Top 10 in Tech - What to know for Week ending November 1, 2019

From Guest Curator: Joss Honour, Global Practice Lead - Digital Commerce @ NZTE. This week’s newsletter is dedicated to Digital Commerce, one of NZTE's new Practice Areas:
 
I am writing this as I prepare for a trip to the US which I started planning around attending the B2B Online conference in Miami, Florida – a leading event for Manufacturers and Distributors growing with digital commerce. I hope this Top 10 special brings you some insights you find useful in your customer conversations around digital commerce.
 

1. FIRST, THE BIG PICTURE: NZTE’s Board and Lead Team came together on 22 October to hold a Beyond Disruption workshop. Two favourite takeouts from the session were that we need to “wallow in the misery of not knowing” and “plan for more than one future”. This article from MIT supports this by noting that today’s leaders must be “sensemakers”.
2. WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?: Absolunet in its summary of trends for 2019 says “How we interact, discover and purchase goods (as well as return them) is now a 24/7 cycle. And not just in retail, but in B2B as well, where eCommerce integration has become priority #1. Customer journeys now merge online and in-store. The notion that eCommerce is a distinct store or activity is disappearing…”
3. WHAT DO WE NEED TO KNOW? Every business is a digital business and here’s what not to do if you want to be successful!
4. DOES IT APPLY TO YOUR BUSINESS? Statista valued B2C eCommerceat US$2 trillion in 2019 and B2B eCommerce at US$12.2 trillion (China, Japan, South Korea and the US lead in B2B).  It may not be your first thought, but if you are targeting those markets, considering those numbers, it’s worth considering.
5. WHO RULES THE WORLD? Business Insider Intelligence and Attest research shows almost half of Millennials and Gen Xers use Smartphone apps and browsers to make purchases. With these age groups being the core income earning groups at present, it’s essential that your online offer via Mobile is slick and easy to use.
6. HOW DO I KNOW WHAT THEY WANT? Zendesk is a scalable customer service and engagement platform. It just released its findings on the five biggest gaps in customer experience for medium-sized companies.
7. RESOURCING: Once you get started, a question that comes up quickly is how to resource your digital commerce team. Scalefast outlines an ideal scenario to aim for over 1-3 year timeframe.
8. IMPACTS ON SALES TEAMS: Different types of businesses will require different digital strategies based on the end-users and their decision-making process. Gartner shows how the B2B sales journey is not linear and has changed in this report.
9. I’VE STARTED ON THE JOURNEY, WHAT NEXT? There is a lot to understand about digital commerce and sometimes it’s easier to learn by doing. Try out the Ecommerce Wiki – here’s a link to everything Mobile Commerce as a starter.
10. WHAT’S THE NUMBER ONE TOP TIP? Businesses with proven online success have emphasised the importance of spending time to create your key customer personas. Conversion XL writes that when based on data and research, decision making to appeal to your ideal customers will be easier.

POD OF THE WEEK: On a lighter note, for anyone spending inordinate amounts of time on the internet (like me): James Veitch on handling spam email.