Inventory Management
In this article, we will explore five specific ways in which B2B e-commerce is that solution and how it will transform healthcare and life sciences.
Immediate and lasting impact on the B2B e-commerce market
In the present scenario, especially from a healthcare and life sciences manufacturing and supply perspective, the impact is immediate throughout the entire supply chain. Manufacturing companies are unable to keep up with the demand, and distributors are rushing to create workflows in an attempt to mitigate customer complaints. Distributors are being forced to claw their way to the front of the line to obtain supplies from manufacturers, stock up on products, and take care of their customers.
Healthcare and life sciences organizations typically have disaster preparedness plans, but dealing with such an unprecedented disaster is another ball game altogether. The question has shifted from purchasing to inventory, from buying to stocking. It makes it challenging to find the space to hold extra products that these industries may need and that causes anxiety to all parties within the supply chain.
B2B e-commerce offers irresistible opportunities for purchasers and medical suppliers
B2B e-commerce works largely on a distribution-based model where customers get their supplies from local distributors or dealers. Thus far, e-commerce has been disrupting the offline system of the B2B industry at a slow pace. However, with the spread of coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown, various industries including healthcare and life sciences are switching to online buying options to prevent human contact. This has resulted in B2B e-commerce experiencing an unprecedented boost in traffic and sales in just a matter of a few weeks.
Read More: Contactless Retail Delivery Software – How Retailers Can Revive Sales While Adhering To Social Distancing Norms
While buyers turn to an online purchase, many suppliers have adapted their strategy to foster online sales, dedicating a certain amount of their budget to digital marketing and communications. The current pandemic is imposing digitization of all B2B businesses that would help to communicate with the buyers and generate sales. Digitization of the supply chain is a crucial aspect of e-commerce because it encourages transparency and shows real-time availability of goods right from the manufacturers to the buyers. This makes it extremely important for suppliers to implement digitization in their supply chain.
The present COVID situation has forced most suppliers to work from home. Those who have already been using digital media are able to manage work remotely. However, others need to think over and plan to reform their business model to adapt to the new era of e-commerce. The pandemic might be temporary, but this trend is not going to be! This is a breakthrough that will continue far into the future. Now is the best time to be innovative, leverage the benefits of the latest digital technology, data analytics, and AI and unlock the potential of digitalization and e-commerce in B2B business. An advanced e-commerce solution built on the latest technology facilitates seamless interactions online across marketing, product discovery, sales, and post-sale service in the B2B sellers’ space.
Read More: E-commerce ERP Software
Five ways B2B e-commerce can be transformative
As B2B e-commerce forges ahead, the healthcare and life sciences industries will prove to be faster adopters than others. They can fully leverage real-time data tracking inventory and logistics between buyers and sellers. For manufacturers and distributors who sell to hospitals and nursing homes, the level of information presented to buyers in the B2B space can depend on the size of the organization or the customer that is doing the transaction. Depending on the frequency of the order, the level of sophistication of information may vary. Shifting to B2B e-commerce will prove to be a much-needed transformation.
Here are five ways that this transformation will be seen:
1. Online Shopping Drives Online Presence
E-commerce is changing the way people and end-users (such as doctors) shop for healthcare products and the way those products reach the hands of customers. Instead of visiting a pharmacy, most customers are turning to the internet to perform the functions of a regular pharmacy. Healthcare and life sciences companies use a business model that features quick delivery to a patient’s door or to hospitals and healthcare centers. Investors see promise in this revolutionary approach to medication fulfillment, demonstrating that the market has confidence in this model despite the shifting healthcare and life sciences landscape.
With more and more people turning to the internet to access products and medical care, the healthcare and life sciences industries have been increasingly concerned with the quality of their online presence. According to an online medical marketplace, 50% of their customers are referred by their primary provider or by hospital staff, and 20% are referred by family or friends. This highlights the need for the healthcare and life sciences industries to increase their online presence and maintain it.
2. Helps explore new possibilities while cutting costs and time
Shifting to an online B2B e-commerce process can help businesses recover 25-30 percent of their investment. Some of the more mature players might even see higher returns of their business through online orders.
Migrating more orders online frees up time for sales reps. They can concentrate on introducing new products and capitalize on opportunities for new business. This allows industry leaders to use their time and ability to explore new channels of business and revenue streams. This can also help expand their client base and move into new markets.
B2B e-commerce enables the healthcare and life sciences companies to see where the business is coming from, where the segments are online and where they are offline. It also gives them the ability to offer variable discounts with certain customers, on certain products, or even just one customer. It will make drug prices more transparent and market-oriented.
Read more: Odoo E-commerce – 5 Reasons to Integrate Your E-commerce Application with Odoo ERP
3. Transforms Logistics Operations
Synchronization of logistic operations is critical for the success of any business. Enterprise customers generally look for reliability, speed, traceability, and convenience in delivery along with effective product returns, and exchange policy of damaged products.
Technology solutions for B2B e-commerce provide orchestration with an application that is to be hosted on an e-commerce website. The open standard in these applications facilitates information exchange that allows real-time visibility for seamless integration across supply chain stakeholders. E-commerce offerings can provide credibility and trust for transactions between companies involved in the supply chain.
4. Enables Customer Personalization
B2B e-commerce enables customer personalization. Enterprise customers want personalized solutions. B2B e-commerce provides a customer portal with content organized around the parameters of their past purchase history and price optimization algorithms that are adjusted on the basis of the relationship. E-commerce offerings are simple, flexible, and convenient. B2B players can use a comprehensive suite of tools that are available to help their customers navigate the site. Certain platforms incorporate live online support to assist with any queries or issues which can improve conversion levels and facilitate buying decisions.
5. Sheer Momentum
Many medical device companies are already selling products online to enterprise customers. The healthcare and life sciences market is ripe for disruption. Medical device manufacturers and pharmaceutical companies will continue to deliver to wholesalers and distributors, but e-commerce allows them to embark on direct-to-patient delivery. Logistics is ready to respond with tailored services for various products. B2B e-commerce is set to propel healthcare and life sciences forward in the extremely near future.
Take Action
Ultimately, healthcare and life sciences e-commerce will facilitate the redistribution of stakeholders’ offline enterprise transformation and reconstruct all the links of the value chain. Realizing the benefits of B2B e-commerce, many healthcare and life sciences companies are becoming believers.
Read more: Top 5 Open-source ERP Systems for Medical Equipment Suppliers
E-commerce can effectively optimize operating processes, reduce costs, manage resource allocations, and address the increasingly diversified consumer healthcare demands. The healthcare and life sciences companies must understand that due to the conditions of accelerated technology change, it has become critical for enterprises to become more skilled in deciding their future course and be firm in taking action. If you need help with this, we at Fingent are here to help you take that next step. Get in touch with us and just let us know what you need.
How your online store can benefit from Odoo ERP integration
The share of global retail sales generated via e-commerce witnesses a steady rise year over year. Thanks to COVID-19! The 2020 digital commerce market saw many new entrants including the brick and mortar purists who were always hostile to investing in modernization.
Looking at the current scenario, we can rest assured that the surge in online shopping activity will not take a back seat even after the economic crisis settles. The increasing convenience offered by multiple digital channels will lure customers to make more purchases online, be it daily necessities, medical supplies, precious gadgets, or other seasonal goods.
As of 2020, there are around 2 bn digital buyers in the world, which is roughly 25% of the global population. According to a study, 20 years down the line, 95% of all purchases are expected to be via e-commerce. Imagine the vast online buying population demanding access to details such as order histories, past invoices, product comparisons, ratings, reviews, descriptions, warranty, usage, and more such data! Is your e-business equipped to handle this?
Read more: Odoo CRM vs Salesforce CRM: How to make the right choice
Any business- small/ medium/ large– ambitious of growing its online presence should tap the right technology, and any e-commerce business that wants to deliver exceptional customer service requires powerful integration with an ERP system. You can consult with an Odoo ERP software development partner for customized needs.
In this post, we look at the five advantages of integrating your e-commerce application/business with Odoo, one of the popular open-source ERPs loved by many leading brands.
Why Odoo, among many?
1. A complete package with multiple functionalities
Odoo ERP is a holistic, full-fledged package that comes with the principal solutions needed for managing a business including sales, CRM, project management, financial management, inventory and warehouse management, manufacturing, logistics, HR, and more. With its 1000+ modules available both on cloud and on-premises, Odoo integration offers a complete software system that allows you to manage your entire e-store from a single location.
Be it your inventories, orders, customers, shipping, tracking, or any other dynamic function, Odoo ERP integration helps manage every task through a single solution, thus eliminating the need for maintaining disparate third-party wares for each module. The integration also supports multiple store management via a single software, maintaining a common inventory for all.
2. Breaks data silos to improve visibility across your business
Siloed data is one of the major challenges that stand in the way of e-commerce companies. This will prevent you from getting a unified view of your operational and experience data essential to expedite your marketing strategy and growth. Post Odoo ERP integration, neither do you need to look into different departments for data, nor do you require to manually enter data into your system.
You can see in your e-commerce application all the key data like your shipping information, product information, inventory levels, customer feedback, etc. By de-compartmentalizing data from multiple systems, Odoo saves your time and labor considerably.
Read more: What makes Odoo the best ERP solution for your business?
3. Flexible payment options
When it comes to adopting a digital payment option, the convenience of customers comes first. It’s important to adopt the payment type that’s both preferable to them as well as compatible with your system. Integrating Odoo ERP into your e-commerce application helps you gain flexibility with the payment method. It allows you to integrate payment gateways such as PayPal, Ogone, Adyen, Buckaroo, Authorize.net, Stipe, etc. You can customize payment through modules suitable for your store.
4. Shipping integration
Odoo ERP can be integrated seamlessly with popular third-party shipping carriers such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, USPS, ShippingEasy, and more through APIs. Odoo e-commerce module allows you to use add-on connectors to manage your shipping activities and track your orders from the ERP itself. This enables real-time tracking of data and order fulfillment.
5. Realizes faster ROI and profitability
Getting faster returns is the key pain point of any business. Odoo ERP- eCommerce integration will help you realize faster ROI and profitability by performing a precise analysis of your sales and inventory via reports and automatic stock adjustments. The ERP allows you to stay organized with updated customer information by tracking orders and claims. Besides, your customers can view or download their invoices and track their order status, pending shipments, and deliveries.
Read more: A 3-day Odoo CRM implementation story!
Explore unlimited possibilities with Odoo
As technology advances, the need to simplify customer experience also moves to the next level. Implementing a smarter business process management solution while keeping your investments to the bare minimum will require you to bank you on the safe shores of an open-source ERP like Odoo. With its powerful inventory and sales management features and easy-to-integrate modules, Odoo makes the best contender for small and medium businesses to scale up in the e-commerce space.
Fingent is an Official Partner of Odoo with an ace team that offers consulting, development, and implementation services. Whether you want to integrate Odoo ERP with your existing e-commerce store or build an online store from scratch powered by Odoo integration, give us a call right away.
What will happen with the eCommerce industry in 2017 to 2020?
The retail and E-commerce industry is moving at a lightning speed. It is said that in 20 years from now, people won’t even remember buying things going to a physical shop or handing over physical money. Every retailer should have these massive e-commerce trends on their radar for the coming years and continue building their digital capabilities to strive in the future market and remain their customers’ favorite. This infographic showcase the purchase behaviors, popular demands, and top trends that will dominate the e-commerce industry in coming years that shall impact the way customers shop and retailers operate.
If you are into Retail, sell things online or plan to start doing so in near future, or is a consumer of any type, this infographic is a must-see.