Business Requirements in the Modern Digital Age

Today we are just a click away in finding whatever we crave for, the first thing that we do is search it on the internet. The Internet has brought huge information just within our grasp. All it takes is just put in a few keywords on any search engine, and whatever we are looking for, we will get everything about it. This has not only made our lives easier but has also changed the whole perspective of business requirements. In nutshell, online presence and branding is much more important than building a brick and mortar shop for any business.

Let us now look into the vital business requirements of the Digital Era:-

1. Website: – Creating a website for the business may not be the one and only important requirement at the present time, but if we make a list of requirements, a website will always be on the top. A website creates the business presence online. Visiting websites not only gives potential customers the idea of your business and the details of the products offered, but also creates the first impression of the business at the back of the mind of the visitor. For creating a website all you need to do is find a suitable web hosting company, Register and create your domain name and create your website. Companies such as Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure do not only host a website, but also provide various online tools for the betterment of the website. In India website hosting is free for the initial year, but after that though it is chargeable, the amount is nominal. Various other website building companies such as Wordpress provide a platform for creating a website. And always, one can always hire a professional if anyone is not well versed with these technologies.

2. Social Media: – Creating a website might be the most important requirement for any online business, but the most effective way of creating and spreading the online presence is through Social Media. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn and many more social media platforms do not only provide us to set up our personal profile and share our posts and opinions but also to create our business page and help the business get more recognition. Social media also becomes a very easy way to communicate with customers, get feedback and advertise the offered products for free. Also, Social Media not only helps to draw traffic to the business website but also generate potential customers. Having a good social media business page with a fair number of followers can help any business achieve new milestones.

3. Digital Marketing: – During the Durga puja period, most of us get a huge amount of notifications from various e-commerce apps. Offers from myntra on traditional wears, Amazon great Indian sale, Flipkart and so many more. These e-commerce stores provide such offers based on the festive mood and vibe. Most of us get attracted to these offers as well. This is done by nothing but a new way of marketing called digital marketing.

Today, online business presence can be easily created with the help of a website and business pages on social media. But now the question which arises is if the business is online, how should someone proceed with marketing? Of course putting posters and advertisements about visiting the business website is an option but these methods are quite orthodox, costly and slow. The best method for promoting any business in today’s digital world is through Digital Marketing. Most of us come across various advertisements while we are online. It can be ads showing before playing any video on YouTube, or ads popping up while searching something on Google or maybe popup ads while using any smartphone application. All these are done with Digital Marketing. It is cheap and promoting a business through these channels is not only fast, but also one can create and self-manage these ads instead of going to any advertisement companies. Google provides various Digital marketing tools through which not only ads can be displayed but also these will help in the betterment of the website search results with Search Engine Optimization. Apart from Google searches, Digital ads can be displayed on other websites as well. Even Social media also provides various paid advertisements. The most important thing which is required is the knowledge of all the digital marketing channels. Learn about these channels, set up your budget, Strategize your marketing plan and with Digital marketing start promoting the business in just no time.

4. Automated Mobile App: – Present analysis of various data has made us come to the conclusion that most people browse the internet using their smartphones than using computers, laptops or tablets. With this knowledge we can come to the decision that making the website mobile friendly is required. Various online tools are available to check if the mobile friendliness of the website. Now it is also seen that people prefer using an App in their smartphone instead of opening the browser and visiting the website. Hence, an automated App is required for the betterment of the business. An app not only helps to make a purchase smoothly, but it also enhances user experience which leads to more customer satisfaction. Most of the E-Commerce companies have their Automated Mobile App. With the help of automation and Artificial Intelligence, technologies are evolving and apps are becoming more customized and user friendly. Though a Mobile App is not a requirement to start a business online, today it becomes a very important component to run the business smoothly.

5. Web Analytics: – Online business might be better in most of the aspects but it lacks few important business components as well. One of these components is the lack of communication between customers. Customers will come to your website or App, make a purchase and leave. Potential customers will visit multiple pages of the website or search multiple products on the App before proceeding to the purchase. But how can we know who is visiting the website or app, what pages are they visiting, how is the performance and how are customers behaving on them? Knowing these details play a very important role in the development of the business. But nothing to worry!! Today a lot of Web Analytics tools are present on the internet which can easily solve this problem. Google provides various web analytics tools. These tools not only help you to know the performance of your website and app, but also you can get various details about all the people who are visiting. One of the most important web analytics tools is Google Analytics. This tool helps to know about the number of customer visits, demographics, devices and also provides analysis of the customer behavior and real time analysis of the visits and many more. Other tools such as Google Search console provides the search results in which the website is appearing in the organic search results. Various Non-Google tools are also available to develop the SEO of the website and help in measuring the overall website performance. Thus, web analytics becomes one of the most important business requirements in today’s Digital World.

6. Data Analytics: – Automation and Artificial Intelligence (AI) has not only changed the whole business process and user experience, but they also generate huge amounts of structured raw data. This data includes details of customers, their contact information, search and order details and also details of the products and services offered. With Data Analytics, this huge data can be stored in virtual databases, manipulated as per requirement and analyzed to generate business insights. Data analytics techniques along with ML can reduce the credit and Fraud risk of the banking institutions. Voice of Customers can be analyzed and customer service can be developed leading to better customer experience and satisfaction. Business data can be analyzed and insightful conclusions can be derived. Data Analytics and ML has given way to predictive modeling, with which past and present trends in the data can be analyzed and future market trends can be predicted fairly accurately. With this knowledge future market demands can be known beforehand. Hence, with the help of Data Analytics, we can generate a huge amount of business insights which can lead to the development of the overall business.