2018 in review: 5 surprising business trends
Summarising all that happened in 2018 is a good practice — it gives some hint of what to expect in the future and prepares you for the new cases and trends. This practice is also helpful in a sense that it allows to learn from the past mistakes. That is why I suggest it would be a good idea to make a summary of the most incredible trends that happened in 2018 in the business sphere and bear them in mind throughout the whole next year.
1. PEOPLE LIMIT TECHNOLOGY USAGE:
While our grandmothers have been trying to convince us of the huge gadgets/Internet/games addiction that influences our health, it seems that we’ve stopped to deny that fact ourselves. In response to people reporting the negative effects of technology usage on their mental health, many tech companies started to add different tools regulating the time of technology usage. Instagram has introduced activity dashboards, Apple has built an iOS Screen Time, and Google has revealed digital wellbeing features for its Android Pie. The trend is also traceable in the new gadget launches, such as Punkt’s LTE version of its super-minimalist phone and the new Palm phone supposed to replace your regular phone from time to time. All in all, gadgets and technologies meant to limit your gadgets’ and technologies’ usage are not a bad dream anymore — they are a healthy reality.
2. BRAND INFLUENCERS INFLUENCE EVEN MORE:
Could you even imagine that just one harmless tweet of a celebrity can wipe out $1.3 billion of the company’s share? That happened in 2018 with the Snapchat’s shares when Kylie Jenner, a sister of Kim Kardashian, tweeted that she no longer used the app. That is just one story of how much real power influencers have, but there are many more. The most necessary strategy in this case is staying friends with your influencers and opinion leaders.
3. ONLINE GOES TO OFFLINE:
Facebook opened its first retail pop-up stores inside Macy’s. The company sells some of the most-loved products on Facebook and Instagram that are absolutely different things: from clothes to burger sauce. Amazon has also crossed the line of the online world and built a brick-and-mortar store outside the Seattle. The main feature of the store is the absence of cashiers, meaning that people can just take the products and leave without having to stay in line — all payments are done automatically as soon as people leave the shop. Amazon plans to open 3000 such stores by 2021. A new era of retail is here!
4. LEGAL BARRIERS EVOLVE:
No way you haven’t heard about GDPR in 2018 — it is the most famous abbreviation of the year, after all. GDPR (The EU General Data Protection Regulation) was enforced in May 2018 and has affected almost every business around the world. The regulation aims to give people more control over their data and requires great transparency from companies in how they deal with people’s data. Every company working with EU citizens should comply with these rules, or immense fines will follow in case of violations.
5. DEMAND FOR TRANSPARENCY:
This trend partly echoes the previous one but goes beyond European regulations and data protection. People want to know not only how their personal data is used, but also everything about products — where they came from, how they were made and who made them. Supply chain transparency requires a big effort from the companies, as it is often based on an advanced technology, such as blockchain. Mixed with the Facebook and Google scandals about users’ data privacy, supply chain innovations make an important sign for businesses around the world that transparency is a new normal everywhere.
