Based on the growth of internet and mobile users alone, it is hardly
any wonder that e-commerce and m-commerce are thriving. Despite the economic
downturn, online spending is proving resilient and even buoyant in most
markets. New communication and software developments are making it increasingly
possible for retailers to offer a seamless shopping experience using all the
available shopping channels – mobile devices, computers, bricks-and-mortar,
television, radio, direct mail, catalogues, and so on. In our existing climate
of digital interaction, the concept of a ‘Sharing Economy’ is gaining momentum.
New developments are following in the footsteps of those entrepreneurs who
created sites where people share their houses and car spaces. We are now
increasingly seeing sites aimed at people who need people for odd jobs, at
short notice. Uber was perhaps the first on the scene here. It is still
operating in a narrow market (taxies), but other companies are entering the
much broader job market, by using e-commerce, offering business opportunities
to increasing larger groups of people.
Mobile shopping is one of the hottest topics, and the m-commerce
market is growing at a staggering rate. While this boom will of course taper
off eventually, m-commerce will remain one of the leading growth areas for some
years, driven by the younger generation and its mobile-centric lifestyle. With
consumers relying more and more on their smartphones when shopping online,
m-commerce will continue to grow faster than overall e-commerce, therefore
accounting for an ever-increasing portion of the e-commerce market.
The enormous success of m-commerce is linked to apps, which are
becoming more and more popular. Apps are convenient, safe, quick, and simple to
use. In the global m-commerce market, shoppers are already using apps in
preference to browsers. Increasingly, commercial models will be linked to these
apps – which will lead to further spectacular growth in m-commerce. BuddeComm
sees the development of m-wallet apps, in particular, as a major breakthrough
for the m-payment sector.
The digital economy has brought about huge changes in the publishing
industry – from digital printing presses, to indie authorship, to e-books. One
of the downfalls is that self-publishing has become too easy, so that the
market is flooded with low quality, poorly edited books. This has given
self-published e-books a bad press. The dilemma is a thorny one, with many
different interests at war. In the end, the consumer must be the one to
rebalance the market.
In early 2015, the press was filled with reports that the physical
book market had made a comeback and that e-books had had their day. But
according to statistical data, while sales of print books rose slightly in
2014, e-book sales rose even more, further increasing their share of the
overall book market.
Advertising and Marketing in
the Digital Age
The advertising scene has undergone radical change and is still
changing. With profits down between 5% and 10% on an annual basis, the
performance of the traditional advertising market is under constant pressure.
Data analytics is exposing the weakness of these traditional advertising
business models and, like all of the other sectors affected by the digital
economy, this means that these business models need to change. As they become
more aware of the power of big data, advertisers are demanding hard,
quantitative data on their campaigns. Increasingly, campaigns are now linked to
outcomes. These are predetermined and tested against the results, and payments
are made to advertising agencies based on the success of these campaigns, which
are becoming far more cost-effective.
Social media companies are becoming increasingly important website
publishers. Compared to commercial broadcasters, these companies have one
important difference – they have valuable data on their consumers, which they
are monetising in a big way. Although consumers are happy to share data with
companies operating in the digital economy, they are most unhappy when these
companies disrespect their wishes for privacy. On the other hand, many
companies involved in big data analytics are disappointed with the results. So
a better system could be a win-win situation for both the demand and the supply
side.
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