Many sectors are continuously embracing digital innovation. The retail world, however, is a different place from BCE (Before Covid Era) than it is AD (After Disaster).
Though a great deal of transformation was spurred by the pandemic, this transformation continues among small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and has proven essential for their economic recovery.
This was validated recently in a report by the World Economic Forum (WEF). It said that in direct response to the massive COVID-related shift to e-commerce, 70 percent of small businesses ramped up their digital efforts. A survey by SME business management solutions company vcita says that whereas 20 percent of companies said they spent more than $500 to $1,000 on new digital tools in 2021, that number went up to 33 percent in 2022.
Part of this development includes digital payments, the new normal for consumers. A McKinsey report found that 89 percent of consumers are using them, with 62 percent using more than one.
Knowing where the future lies, more companies are now allocating larger budgets for more digital tools, including new payment mechanisms. The above survey by vcita found that three-quarters of SMEs in the past year alone have added mobile payments, such as Square, Stripe, PayPal, and Venmo.
It’s interesting to note, perhaps even surprising to some, that only half of Canadian small businesses, pre-pandemic, had a website or social media channel. More than two-thirds made changes to their online presence during the pandemic, including e-commerce, a new website, or increased product selections online.
As such, the Canadian government, ostensibly recognizing that the future of the economy lies in digital growth, launched the Canada Digital Adoption Program (CDAP) to “help Canadian small- and medium-sized businesses grow their online presence, and upgrade or adopt digital technologies.”
This initiative aims to provide $4 billion over four years, supporting up to 160,000 small businesses, according to the announcement. The goal of this funding is for SMEs to “stay competitive and meet their customers’ needs in the digital marketplace.”
Part of the grants include the government’s Grow Your Business Online Grant, which provides micro grants of up to $2,400 to help small businesses implement digital storefronts and e-commerce capabilities. Meanwhile, the Boost Your Business Technology Grant provides grants covering 90 percent of costs up to $15,000, for consultations to develop a digital adoption plan.
“This underscores that for many Canadian small businesses, access to cost-efficient, user-friendly and easy-to-maintain digital tools are more than just nice to have—they’re essential for businesses to survive challenges,” the government statement said.
Such a program comes at a crucial-yet-good time. A recent GoDaddy pool of small businesses found that 37 percent believed adopting new online tech would be cost prohibitive, while almost a quarter cited lack of knowledge in implementation as the biggest hurdle.
Adina Zaiontz, CEO of Toronto-based Napkin Marketing, is helping clients play catch up with digitization.
Post-pandemic, she found, companies benefited from automation, applied in a variety of ways.
With a regional airport, her company automated their parking passes. She also helped an HR company automate their resume sorting. She also assisted a legal team in automating their documents, and, for her own company, she initiated online training through Trainual. The highest volume of work comes from revamping and retooling websites, she said.
And while these examples aren’t retail, the digital transformation lessons are still relevant.
“Even just any website transformation that we’ve done, is that story. A website is the company’s presence online. It’s got to look good from a design point of view, but also has to function well. Having the site visible on search engines is part of the functionality; they have to be findable online. Then, when people get to the website it has to be presentable and functional.”
Lately, she has been helping clients with geotargeting, where advertisements reach specific target demographics, and geographical locations, using sophisticated software that determines various factors of interest.
“They are social media ads, but also ads that appear on search engines. So, that’s pretty innovative. It’s targeting people not only by what they are searching for, but by their individual locations,” she said.
“It takes a certain knowledge to know that. It’s just cool that small businesses now have the ability to do this pretty advanced targeting and be able to reach the candidates they want to reach.”
