Today, consumers have a lot of power, and an increasing number of companies are learning how to harness that power to make raving fans out of their customers. Perhaps the most important change, technology, has allowed businesses to connect and sell to clients in new ways, including e-mails, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, blogs, and the social media giants, Facebook, Twitter & LinkedIn.

These tools allow businesses to stay at the top of customer’s mind, and they help prospective find the companies they want to do business with.

The two biggest technology tools leading the change are mobile smartphones and tablets that make it a lot easier for consumers to access anything they want, from several mediums. The potential to disrupt the normal way of doing business is huge, so to recapture their consumers on a new business playing field, a digital transformation took place with companies gaining an advantage with new technology.

Technology has changed the video rental business very dramatically, and many video stores are out of business, going out of business, or have struggled to stay afloat. Hence, what Blockbuster went through leading to their bankruptcy, when Netflix came out a new way of delivering movies without late fees and turned the entire industry upside down.

Another hugely popular technology is streaming video. It has become extremely popular and many people are choosing to pay so they can stream new movies right from their homes, computers, tablets, and even smartphones. Technology has made everything more accessible, remotely while you’re not at the office, and a lot faster than a fax machine, with a simple push of a button.

Smartphones, for example, can connect you with your entire VPN network while you are out of the office, so you can respond a lot faster. Workflows, automated systems, and tools, helped in business cost inefficiency & losses, more streamlined operations, and controlling the costs from ballooning out of sight.

Unlike 1995, consumers are more connected than ever before. Social media makes it easy for consumers to communicate with others, create a post on Kijiji, or find anything they want on a Google search.  

The End Result?
Companies marketing objectives have dramatically shifted to social media, e-commerce, mobile phones, to meet an ever-evolving and more connected digital consumer.

In the end, the customer has a better buying journey, better payment options, better store platforms online, improved engagement & communications with companies, and motivated companies to take action to improve customer service & increase their revenue.

The most important aspect of digital transformation is the sheer will of “ambition” that fuels the digital era’s evolution.

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Leading digital strategist influencers of the biggest brands around the world are leading the “Digital Transformation” change, and everyone wondering why & how it’s done to enhance customer buying experiences.

Going through its initial evolution, digital transformation became next big thing in customer buying experiences and how top companies now do business in a fast paced and changing environment. Those type of companies that are five steps ahead of the next guy, invest tons into digital customers’ behaviors, and will have a huge competitive advantage over companies that did not.

What companies look for when new technology investments are made? How a customer interacts and their purchase behaviors influences companies on which technology to use?

Some examples are:

• What is our ideal client or customer?
• What attracted them to our product in the first place?
• What do customers use to interact with, and how often?
• What do they want in terms of value, and expect in return for buying this particular product?
• How did existing mainstream media or customers were influenced to affect their buying decision or altered their buying behaviors?

Here is one example of one company that used technology to transform its business with a commerce cloud product.

“Pitney Bowes that built the Commerce Cloud: Almost 100 years ago, Arthur Pitney invented the postage meter, introducing the concept of metered mail to the world and smoothing the path of commerce for the foreseeable future. Nowadays, shipping is just one aspect of the Pitney Bowes brand.

Since building the Pitney Bowes Commerce Cloud, the company has become one of the largest software companies in the world, with customers relying on it for everything from location intelligence to global e-commerce and customer information management solutions. In order to evolve your business like Pitney Bowes has said, you have to take advantage of your greatest asset: data.”

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Digital transformation is top of mind in every business you have these days. We’re guilty of throwing the phrase around at business meetings, this can cut that cost, this can bring in more revenue, but what does it actually mean? Why does it matter?

Today, “digital transformation” is a hot button for companies across the globe looking to expand. And, digital technology has disrupted mainstream media over the past decade with some notable brands, like Blockbuster.

Now companies that have embraced digital transformation, are leading the digital revolution, while the rest of them are trying to keep up with industry movers & shakers. These pioneer companies are now digital leaders who want to see technology as a way to create new revenue streams, improve customer experience, and streamline entire business operations.

But What is Digital Transformation?

By definition, digital transformation is the company’s ability to adapt to this major disruptive change from technologies, and how it affects customer buying decisions, and well as, how employees use this technology at the forefront of business operations.

Without an end in mind, digital transformation continually seeks out how to use technology in ways that improve customer experiences and relationships. It also represents an effort that introduces new models for business and, equally, creates a way of staying in business as customers become increasingly digital.

As technology becomes a permanent fixture in everyday people’s lives, companies are forced to update their old strategies, marketing & support systems to better reflect how business is evolving. Companies are now reverse engineering experiments, more technical processes, and more complex systems to better adapt to an ever-changing market environment.

Because it’s focusing on customer behavior, digital transformation is in its own way making businesses more human. As such, digital transformation is not a specifically about technology, its empowered by it.

Digital transformation main key points:

• Social platforms, mobile phones, real-time processing, and other disruptive technologies are being created to help companies adapt to changing costs and a fast paced ever changing marketplace.
• Digital transformation is now the top of company’s meetings conversations.
• Customer experience is becoming critical, as is looking for ways to deliver products in the most efficient cost-effective way.
• Digital transformation is still in its infancy and has a long way to go maximize its true potential.

• Digital transformation is driven a technology that involves customer behavior and how they react.

• Three key components that build the foundation on which digital transformation is built:

• It is most effective when there’s a clear vision and strong leaders leading the transformation from within.

• Customer experience is center of attention for digital technology marketing to focus on.

• Change is from within long before considering technology.

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1. Grew up in a fast-paced socially evolving environment

This particular generation has witnessed the most dramatic transformation of the country from a poor nation with little technology, to now the world’s second-largest economy on earth, that has both benefited and suffered from globalization and economic spin-offs directly. Chinese millennials have developed many unique characteristics in a rapidly changing economic environment.

2. Chinese millennials are the world’s most connected

Chinese millennials are always online, constantly checking their phones, internet savvy and are social butterflies. This represents a need for them to stay connected with the world through the internet and social media, and brands should consider how they can gain their attention.

Companies should listen to their idea’s keeping interactive on social media for brands, how to get a millennials attention in ads, and what drives them to make a purchase, from an ad.

3. Chinese millennials participate in a unique commercial ecosystem that is dominated by e-commerce.

Most Western companies have a known overseas partner, be it on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or in China. This has made a lot harder for foreign brands to do business in China, but that’s not all.

A speaker from Hot Pot Digital, a China digital marketing firm, took notes, that unlike in the U.S., e-commerce entirely defines the business ecosystem in China, as it has in every step of the transaction process. It has been estimated by Hot Pot Digital, that China will represent about 60 percent of all global e-commerce transactions by 2020.

4. Most valuable millennial influential generation—the “post-95’s”
   
   This particular generation born after 1995 (aka, the “post-95’s” as they’re known in China) is likely to be the next, most important consumer group that brands should zero in on. They caught the technology transformation boom in its infancy stage in 1995, on the web with Windows 95’, and morphed into a millennials big brother in ways.

Conclusion:

As a consumer group, they are very promising. They will affect the future of retail in a most profound way. Can we champion Chinese millennials to boom across Asia to transform companies & businesses from within?

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Chinese millennials tend to be very brand-aware, knowing the best US trendy products, and the top tier brands they represent. They may not be particularly price-immune in the marketplace for some products and services but are more driven to spend big

Chinese millennials are numbered roughly 400 million in size, which is five times more than the U.S. millennial population. 31 percent of the total population in China, and that’s major purchasing power.

Traditional brick & mortar stores remain the overwhelming favorite place to buy luxury goods still. A convincing two thirds (64%) of China’s millennials preferred this option, while only 9% chose local e-commerce sites and 4% overseas while traveling.

Luxury items like high-end diamonds are really popular and millennials now account for 68% of all diamond jewelry sales in China, reported De Beers, a consumer trait now that identifies China’s ultra-wealthy millennial population, as a diamonds best friend.

2017’s Chinese millennials also are more outgoing than other age groups, and like dining out rather than staying at home to eat. Chinese millennials look for high-end, over the top value and are big spenders when they find exactly what they want at all costs.

What this signals for luxury brands is that consumption has a different meaning for Millennials. “Consuming products and brands is not just a way to say who you are but a way to define who you are”.

For these reasons, it is fair to say that in 2017, the Chinese millennial is poised to control the market in the direction of consumer experience, transformation within companies, and technology combined.

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There is a large growing number of brands that are now beginning to understand why “China’s Millennials”, are the leading consumer demographic for major luxury brands, and for good reason. China’s millennial generation is growing in “consumer influence power” in the Chinese and foreign marketplaces, disrupting current blueprint models and are now the leaders in driving creative innovation.

Companies see millennials as the perfect consumer for their luxury brand products, but they also need to constantly change to an evolving crowd of consumers in industries that are in high demand of them.

Most of China’s millennials shop on mobile phones via e-commerce shops online. Chinese mobile users increasingly drive consumer trends; for example, in 2015, 70% of the post-90s shopped on their mobile phones and other devices or tablets, then on a computer, and in 2016 only 28% of young American consumers preferred to shop on their mobile phones.

Companies need to keep a close eye on how a Chinese Millennial buys, their ideas they bring to the companies table and what attracts them to buy their product or brand. This particular demographic knows it’s stuff, and their input should be deemed as valuable.

Leading the way is the willingness to learn new mobile apps and websites, China’s millennials have transformed China’s e-commerce boom, embracing enhanced lifestyles that have transformed the way they communicate, how they consume content, how they shop and eat, and where.

China’s millennials continue to drive the O2 squared consumer commerce strategy, as well as using multiple payment systems that integrate seamlessly into their lives for fast & secure payment.

This specific demographic is leading transformation in China, on how they interact in the marketplace, Chinese millennials control what is trending and cool, or what is not.

“They are more worldly, entrepreneurial, individualistic, open-minded and willing to spend,” says David Lung, a managing partner with Deloitte China.

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So by combining AI with Ecommerce, Linkedin and the offline experience for consumers, now consumers can the best of all three worlds called the O3 concept. You can connect with your ideal consumers or clients on Linkedin, use AI to collaborate in messaging and use E-commerce site for the end sale.


In the end the customer & business really benefit. Customer gets what they want, and the business finds their ideal customer through AI, saving thousands of dollars on lead generation marketing efforts.

Conclusion

The impact of AI for marketers & ecommerce businesses is huge!

Using AI can detect replies, which language it was sent in, what they are looking for, search queries and perform the action necessary day and night with tiring or wanting a extended lunch break. It also gets data from past customers & data that will assist your company in detecting good leads and those that are not. Saving you time and money.

AI is all set to make its presence felt like a major player, The “O Mall” as I have put it. It’s got tons to offer people and ways to benefit our economy, and artificial intelligence certainly has it’s advantages that cannot be ignored. The time for the future has arrived!

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2. It Allows For Related and Automated Recommendations, Replies and Suggestions

What’s really cool about artificial intelligence, is it can suggest or recommend offers new and old based on your online activities, and other factors such as demographics. For example, on Amazon when shopping it uses predictive analytics to suggest relevant products that might interest you.

When a user subscribes on your website, then you send them an email newsletter is good business, but what if you could recommend a product for them using artificial intelligence?

I think AI is just getting started and get more complex as time and research goes on. These recommendations and suggestions are more in line and in tune with your real interest. Facebook which already uses mainstream artificial intelligence gathers information about you, what you click on, what you like, what you buy, and predictive analytics will only get stronger as AI gets better.

3. AI Cranks Up Much Needed Cyber Security From Hackers

Many people are worried their online security, and when shopping is at its peak, AI does all the heavy lifting to keep out the bad guys with advanced security. Today, secure transactions & security is going beyond simple username and password technology from the late 90’s. Now, AI is the extreme security guy that is in charge, day and night. E-commerce sites can be hacked, and there is a solution dying to made public, AI will drastically improve e-retailer’s detection and response capabilities, and making it very difficult for hackers, which is the good news.

AI technology is able to identify threats faster, assess risks and orchestrate remediation in a heartbeat, while you sleep and run your e-commerce business. At the end of the day, all your marketing efforts are designed to drive your customers to make a purchase. And if their data isn’t secure, they do not buy, that simple.

It’s time to admit that society has reached a tipping point where the sheer volume of security data can no longer be handled by humans. AI cybersecurity has finally arrived.

4. AI Helps With Content Creation & Lead Generation

“Content is King” I heard many times over the years since, Google Panda changed everything on how content ranks and gets free search engine traffic

Why else would marketers take the time to write exhaustive and carefully crafted content? To be error-free and interesting to read, right?

But what if that content can be automated with artificial intelligence?

Smarter with Gartner published a report on AI content creation, a full 20% of business content will be written by machines from 2018. They claim that AI can write business content, shareholder reports, legal documents for lawyers. market reports, press releases, and articles are all prime candidates for automated AI writing tools.

However, you will still need to have structured data for the content generators to work off and feed reports into the CSV correctly. Too automated is still the problem and still needs humans to do the editing. Still, if reasonably high-quality content can be generated with the help of AI, as it will help marketers write more accurate and more content to keep up with increased competition.

And lastly, lead generation. Now with the help of AI marketers are able to communicate, connect with others, curate messages, post content it found by keyword, build email lists and detect replies when somebody asks a question!

This technology is now available on LinkedIn and used by a number of successful entrepreneurs and business owners. It has been a game changer as it helps you get more leads, sales and automate 20 redundant tasks on an everyday basis. A real time saver for business owners.

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I introduced the concept of O², where the Online and Offline worlds are blended into a unified shopping experience with exponential benefits.

When I created the O² concept, the idea came from an understanding that consumers today want a fluid and convenient buying experience, but also have access to the internet for the speed of transactions, better security by artificial intelligence, and the best search engine algorithms ever recorded.

The “O Mall” as I envisioned, is one where brick and mortar shops can integrate the advantages of online e-commerce technology, but don’t need an actual shopping cart to push around the mall with your purchases.

But, what if you could take my concept further and push the limits? Well, you can by combining e-commerce, offline business, and artificial intelligence, for massive marketing results and leveraging powerful platforms that already have your target audience waiting to buy your product.

Here are some of the benefits as to why I’m introducing AI and can help boost the already successful O2 concept, into an O3 concept taking my idea to a whole new level for businesses.

The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence –

It Helps You Get To Know Your Customers On A More Personal Level

Several points on why AI is so important – Using AI can help you connect with your customers by automatically replying to comments & questions with real answers, performing tedious followup messages, posting relevant content, addressing your customers by first name, like Aweber did in the late 1990’s.

Like having your own virtual assistant helping your customers down a sales pipeline, in a seamless personalized human-like fashion.

The biggest change with using AI is the real-time personalization, many e-commerce stores already use matched filtering to provide customers with relevant recommendations, that is nothing new.

Now marketers will be able to deliver different experiences to different customers, based on their previous behavior or demographic data, AI can now visit their site or read their emails and recommend something for them.

More to come….

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Perhaps most importantly is they are people-oriented and believe that their “student in transformation employees” comes first in the transformational process, not products and technology, as most would think. Strong leaders build strong innovative companies on well mentored transformed, hardworking employees.

What’s really interesting is when the CEO’s of companies “get it”, they tend to spend a lot more time with their core digital project teams, and become more actively involved. They are all over digital trends and are obsessed in knowing what’s trending. It’s their job to know how the marketplace is changing, and now can bring people along on the transformational journey, and develop them into great company leaders. It’s what leaders do best.

Successful leaders engage with people at all levels of the company on the need for positive innovative change, willing to admit what they know and don’t know, and have a sense of great vision.

I believe that a bold, well-articulated strategy puts the organization on notice that transformation is coming. A bold and clear vision to digitize the business is one of the most important decisions the board and management team have to make.

One example from my past experience that is initially, people smiled when presented with the e-commerce vision and did not believe it; when they saw how much we invested into pursuing the new area and the new talent joining, they realized that there was no turning back.

The greatest characteristic of transformational leaders is the ability to create lasting, meaningful change that will make a difference in the world. Leaders today have a more robust opportunity before us and the real possibility to see it’s true potential, to create not just extraordinary, but rather dynamic and sustainable results.

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