Trends analysis
4.3.1 What impacts trends analysis?
Data analytics and information technology are the backbone and the basis for innovation and new business models. With the rise of digitalisation and the automatisation of more processes, technology makes it possible to analyse any data, regardless of the sector or business area. A huge support is the Internet of Things (IoT) which is the core element of the 4.0 Industrial Revolution, introducing new computerised actuating, monitoring, processing, sensing, scanning and various other capabilities for data management. The IoT is generally used to refer to the connection between consumer goods. According to the European Commission, the IoT could grow from about 9 billion connected devices in 2017 to 20-30 billion by 2020 and more than 55 billion by 2025. This is the result of the digitalisation phenomena and the fact that we are living in a fully connected ecosystem. Yet, the IoT is more for businesses, than individuals, as the solutions that are developed are chiefly for the benefit of factories and industries (e.g. drone technology for parcel deliveries, big data analysis facilitating customer management). The IoT as a disruptive technology is growing in popularity and with the development of technology, newer solutions will replace those existing nowadays. Current examples include smartphones that can be used to lock and unlock doors remotely (digital locks) or monitor buildings (smart buildings). Chronologically, going back in time, in 2000 smart meters were invented, in 1991 the World Wide Web had its debut and in 1974, ATMs were introduced, among others. Possible future developments may include Man-Machine Mind Meld (MMMM) – with the ability to control minds as well as machines and the collaboration between robots or Facebook for Things evolving from the IoT.
The cloud and big data were among the first innovations within Industry 4.0 and most businesses already know how to manage them, but other advances, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and additive manufacturing (3D printing) are continuously growing in popularity, with applications in different industries, including e-commerce. Another trend that can be expected to be highly influential in the near future is in-memory computing (IMC). Since the cost of memory has decreased, in-memory computing has become a mainstream technological solution for a variety of benefits in the area of analysis. It is expected that up to 90% of large organisations will be generating some sort of revenue from data as a service (DaaS) in 2020. Data as a Service is a cloud-based technology that allows customers to access digital files via the internet.
Also augmented analytics is emerging to become the dominant method used across all sectors. Augmented analytics are the result of combining AI (artificial intelligence) techniques and machine learning to create a new way of creating, developing, sharing and consuming analytics. Growing virtualisation will also substitute current ways of communication. Another popular technology is avatars, digital characters replacing the physical representation of the speaker while communicating via digital devices, which could shortly be replaced by virtual assistants.
4.3.2 Choosing online channels to analyse
Giving the effects that new technologies are having on businesses, keeping track of trends is an absolute necessity. As companies, especially start-ups and young entrepreneurs, are aware of the power that social media has nowadays, the trends across these networks should be a key focus when analysing a business’s online presence. Social media in fact plays a key role in company branding and many studies have shown that being active on social media enables businesses not only to reach more clients, but also to engage directly in communication with them, thereby influencing their decisions and delivering targeted information. As social media are among those networks supporting personalisation, and personalisation is forecasted to be the dominant feature of Industry 5.0 in the future, an obvious statement to make is that social media will enable companies to grow.
Social media also enables businesses to research their competitor’s performance and to gauge the immediate reaction to information published about their company as well as tracking market trends, including online customer behaviour. It can also be a means of communication with international customers in their own language or at least in English. When deciding to trade outside one’s own country, consideration must be given to which language to use. With social media a business can decide to manage an account using a single market and a specific language. If this is the case, a business should adopt a consistent approach and the website should also be available in the same language(s).
The decision on which social media channels to use will depend on the type of product / service offered by the business, as well as the market the business is targeting (different channel preferences by country) in additional to the amount of time the business can devote to social media. The most popular channels are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest. Therefore, social media can be part of a business strategy and not just an additional feature.
This does not mean that websites are less important. It is still a recommended tool when starting an online business and an inevitable element of e-commerce. Websites provide important information to consumers and are usually consulted for information about policies or contact details. Websites, in contrast to some social media pages, offer the possibility of expanding their structure, e.g. by installing more plugins for the purposes of communication (live chat) or marketing (personalised product recommendations).
4.3.3 Analysing trends
Analysing trends is an essential function for any online business. This will enable a business to understand the impact e-commerce has had on the business and also to identify areas for improvement. Web analytics tools can be used to research the popularity of a business’s website, to establish who is visiting the site, when they are visiting it, what pages are attracting the most attention, what visitors are looking for, at what point do they decide to buy a product / service and at what point they decide to leave the page etc. Google Analytics is a recommended analytics tool. It helps to build a complete picture of a business’s online performance, including a business’s website, its social media presence, the performance of its marketing campaigns, product / service presentation, and interaction with connected systems such as CRM or other customer touchpoints. The data which can be obtained through an analytics tool can result in converting page visitors to customers, if the business analyses the data properly (and regularly) and makes the necessary steps leading to this increase in revenue.
In order to start using the recommended analytics tools a business needs to have a Google Account, so that they can track visitors assigned to a specific account (e-commerce). The Google Help Center offers tutorials on how to start using the analytics tool and how to analyse data.
Some important information that Google Analytics provides, includes pages on Behaviour (what pages the visitors are actually interested in – which ones they visit most often, how long they spend on pages and from what pages they exit the website), Acquisition (how visitors reached the business’s website – direct search, social media, organic search, referral – and what is the exact split, the impact of Google Campaigns – if being used, network referrals to the page) and Audience Overview (how many people visit the site daily, when is the visiting peak time – when do most visitors visit, often as a result of an additional activity, e.g. sending a newsletter by email with direct links to website pages – how many new visitors does a site have and how many returning visitors are there, what is the bounce rate – persons visiting only a single page, which is not necessary something bad, since this page may be what they were searching for, what is the average session duration – how long visitors are staying on the website, what countries visitors come from – which is important for international sales).
The Real-time overview report provides information on top referrals, top active pages, top social traffic, top locations and top keywords – a summary of general information about the website traffic. The Conversions report is an additional element of the analytics tool that includes e-commerce tracking (collecting data on product sales, billing locations, product performance, sales performance or time to purchase), but also multi-funnel reports to check how marketing channels work together to create sales and conversions.
Precise analysis of data is extremely important in terms of international sales, where a business will be required to invest more time and money. Will all the information collected via website analytics tools, a business will be in the position of choosing those channels of communication (acquisition data) and putting more focus on those pages (audience overview and behaviour data) that are attracting the most attention. As a result, a business should be able to decrease the bounce rate (indicator referring to visitors leaving the web site) and increasing conversion thereby generating more leads. Research conducted by PayPal ( (PayPal, 2018) shows that businesses perform better if they analyse website analytics and keep track of their business activity online.