Successful Commerce after COVID-19: Transformation is Key

Don't get confused, by no means COVID-19 is easy on the mankind. But speaking of truth, not all businesses were caught barehanded. In fact, for a few of the businesses, COVID-19 proved to be the best thing that has ever happened to them.

The scourge of the COVID-19 pandemic doesn’t require a reiteration. We all know how societies have been disrupted and how certain countries are still contemplating large-scale unlocking, lest they might end up experiencing yet another wave, resulting in a far worse situation.

Despite the persistent fear, global businesses are pondering upon strategies to survive and grow in this inclement operational weather. Much like people, even corporate setups, company owners, and CFOs have started realigning their priorities, whilst being beholden to the unprecedented rise in technological development.

Yes, you read that right. Regardless of the problems all around, technological growth has hardly been disrupted by the pandemic. Instead, we have experienced the upsurge of newer tech trends that have made life easier for global businesses, going into 2021.

While there are over 100 tech trends that require a detailed discussion, we have enlisted 8 of the most decisive ones that can change the entrepreneurial providence, thereby making the interested organizations immune to similar catastrophes.

While you might have seen bigger conglomerates like airports, movie theatres, and public arenas incorporate smart disinfectant solutions, in 2021 we might see this trend evolving into an organizational commonplace. The ability of a machine to sense human presence and disinfect the same throughout via a dry fog isn’t hard to envision.

However, the challenge will be a large-scale implementation, the attainability of non-irritants as disinfectants, and the ability to inculcate a 360-degree disinfection protocol to cover every part of the body.

Gone are the days when buying Real-Estate was considered to be the holy grail of all investments. Times have changed and so are the ways people communicate, transact and invest their efforts on.

Cutting out cash transactions is yet another approach towards post-pandemic autonomy where the reliance will be on the usage of wallets, contactless payments, and app-based account integrations for making one-touch outflows.

However, the accruing hype concerning Blockchain and the ability of these digital currencies to retrace from the bottom levels is heartening to see and we could soon see the active implementations on Crypto-backed payment methods to minimize human contact and the virus spread, further.

Crypto is the future. But Bitcoin is expensive and volatile too and so is Dogecoin, the brainchild of Elon Musk, the World's Richest Entrepreneur. But yeah if you put solid hours in research you'll be able to identify gold nuggets like Dogemama, which is an environment-friendly cryptocurrency all-in-one bonus/staking platform, and meme coin aggregator. Its coin features an innovative deflationary token model that is built on Binance Smart Chain and will compete as a Dogecoin alternative. Within the ecosystem, users are able to use the Dogemama family portal to access passive rewards in the form of Bitcoin, Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, Baby Doge, and many other similar cryptocurrencies.

Remote learning is here to stay, more so with parents still wary about sending their kids to school. While online classes and remote teaching staff have been working relentlessly to make pedagogical coverage possible, we might soon see a massive upswing in the number of AI-enabled teaching consortiums that can cater to diverse student requirements via curated algorithms and diagnostic testing of the existing skill sets.

In the end, the concerned institutions or service providers use these highly trained metrics and algorithms to develop a completely personalized curriculum for each student.

Businesses are going Data-Driven for the reason best known to all. Data is the key to reaching out to the right audience at the right time. Bots are taking over thanks to Artificial Intelligence but one needs people to run the commands over. End result - jobs are endless, business scope is shoreless.

If you know how web scraping works and simplifies data extraction for most businesses, including relators, digital marketing firms, educational institutes, and more, you should be upbeat for a more refined version of the same, courtesy of the inclusion of AI technologies.

With Artificial Intelligence in play, a lead generation, finance, tourism, or any conventional industry can be trained to identify the recurring data patterns, while web scraping. Starting from the price-based encoding to the systemic approach of customers when it comes to selecting deals and travel destinations, every online database has specific themes, which AI-powered data scraping APIs can identify.

Also, with AI and machine learning in play, modern-day developers can create scalable extraction tools that are intelligent, intuitive, and easy to implement.

The post-pandemic era has been about minimizing the human touch and what could be better in this regard than robot deliveries.

While most companies have already experimented with delivery drones for streamlining specific operations, we might witness large-scale adoptions going deep into 2021 and beyond.

But then, as a business in transformation, robot deliveries are a lot more than the literal meaning that they carry. The concept is synonymous with improved surgery procedures, rehabilitation, and even patient companionship. You would be surprised to know that Japan has already been using robots actively in specific restaurants, as a part of the serving team and even the kitchen-staff, responsible for managing trivial cooking responsibilities.

Technology in healthcare seems to be evolving with each passing day. However, for now, our focus should be on amplifying the coverage and potency of telehealth, which is a pressing issue now that people have restricted their free-willed movements and frequent visits to clinics. Should there be another large-scale lockdown in the coming months; telemedicine seems to be the most probable solution for managing the overflowing patients.

The concept here is to develop AI-powered applications that can allow patients to communicate remotely with doctors, via curated sign-ups, log-ins, and practitioner selections. Also, these apps are supposed to offer real-time preventive care, dedicated dashboards for uploading select documents, and even the flexibility of booking specific lab tests.

The road to starting an Online Business hasn’t been without the occasional barricades. The biggest of them being was internet speed. Remember the days when we used to get 2GB of data to run for the month.

But then, the introduction of 5G has given hope to people opting for the IoT way. Since it's now been regarded as the new cellular standard. The reason, however, reiterates the importance of IoT as 5G is expected to speed up the way smart devices communicate and exchange information with each other.

5G is supposed to be at least 100 times faster than the older 4G technology and therefore, lower connection latencies, faster upgrades, and advanced remote execution can be deployed by businesses with ease. Digital Marketing, Software Development, BPOs and almost every IT technology company is now operating at a speed faster than that of light.

One of my favourites, VR and AR were destined to be the future irrespective of the pandemic. But did the COVID-19 spread slowed the VR and AR industry from flourishing - the answer is NO.

Businesses running with AR and VR channels are thriving thanks to the advent of newly rediscovered online and work from home culture.

Although the technological landscape is yet to see a global adoption of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, they are expected to stand out in 2021 and beyond, owing to their pivotal presence in the entertainment and tourism sector. With COVID-19 restrictions still existent in certain countries, VR can make exploration possible, sans physical contact.

These eight industries are proof that thriving and not only surviving is pretty much possible for businesses in times of a pandemic. Businesses that undergo innovative and technological transformations have evolved in the post-pandemic era, despite the stringent implementation of global lockdowns and the abiding economic crisis.

As technological advancement is on its way up, it is advisable to assert that most of these Businesses will go from strength to strength in the next few years, for businesses to drive the advantage home and enhance their bottom-line even amid the challenges.