New Leads Without The Handshake

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The global Covid-19 pandemic has changed how we do business, it has impacted new business leads for companies trying to navigate a disrupted world with the loss of face-to-face meetings and a warm handshake.

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The global Covid-19 pandemic has changed how we do business and as such, has impacted on new business leads for companies trying to navigate a disrupted world with the loss of face-to-face meetings and a warm handshake.

According to a recent Redback Connect Research of companies with more than 1000 employees, almost 90% of them agree that meetings will be held remotely and will dominate the post-pandemic workplace.

History has shown us that humans learn to figure-out how to circumvent difficult times in order to commerce, and that is empirical by the evidence of global growth in online business transactions.

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Global e-marketeer insights have tracked that online sales will increase to almost $5 trillion with the percentage change of total retail sales increasing from 14.1% in 2019 to 18.1% in 2021, on an upward track into the foreseeable future. Asia-pacific is still top of the leader board with 25% growth even as China’s economy has shown a cooling off in recent years, they still contribute the regions 64.3% of global ecommerce spending. Central and Eastern Europe, lag behind both Latin America and Middle East with a meagre and below world average, 19.4%. The biggest surprise is last place Western Europe at 10.2% and roughly half of the world average.

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Hard to fathom just how quickly the Asia-pacific region has capitalised and established as a daily consumer preference when China only surpassed America in e-commerce sales for the first time in 2013. Quickly understood to be the case, when looking at the year-on-year percentage change is 27.3% from 2018 to 2019. The U.S. was half that and Germany a derisory 7.8%

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A flood-lit path to higher e-commerce growth has already been boot-tracked by the APAC region, thus making retailers a lot more positive about their forecasting business models for a post-pandemic landscape. The choice for some, is how to move part or all of your business online. What is necessary? What are the implications and how to go about it? We have lost our ability to connect person-to-person, for the short term anyway, and thus this obstacle has forced us to think alternatively about our ability to conduct business. The resulting difficulties we are faced with, means we are left with dealings being arranged over zoom calls, our mobiles or faceless emails. Our ability of referencing in-person questioning in order to readjust or respond accordingly for the ultimate goal of making a sale is now dealt through virtual space.

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The resulting implications are that the merit of the product is as ever important now, as the burdened lines of a movie script in a low-budget indie movie.

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The transition is indeed necessary, but also easier for some, especially those classed as Generation Y & Z, who identify the digital touchpoints of the purchase lifecycle being the optimal medium and helping global e-commerce sales keep on 22% growth track to reach a projected $5.695 trillion by 2022, doubling the percentage growth in a meagre 5 years!

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Companies, learning to adopt a digital handshake, a user-interface that represents the growing millennial demographic will be the clear winners. Symbolic of the understanding that the world is moving post-haste from a global pandemic.

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Our young but personable company -Techsembly, already strategically positioned around the world, driven by the need to understand our customers pinch points and offer solutions to address them, by providing a dedicated quantifiable solution. In doing so, those industries have begun to realise the true potential of creating a frictionless digital purchase path for their clients.

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As a bleak dawn breaks for companies such as Arcadia Group and its brands, already with a robust online presence, yet with the potential risk of collapse – the argument then switches to the costs of maintaining retail infrastructure and the stock inventory to fulfilment process. This will inevitably mean a closer look at retail marketplaces as the demand for fashion items remains high among shoppers.

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Specific brands will find savings in having smaller direct-to-consumer outlets, and the remainder risk spread across multiple retail marketplaces. Newer fashion styles and older more established brands are ever increasing their innovation reach into easier more cost-effective ways of selling directly to the consumer without the need for costly, labour-intensive and logistical headache arenas like high street and department stores. The marketplace model with its convenient  drop-shipping, allows the consumer to communicate directly with either independent designers or the brand themselves

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In cutting out the middle person, the Techsembly platform provides clients a digital catalyst space in which designer product innovation is curated allowing meritocracy to be the driver of the creative talents and answering the direct needs of end consumer.

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What still remains veracious to troubled industries, like hospitality and the airlines for whom scrambling to explore the multiple digital channels in which to remain relevant and engaging to its client base. All the while being able to open up new revenue streams that offer a uniqueness that binds them to their clients.

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Such is the case of the Peninsula Hotels group, who in January of 2020, launched a Techsembly gifting portal through their website, just as the world was starting to understand that a contagious virus was on the loose. What become evident very early on, is that a new revenue stream had opened up independent of room sales, that allowed the Peninsulas esteemed guests to be able to purchase an array of services and gifting that highlighted the Peninsulas unwavering effort to provide ultimate luxury experiences. This trend continued even as the pandemic closed hotels around the world. The Peninsula found non-hotel customers were buying gifts through the website as a way of experiences for people living in the local city for future visits or gifting to friends and family who could no longer travel. The product innovation the technology afforded allowed the marketing & sales departments to make good on highlighting a local market for their hotels around the world normally dedicated to the overseas business traveller.

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From days old of smoke-filled offices to cash handed over a till, no matter the terms and size of the ‘deal’ – what is agreed virtually, seamlessly and as such consequential to a digital ‘handshake’ is only lost in its human form of contact, yet remains equally, if not more important now, to how the world will forever conduct business.