Five Major Tech Trends Impacting Businesses in 2020

There has been a major boost in business technology trends in the year of 2020. This is due to the massive international lockdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. This has inevitably led to a massive increase in remote working technology, virtual sales, and other tech-based products, in order to fit the demands of the market.

Because of the new digital business trends coming forward to accommodate this change, corporations need to adapt to this environment as well, in order to make sure they are able to run at their full potential during the lockdown. This also means businesses need to adjust to the demands of the consumers, who are now less likely to go to physical locations for shopping, dining, and entertainment.

In order to get an idea of the major technology trends impacting businesses this year, here are five major ones, and ways your business can take advantage of them to keep revenue high during turbulent times.

Remote Communication

As more and more people are getting into the routine of working from home, having easy access to communication is vital for a productive and successful workplace. While most businesses may be used to using emails for communications purposes, there are now other, faster options that can help keep your team productive and talkative. The biggest trends available right now are instant messaging and video conferencing platforms.

Zoom is perhaps the most popular platform available right now for hosting video conferences. It allows businesses to hold virtual “face-to-face” meetings using webcams. Its popularity is mainly due to the fact that Zoom meetings are able to accommodate a large number of employees in one room. This is a great way for teams to stay in touch with each other when they would otherwise be holding a meeting in the office, and it also allows you to connect with other businesses or clients you may be working with.

For instant messaging, platforms like Slack are becoming the go-to choice because of their ability to support fast-paced communication. It also allows employees to update their status so teammates can know when they are and aren’t active, which is vital when people are working remotely. By utilizing these communication platforms and more, businesses can continue to sustain a healthy work environment by facilitating communication between teammates.

Digital Payments

Digital payments are on the rise for many reasons. With bank hours being limited, many are turning to digital payments to get access to their finances. It’s becoming more convenient to use digital payments for shopping because of ease of access and limits on cash and coins. One of the other reasons for an increase in digital payments is the risk that cash payments can come with. Cash isn’t exactly clean, and by reducing its use, there can also be a reduction in germ spread. 

This is causing a major boost in platforms available for consumers to make digital payments, whether it’s from services like Apple Pay, or PayPal. There are also other tech-savvy options like a digital banking platform or online payment app that allows users to make purchases with the touch of a button. Many are finding these simple to use and much safer, due to increased security services keeping their account information safe and private. Because of this, it’s important to be aware of all of the different services available and make sure your business can accommodate them.

This is why businesses are adapting to cashless payments, and it’s extremely important to keep up with this trend. Services like Plastiq allow you to streamline your businesses accounts receivables for the wide variety of payment options consumers use that are on the market right now. Businesses that aren’t able to offer their customers the ability to use credit cards to make business purchases, may be at risk of losing customers.

Online Shopping

With many people turning to online shopping sites like Amazon or ordering food directly to their door with services like DoorDash, the lockdown has led to a boom in digital spending. With this in mind, many businesses are now switching up their models to incorporate digital shopping into their strategy.

One-way businesses are doing this is through subscription services. People like treating themselves on a regular basis, making subscription boxes a great way to do this. If you’re in the business of selling merchandise, consider creating a subscription service your customers can sign up for, as well as utilizing automatic payment software to streamline payments from customers. If your online store isn’t up to speed, consider taking the time to make sure it’s updated and easy to access for your customers.

Local businesses are also opting to work with delivery services like DoorDash and Grubhub to make their products as accessible as possible to people who aren’t able to go to their location in person. Chances are, your competition is taking advantage of the many options available to be on food delivery platforms, so it’s vital to look into the different ways to sign up for food delivery apps.

Digital Marketing

Since people are spending more time  at home, there has been a huge boost in social media usage. Different platforms like Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok, are all becoming popular ways to pass the time. This means that there’s no better time to use social media for marketing purposes than now. 

There are a lot of different ways to use social media marketing, and many of them are very low cost, and easy to get started with. One way to do this is with the advertising features available on most social media platforms. These allow you to create paid advertisements that appear to social media users as sponsored posts on their feed. Most of them charge per view or click so that you’re able to get the most out of your advertisement.

If you don’t want to use social media for advertising, you should still start dedicating time to building a presence on social media. You can either put together a social media management team or find someone on your marketing team who’s especially savvy to take over and run your social media accounts. Whichever way you decide to do this, you should make sure that your accounts are being updated on a regular basis in order to consistently drive engagement and traffic to your different accounts.

Increased Security Services

With more people working online than ever, increasing digital security is a must. If you’re taking your business operations online, you should take extra measures to keep your information secure from viral attacks and spam.

There are many types of attacks that can come to your business, but the most common ones are phishing and ransomware. These directly target your employees and often put your business’ information at risk by attempting to get employees to hand it over themselves. Because of this, holding virtual training sessions with your employees about staying safe online while working with company software and hardware can be a great way to keep everyone on board with company policy and prevent a potentially dangerous situation from arising. Your business can also take advantage of the many security software available to businesses, which can help keep your team safe while working online.

Technology is seeing a huge boom this year, especially when it comes to tech bolstering communication and payments between businesses and consumers. Because of this, it’s important to be aware of these trends, adapt to them, and make your business tech-savvy in order to reach as many consumers as possible.