Latest Business Trends
Latest Business Trends
Trend watching has been emerging as discipline for business management and a good topic to discuss for economic forecasters. At any point of time there are a several emerging business trends in society. Whenever you are investing your capital it is necessary to take a look at the market condition, the prevailing business trends in every sector to make your capital investment in a more innovative way.
Now entrepreneurs coupled with technology are entering to the changing business environment. Telephones are in use since the 70’s but using them for trading on stocks, surfing internet, sending photos and videos is the latest business trend and all these are possible due to synergistic technologies. Health and wellness business has been with us for centuries but it emerged with the advancement of medical science.
With the invention of x-rays to endoscopy health and wellness business has got a pace in business. These elements of business are present with us from the very beginning, only they emerged as important when the conditions are favorable.
In modern day consumer needs speed, quality and customization (i.e. tailored to their needs) and choice. Now manufacturers have to made materials accordingly their customer need to make profits out of the business and to maintain a harmonic relationship.
Below are some examples citing the current trends in various sectors of business :-
Trends in Automobile Industry:-
Since 90’s there is a sharp rise in the amount of car sales. But from the middle of 90’s this graph undergoes a gradual decline. This decline was due to rise of petrol prices. People started preferring fuel efficient cars than the more power producing and fuel inefficient cars. But from 2011 car sales have increased and it is going to be stable for few years.
The recent events have changed the landscape of automotive market. But it also created opportunities for the aspiring business owners to invest their capital. Apart from Car making and selling, manufacture of parts and luxury accessories of cars is also related to the automobile industry. Not only selling cars is enough but maintenance and service is also required. Thus companies manufacturing parts of cars have been in a lucrative business.
Rise of Eco-friendly cars:-
Apart from that, environmental pollution is a big factor. So consumers have shown their interest towards Eco-friendly cars like electric cars etc. This results in a decrease of petrol and diesel cars. So the bottom line is that although green movement and rising of petrol prices has affected car market s manufacturers are focusing more on Eco-friendly and fuel efficient cars.
Healthcare business:-
Owing to increase of population there is a great demand of hospitals. With the introduction of computers the hours of physical hard labor has changed to automatic system and this led to poor fitness of body. The desire to get more healthful lifestyle are creating the unique set of demographics which engages with healthcare and demanding more from the healthcare industries than previously.
People want hospitals near their locality. They do not want to travel long distances for hospitals like before. The hospitals should be well equipped with all types of major instruments. As a result the instruments manufacturing companies grows well. Life insurance and mediclaim companies show a remarkable rise in business.
Consumers don’t hesitate to pay more bills if the healthcare company is providing better facilities. Like other industries healthcare industries suffers from a shortage in talent and faces difficulty in accessing capital. So the bottom line is that though some people view healthcare as its under performance as a result of its waste and inefficiency but the people consider them good is in majority.
Trends in retail sector:-
Globalization is the new trend in retail sector. In 2012 investors looked into entering new markets specifically the Asia pacific markets and they will look to their existing operational performance and to achieve growth. The retailers are entering into a very competitive market with new business strategies. It is difficult for them to make a foothold over the market when already the local operators have the most favored locations.
With the advancement of technology consumers have started checking and sorting out of the products available. With internet the overseas companies are spreading their business. Within the next few years, it is likely that consumers will expect to use a mobile device to get real-time inventory information about the closest stores or to order a product while in a store and have it delivered to their home. Still the challenge for retailers is how to analyze the data about what their customer need and want.
The middle man’s abolishment:-
Every time manufacturing and selling is not the main criterion. In addition to these consumers want a good relationship with the manufacturer. Smart customers are trying to go direct, building relationship with the parent company, which is a whole new concept of business which we have not done in past. The going direct concept and building relationship is the essence of network marketing. Network marketing uses relationships to make customers familiar with the parent company (manufacturer) and buy directly from them. It is not a new concept of selling products. In earlier days farmers used to travel miles of roads to sell their products directly to the consumers. But through the evolution of business we have started involving thirds parties known as middleman. These middle man aids in increasing the price of products.
Let’s give an example: a bottle of Coca-Cola (200 ml) manufacturing cost is 1 rupee but when it comes to the consumer its price had risen to 12 rupees per bottle. The product from the manufacturer to consumer goes through many hands from distributor to stockiest, transport cost to local retailer and even advertising and everyone adds their own profit margin and the price goes up. Survey says that this middle man consumes nearly 75% of the money. And where from the money comes, definitely the end user i.e. the consumer. So now the question arises is why the middleman’s are making all the profits? Entrepreneurs are looking for a better way ‘Direct selling’. With the advancement in technology using internet this is possible to sell products directly to the end users. This resulted in reduction of nearly 75% in prices of products and also a good relationship between the end user and manufacture.
A good example is “DELL COMPUTERS” who are selling their computers at a cheaper price to its customers by bypassing the middleman’s. Business analysts continually suggest that this is the way of the future, a trend that cannot be stopped. Those who choose to take advantage of it will be rewarded handsomely.
Network marketing in the new millennium has entered the main stream and may become more prolific and popular. It is creating millionaires than the dot com boom industries and it is going to be the current and future trend in business society.
However a lot of prevailing trends are there in business and every field has its own pros and cons, entrepreneurs should make some new strategies to make profits out of this competitive market. And every investor should take a look over to the market condition before investing his valuable capital.
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