Empowered consumer defines the market

By Park Sang-jin

There have always been forces in the marketplace that affect business, but we are at an unusual time ― perhaps a rare time ― when there are five major forces that are technology-based.

Analytics, cloud computing, mobility, social business and cyber intelligence are relatively new and rapidly evolving. We anticipate that they will soon become an integral part of our personal and business lives,

These forces can create opportunities for disrupting “business as usual” for those who master them early and timely ― especially when two or more are combined. We have already seen it happen in several industries. Mobility and social media are transforming how we shop.

Analytics and cloud computing have changed how we buy books and watch movies. So far, all five have not been effectively combined in one disruptive swoop, but we suspect more than one company is working on it at the moment.

In the 1990s, business leaders were focused on reengineering their processes, using technology as a tool to do what they had consistently done but better, cheaper and faster. In the early 2000s, the spread of digital technology helped them to take their business global.

Today, many leading companies are creating new ways to meet the needs of individuals ― customers, employees and suppliers who expect to do business anywhere, anytime. Their innovations are disrupting business as usual ― launching us into a new business era, the post digital era, and these five emerging technologies can provide the power.

Empowered consumer or connected customer are the individuals who rapidly change current ecosystem itself in terms of three perspectives: first is social connectivity ― customers are constantly connected to their social networks, resulting in increasingly collaborative shopping experiences, in which customers are influenced by and influencers of their peers.

Second is technical connectivity ― customers are constantly connected to the internet through smart, portable, and highly usable devices, enabling real-time analysis, price comparisons, and product/service transparency, and lastly behavioral connectivity ― companies are gaining more detailed information about individuals, enabling more compelling customer engagement through marketing and product/service offerings that are tightly linked to past patterns of behavior. Customer behavior is no longer linear: the post-digital ecosystem is a lattice. People are important again for performance.

Park Sang-jin, a partner of Deloitte Korea.