US ecommerce sales reached $791.7 billion during 2020 according to Digital Commerce analysts. Marketing Charts are expecting mobile commerce would account for a sixth of retail dollars earned during 2021. That is one dollar out of every six dollars will be accounted for by mobile commerce. Yes the pandemic helped accelerate this trend, but now it is considered an opportunity.
Traditionally a gap existed which prevented many aspiring entrepreneurs from entering the market. With advances in technology entrepreneurs can breach that gap and take full advantage of tools available today. The contemporary nature of the market allows founders to make use of the collaborative nature of contemporary marketing and, in essence, capitalize on other’s experiences. Founders face an incredible challenge when selecting the type of business and industry into which they want to enter. Luckily there are a number of tools available for the modern entrepreneur. These tools and resources help to minimize start-up costs and maximize efficiency.
Ideation Tools
What business should I start? What should I name it? At some point every entrepreneur faced these two questions. Questions that became easier to answer in 2021 with the help of advances in technology. Nagabhushanam “Bobby” Pedi, the CEO TRUiC is one of America’s top leaders when it comes to AI powered business ideation tools. One of his latest free ideation tools helps with brand name selection, and also gives guidance on the type of business you could start based on your selected interests and scalability. See some of their latest AI tools for ideation.
MVP and Launch Tools
Entrepreneurs can experiment with ideas in their preferred market before completing their product when venturing into the mobile app space. Using minimum viable product tools allows the business owner to attract early adopters and validate a product early in the product life-cycle. A good MVP is a usable, working product.
Contemporary marketing stresses the importance of a customer-centric approach whereas traditional marketing portrays a product-centric view. Contemporary marketing approaches favors building relationships with clients and customers. BetaList created a unique take to launching businesses in various markets, allowing founders to get feedback from early adopters and entrepreneurs. This feeds into the collaborative nature of contemporary marketing.
Finance and Fundraising Tools
The digital era gave rise to new and innovative ways for entrepreneurs to raise funds and finance their business ventures. Crowdfunding developed rapidly in recent years, affording businesses and individuals more opportunities in creative fundraising. The two biggest crowdfunding markets according to Statista.com are China and the Americas ( Canada and USA). During 2018 China raised $215 million through crowdfunding. American platforms (USA and Canada) raised $62 billion by comparison. The entrepreneur will need to choose which crowdfunding strategy would be applicable for their business venture. Whether it be equity-based, rewards-based, donations-based or marketplace lending, these options present various funding opportunities that did not exist several years ago.
Marketing and CRM Tools
Customer service, both and good and bad, has a direct impact on revenue. A study by Dimensional Research found that 88% of consumers have been influenced by an online customer service review before making a buying decision. Tools like Remesh provide quantitative and qualitative data. This helps marketers to better understand the targeted audience segment.
Customer relationship management tools help businesses organize and access customer data. CRM’s are useful to increase revenue and profitability, scaling a sales process, segmenting the audience, sales forecasting and sales reporting. HubSpot is a well-known CRM provider who caters for small businesses. CRM’s are useful to attract customers, convert leads and close on sales.
Design and Development Tools
An array of design and developments are available online to assist the entrepreneur in designing every aspect of their brand image. Tools like Mockplus have ready-to-use components and icons to help make designing a brand image less tedious. For the budget conscious entrepreneur free online tools are a quick Google search away.
Final take:
Startups often have limited resources and facing challenges of a financial nature. Founders may not have experience or need to juggle different hats. Therefore it is critical they arm themselves with relevant tools. In the rapidly evolving economic landscape, new startups have a distinct advantage in the vast array of business tools available to them. From ideation tools that help one select, not only the name, but also the type of business to innovative funding concepts that stemmed from crowdfunding, entrepreneurs should find this new online playing field filled with opportunity.
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