Small businesses turn to web 3.0
As small businesses recover from the effects of the pandemic, many are increasingly relying on digital tools to stay afloat. While some only need basic tools, others are exploring how to get on board with the latest technology trends — the Metaverse, NFT, and crypto — to gain a competitive edge. Insights from the global freelancing platform Fiverr reveal that small businesses seek to hire experts on these trends. Those invested in digital skill building for small businesses may soon have to incorporate web 3.0 into their offerings.
At least 70% of small and medium businesses worldwide had intensified their use of digital technologies more than a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, adopting both simple and advanced technologies, depending on their needs. While both small and large businesses usually embrace standard technologies like digital payments, social media or ecommerce, the adoption gap widens as technologies become more sophisticated, such as for cloud computing and data analytics.
Many small businesses may not actually need these sophisticated digital tools, but others are wondering if they could be helpful to gain a competitive edge in a world where consumer buying habits are also becoming more advanced. However, small businesses usually lack inhouse capacity to implement such tools. In the UK, for example, a lack of digital skills is the most frequently cited barrier to the adoption of digital technologies.
The Metaverse, NFT, and crypto
According to recent data from Fiverr, a global freelancing platform, a majority of small businesses on the platform are now looking to hire experts who understand the Metaverse, NFT, Crypto — some of the most advanced and hyped technologies. Fiverr’s 2022 Small Business Index analyzed the fastest growing terms based on the millions of searches by small businesses across its platform.
The Metaverse, for example, according to Meta (formerly Facebook) could unlock new opportunities for buyers and sellers to connect in a new way, providing immersive shopping experiences. Fiverr observes that digital platforms have started to roll out tools to help small businesses offer virtual experiences. Small businesses are also looking to hire experts on several other digital tools like Laravel, Shopify Developer, Pixel Art, Game Development, Blockchain, Etsy Shop, Discord, NFT Art, among others.
In the preceding indexes here and here, small businesses tended to search for digital marketing and ecommerce solutions during a time when many were ramping up their digitalisation efforts as the pandemic raged. Now, it seems that a significant number of small businesses feel the need to adopt more advanced digital tools as they gain momentum.
New businesses are looking for growth experts
Fiverr suggests that The Great Resignation (people leaving their jobs en masse during the pandemic) gave rise to a new wave of entrepreneurs who have created businesses and need expertise on how to scale. For these scale-oriented businesses, the most popular search terms include logistic website, fundraising promotion, and Bubble.io (a no-code platform for creating digital products).
For those looking to promote their businesses, the most popular search terms included Promotional Video Ad, Social Media Content Manager, and Google Ads Adwords PPC Campaign.
Updating digital small business support
For organizations and companies invested in digital skill building for small businesses, these findings suggest that they may soon need to incorporate advanced technologies into their offerings. Small businesses may now make the jump to more sophisticated technologies, and others may simply look for orientation and guidance on whether those bring new opportunities for them. For both groups, small business training providers may soon have to update their content to reflect and keep up with these new knowledge demands.
Additionally, funders that seek to support small businesses digitalize and recover from the pandemic need to be open to schemes that emphasize emerging digital technologies. Canada’s new $2.6 billion Digital Adoption Program is a good example. It seeks to help small and medium-sized enterprises access loans to help them adopt advanced digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and robotics.
Not all small businesses may need cutting-edge tools and the web 3.0, but those that do will need help to exploit them fully.
