Digital strategy a must for PH Firms

A digital strategy is now a must, not just an option, for companies across all industries, if they want to keep up with the changing attitudes of today’s consumers.

Such is the sound business advice of global strategic market research data and analysis provider Euromonitor International, which developed the Digital Consumer Index, a tool that “examines the interplay of digital connectivity and digital commerce to identify promising markets for digital commerce opportunities.”

Euromonitor created the index based on key findings from Passport, the firm’s global market research database.

In its report titled “2016 Digital Consumer Index: Identifying the Next Digital Frontiers,” the company’s research found that 43 percent of the world’s population--or around 3 billion people-- today use the internet for almost all aspects of their daily lives.

By 2020, this figure is expected to grow to 49 percent, or half the world’s population.

“This connectivity has driven a fundamental shift across all corners of commerce,” the report reads, “Digital is how consumers of tomorrow expect brands will interact with them before, during and after a purchase.”

While research shows that there is still a “digital divide” between consumers from developed and emerging markets—only 36 percent of emerging market consumers are on the internet, less than half of the 79 percent of online consumers in developed ones—this gap is expected to narrow also by 2020, as “the number of internet users in emerging markets is projected to expand four times faster than in developed markets.”

Euromonitor credits this largely to the global phenomenon that is the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

The report described this next technological shift as “characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.”

We see this now mostly through mobile applications, which allow us to, say, hail a cab, order food, or even have something delivered with just a few clicks on our smartphones.

By 2020, digital connectivity will impact the travel industry most.

Based on Euromonitor’s forecast, travel bookings will comprise 58 percent of total global online sales by that year, while retail shares will be at 11 percent, and foodservice at 7 percent.

The question for brands, then, is how they should use their resources in formulating the most cost-effective digital strategies in the face of a growing online market—which is where the Digital Consumer Index comes in.

With such tool, Euromonitor aims to “assist companies with identifying which geographic markets are the most digitally attractive and offer the best prospects for future deployment of digital initiatives.”

The research firm invites brands to make use of the index since, as the report indicates, the age of “digital disruption” is far from over.

“Digital has allowed commerce to spring up in a number of places, both online and offline. As the number of connected things increases, the number of digital commerce touchpoints will rise,” the report reads, “Whether or not a company needs a digital strategy is no longer up for debate. The question is how and where to deploy limited resources for these digital initiatives.”