Not too long ago, the common understanding was that technology companies were the preserve of genius tech CEOs, the likes of Gates, Masiyiwa, Zuckerberg, Musk, and a few others. The COVID-19 era, however, brought about several significant changes to the perspectives that businesses commonly held around the role of technology in a business and the drivers of technology in that business. In the era of COVID-19, perhaps every business is a tech business!
This is not to say that some businesses have not already adopted some of these ideas. However, the pandemic persuaded, or maybe more appropriately, forced, almost every business head to reconsider their digital strategy and tactics in the light of recurring lockdowns and the need for socially distanced interactions and transactions.
In the post-COVID19 era, the new business imperatives demand that those businesses that are able to be #mostresponsive, #mostaccessible, #mostsolutionsoriented quick and flexible in their response to the environment be able to sustain, and perhaps even double, triple, or quadruple their profits.
With the pandemic ebbing and waning, the way businesses operate has changed forever. There is no turning back the dial to pre-COVID “business as usual." Customers have changed, employees have evolved, and businesses must too. In this first article, we will explore three (3) major ways in which African consumer consumption patterns have changed and the way in which digitally-minded businesses are responding:
Customers are realizing there is a better way to transact and receive goods and services:
The Rise of the #digitalLogistics Companies - the proliferation of #directDelivery applications and #digitalLogistics companies is proof that African customers have evolved. These new-fangled logistics companies are making the life of the African customer easy! Food, electronics, clothing, and many other consumables items are being delivered literally to the doorstep with very little friction. And if the delivery service is not offering customers the #customer-experience they desire, they soon will be obsolete, extinct, out of the picture, in just a click. Literally, in just a click.
#OnlineShopping is now fully taking shape in Africa, even at a grassroots level. Many Africans are now buying goods to resell from the so-called “runners”. The runners post their goods in WhatsApp groups or statuses and in return the retailers are operating a form of drop-shipping business where they repost those goods in their own groups or statuses to attract their customers. Nowadays Africans are getting kitchen appliances, home appliances, and clothing through this modified form of online shopping. This proves that the ordinary person, who is far from being an elite customer, is realizing how life can be made simpler by interacting digitally. With this in mind, do you think your business will survive?
Businesses are now making it easy for customers to do #onlinepayments. Customers can simply do a bank transfer or use new emerging mobile money services. Literally, every business now has options to pay online. However, the payment, the receiving and the filing of the payment through to the delivery of the product or service should also be made simpler and faster because, soon enough, if one operational process does not keep up, the fast-paced digital world won’t stop for anyone… neither are the customers.
What mindset changes about the role of #digitaltechnology in your business have you made in order to defend your market and your territory?
At #telcoBroadbandandBeyond, we are passionate about #digitisation #digitalisation and #digitaltransformation for Africans, #inspiredbyAfrica. Allow us to walk the journey with you through thought-provoking articles, tools, techniques, and our own experiences on this road toward #digitaltransformation.