Challenges for Small Business in a Digital World

Welcome to the Payemoji Blog Series!

Welcome to the first in a series of blogs from the Payemoji team!  At Payemoji we are focused on helping small and medium Businesses take the “digital leap” as easily as possible.

The COVID-19 pandemic which has reverberated across the globe is now in its third year and as things slowly return to the “new normal” we are left contemplating the impacts this has had on the world of Business. Key effects such as “hybrid work” becoming far more prevalent, Business travel being reduced in favour of video conferencing and of course rapid growth in ecommerce and digital sales.

For small Business this was a challenge as things like digital payments, eCommerce storefronts and website creations had to be done hastily and by some not at all.  The service industry was left behind entirely with myriad of lockdowns and a much shallower ecosystem of solutions.

Now, with life returning to something approaching normal we can take more time to reflect on the approach for small Business to maximize the digital silver lining of the pandemic.

The Challenge of Digital Transformation

When faced with needing to take the “digital leap”, Business owners have a multitude of choices in specialist Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) solutions across the digital spectrum.  Although each may be strong in their own domain, often these specialist solutions go above and beyond the requirements of a small Business.  This often means paying more than what is required even at a basic plan level.

To then really embrace the digital world, the Business requires multiple services meaning that as the costs stack up from multiple solutions the Business owner must begin to choose what is the most important solution(s).  

Where a Business requires a specialist solution often depends on the Business itself.  Those with a sales team and requirements to drive a sales funnel will look towards a strong CRM like PipeDrive.  Retail will want to focus on a feature rich point-of-sale system such as Lightspeed.  All require a secure and flexible payments partner and Customer support software.

But this means that often some important digital components are foregone such as ecommerce, loyalty programs, omnichannel support and for the services industry online appointment management.  A surprising portion of small Business in western Europe are also lacking a basic website.

To top this off, trying to integrate these various solutions for a smaller Business is expensive and time consuming.  It is no wonder that Business owners give up they are trying to focus on running their Business!

Even at Payemoji where we are tech-savvy and have the technical expertise, we spend a large amount of time investigating various software solutions determining their true “ease of integration” with other solutions.  It’s often not as easy as it looks.

And last but not least is mobile Apps.  There are millions of these on the respective App stores but in a market study by Heady.io, 91% of consumers hate installing an App to do Business, but companies still make an App install a necessity to do Business with them.  For a Business without a strong reason for a user to regularly use the App it is almost impossible to have the consumer install and keep it.  This leaves traditional contact methods as well as websites (which are often not optimized for mobile) as the path to a Customer journey for a Customer.

Don’t get me wrong, mobile Apps are great.  They provide a better Customer experience, allow a better Customer journey to answer a Customer’s question and can provide more personalised experiences than a website but “App fatigue” is making this harder for Business of all sizes.  Even Gartner is now predicting that 80% of Customer service Businesses will have replaced their mobile App in favour of messaging by 2025 due to this issue.

Where to From Here?

Every Business is different and so we believe that specialist tools are required for specialist jobs.   However, we also believe that there is no need to compromise on the other part of the “digital leap”.  

We have searched for solutions where the essential parts of digital transformation for both retail and services are combined in an easy to use and cost-effective package.  The bad news is we struggled to find any.

The good news is we decided to fix that!

We believe an alternative for small Businesses is to leverage the Messenger Apps which are ubiquitous on everyone’s phone, accepted and ready for Business.  Think WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram or Line.  

These Apps allow a Business to present the same features and functionality of a mobile App with a comfortable and known experience for the user and as importantly for the Business owner, without the cost or complexity.

Behind the scenes key functionality such as eCommerce, payments, CRM, loyalty programs, appointment scheduling can all be presented to the user through rich menus, photos and even video!  In case they need support, they can simply message directly to the Business in the same App with all their contact history maintained.  

We also believe in making sure a Business does not need to reinvent the wheel.  Already have a payment solution?  Bring it.  Already have an eCommerce store?  No problem.  We will ensure these can be integrated with the workflows within your unique Customer journeys using their favourite messaging App!

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Sounds Interesting – Get in touch now.

We would love to chat with you about how your business could benefit from OMNI channel messaging and WhatsApp business platform. Get in touch with us at sales@payemoji.com and we will schedule a call.

So go ahead and join the conversation by taking advantage of the 23 hours that consumers spend per week on their Messaging Apps and use that to grow your Business.

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