Since COVID-19, we have seen how much of a difference a digital strategy and capabilities can have on a business. Companies that adapted and rolled out digital solutions were able to survive the height of the pandemic while those that still relied on old ways of working withered under the immense pressure.
With the world changing rapidly and becoming increasingly connected, digitising your business is no longer a nice to have but rather a necessity to implement immediately. Why, you ask? Because digitisation enables you to transform how your business uses technology and data to create more value for your clients. It empowers your business to be more agile, efficient and enhances your customer experience.
How your business can unlock new opportunities through digitisation
1. Use technology to improve your client experience
Businesses that have developed a digital transformation strategy are seeing the benefits of taking this step, because digitisation has enabled them to remain flexible, accessible, and able to ensure quality service for their customers. In the retail space for example, the winners are the businesses that have introduced e-commerce solutions that enable customers to continue accessing their product from the comfort of their homes. This convenience is enhanced with businesses like FedEx that can deliver packages to customers wherever they are.
The advent of cutting-edge technology such as artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) also offers other ways to enhance your customer experience. In 2019 for example, FedEx trialled the use of Roxo – an autonomous delivery device designed to travel at moderate speeds along roadsides and on sidewalks to deliver smaller shipments safely to customers at their homes and businesses. This was in response to the growth of e-commerce as well as the complexities and expense of reaching customers at their door.
2. Take advantage of the power of data
The main ingredient that makes digitisation such a powerful tool is data. This is because the digital systems that you use to simplify processes like your supply chain, inventory management, customer communication and marketing – for example – are built to collect data that you can analyse and use to make better business decisions.
Think about how you can use your online store’s purchasing history to predict which products customers are more likely to buy in the future, or how you can use location and traffic data to better map out your delivery app routes to ensure faster delivery for your customers.
From a marketing perspective, using your website analytics and SEO (Search Engine Optimization) data can help you enhance your advertising efforts to ensure that you’re speaking to the right customer at the right time. From a project management perspective, using tools and software that digitise a projects’ journey can make it easy for cross team collaboration across business units and ensure that the business can deliver on projects in the most efficient manner possible. You can even use data from your inventory management system to better predict stock that is likely to be in demand and when it is the best time to stock up.
3. Make your digital transformation strategy a part of your business strategy
While the digital age is a new world with new rules, it’s important to remember that a truly effective digitisation process cannot be separate from your business strategy. Each business goal should be backed up with a digital transformation strategy that can help your business achieve greater reach. It’s important to ask yourself how your business digital transformation strategy can be used to improve the customer experience and customer life cycle. How can it be used internally to impact business operations and decisions? Ultimately, how will digitisation impact the entire business, and does it have potential to introduce a completely new business model?
Wherever your business is, we are too
FedEx sees the benefits of next-generation innovation, and we pride ourselves in being able to offer this value to businesses and enable you to tap into our digital solutions to improve your business.
Fedex Express is a proud Partner of the NSBC