As an online marketer, I have had some hard convictions for years. Comic sans as a font in advertisements is a no-go. Badly written web copy drives away customers. One day, both Mila Kunis and Zooey Deschanel will fall madly in love with me because of the beautiful pieces of copywriting I conjure up.
So, perfectly normal beliefs.
Why? The corona lockdown forced them
Another belief I firmly believed in was that some entrepreneurs will never, ever allow digital transformation in their business.
There are simply entrepreneurs who do not want to sell via web shops , hold meetings via the internet or even help customers on a simple website .
However, since March 18, 2020, I have had to throw that Our how to phone number information are hand data by human; Therefore we guarantee 100% accuracy on our database. Our sole aim is to provide you a top middle east mobile number list database by the mean of putting in its all. We also update our database weekly. GDRP base business databases (email, phone, fax & mailing list ) Updated until 2024 $40/all our database for high price you pay annual subscription fee up to 2030. last conviction overboard. Stubborn business managers who always shouted that they would continue to do things the way they did in 1993 until infinity, have suddenly become fervent digital freaks.
It is now crystal clear that COVID-19 is driving the digital transformation of hundreds of companies.
I’ll show you how that happens and why it ‘s a good thing that it happens.
Once upon a time
When I think back to (for example) 1993, I remember four ways products were sold:
The first way was the good old store. You know them, they still exist.
The second way was mail order catalogs like Wehkamp and Otto. They were hefty books full of clothes and other shit. My mother always had a few of these paper bundles in her possession, although I don’t think she ever ordered anything from them.
The third way was door-to-door selling. A guy would come to your door, he would talk about the product he had for sale, and then you would buy it. (Or not.)
And the fourth way was the flashy TV shows that aired after 11 p.m. selling magic blenders, miraculous storage bags, and life-improving kitchen knives. TellSell was the program; you had to order by phone. I could watch it for hours, but I never ordered anything. (I was eight, an age when the urge to buy household products is minimal.)
Retail sales was how (I estimate) 99.9999% of all products were sold. All other sales methods were a far cry from the success of retail sales.
Now, more than 17 years later, there is an alternative sales channel that almost eclipses retail sales. I am of course talking about internet sales .
Let’s take a look at how the World Wide Web has influenced how we buy our blenders, storage bags, and kitchen knives.
The Internet is the alternative sales channel of the 21st century
I will give you some instructive figures that underline the success of e-commerce and emphasize that Belgian traders lose a lot of turnover to foreign competition:
E -commerce in Belgium was already worth 10.67 billion euros in 2018;
In 2019, half a billion euros more was sold online than the year before;
Most online shoppers (58 percent) buy both online in Belgium and abroad. Only 28 percent buy only from domestic web shops, while 16 percent only shop across the border, according to a report by the Ecommerce Foundation ;
There is no doubt that the Internet is the alternative sales channel of the 21st century. For countless companies, it is even the primary sales channel.
However, Belgian companies lag behind neighbouring countries in terms of online sales. This gives foreign companies, such as the Dutch companies Coolblue and Bol.com, room to gain market share in our country. In the top 10 webshops used in Belgium, there are only two from our own country (Vanden Borre and Vente-exclusive.com).
Source: Ecommerce Foundation (via Gondola )
My personal experience as an online marketer at an agency that builds webshops is that the lockdown has finally woken up Belgian entrepreneurs. At long last, they seem to understand that they have to move with the times. Investing in an e-commerce channel is no longer a luxury, but a dire necessity.
Even the nuns of the Abbey of Our Lady of Nazareth now sell their beer shampoo online, reports the Gazet van Antwerpen .
Yes, ladies and gentlemen, 1993 has long passed.
The need for virtual meetings
Soon after the start of the lockdown, companies started to realize that it is very difficult to hold meetings when every employee is locked up in their own home. The need for an alternative way of holding meetings was evident.
The solution was found in video conferencing programs such as Zoom, Google Meet and Whereby. These pieces of software are easy to set up and use:
Someone creates an account and gets 1 or more virtual meeting rooms;
Sharing a link for a specific room allows people to join a conversation;
In the room you can see and hear each other, so you can discuss as you used to do. (Only exchanging home-baked cookies is more difficult.)
Video conferencing is a phenomenon that was already used in many companies before the corona crisis began. Especially for companies with multiple locations and foreign offices, video conferencing reduces travel costs, lost hours and CO2 emissions, as it makes travel unnecessary.
However, the lockdown has made video conferencing widely known and implemented.
At Motionmill, we couldn’t avoid meeting via webcam either. That felt strange at first, because almost all our colleagues work within cycling distance of each other. And even the majority of our customers come from the neighborhood. But you get used to everything, including meetings via webcam.
A nice side benefit: I now know what all my colleagues’ living rooms look like. (Dirk, you really should paint your walls!)
Why digital transformation is good
I can name four reasons why digital transformation is a good thing.
1. Digital transformation ensures that we are better prepared for future crises
Digital transformation ensures that Belgian companies have alternative sales channels should another crisis of any kind occur. Because the foundation for online sales has been laid, companies can continue to sell their products and services from the outset. No time is lost in starting up projects, because all that work has already been done.
2. The digital transformation protects the Belgian economy
The digital transformation ensures that Belgian companies can better compete with foreign multinationals such as Amazon and Zalando.
There is, as mentioned, a backlog, but fortunately this is slowly but surely being eliminated. Sofie Geeroms, director of BeCommerce vzw, already noted in 2019:
Compared to our neighbouring countries we still have a backlog and Belgian companies such as Schoenen Torfs, JBC and Standaard Boekhandel are busy investing. We will grow to the level of, say, the Netherlands.
Thanks to the digital transformation resulting from the lockdown, even more Belgian companies (including small-scale ones) have gained a market share in online sales.
3. The digital transformation shows that consultation can be more efficient
In the approximately seventeen years of my life in which the concept of ‘meetings’ plays a role, I have learned that meetings are usually time-wasting gatherings in which endless nonsense is discussed and a useful conclusion is rarely drawn.
Yes, this is my personal opinion.
And no, I cannot substantiate this opinion with scientific research.
But I am sure that many readers will recognize what I mean. And it is these victims of inefficient meeting cultures who have learned to their joy during the corona crisis that things can be done differently.
I have heard from several people in my immediate environment that video meetings are much more to the point than traditional meetings. That there is much more order, that people talk less over each other, that a conclusion is reached and completed more quickly.
4. Digital transformation may lead to less environmental france phone number buy data pollution in the future
Moreover, video conferencing shows that many topics can be discussed very well remotely. The CEO who is at the head office in Brussels does not necessarily have to drive to the branch office in Ostend in his Audi to have an hour’s meeting. Hopefully, Belgium will continue to use video conferencing. This can save working hours, reduce traffic jams and save the ozone layer.
My expectation is that Belgian entrepreneurs will distinguish ao lists themselves in the following groups after the lockdown:
Those who never wanted to have anything to do with the digital world, didn’t want to during the lockdown, and never will.
Then there are the entrepreneurs who didn’t care much for the digital world, but thanks to the lockdown they have seen that it offers many opportunities. These entrepreneurs (Motionmill now has several in its customer base) will continue to take steps in the future to use the potential of being online;
My expectations for the future
And finally, there are the entrepreneurs who knew before the lockdown that the future is digital. For them, the crisis has only been a confirmation that they were on the right track. They will therefore continue to focus on the digitalization of their company in the future.
