Startups are entrepreneurial ventures that aim to develop new innovative products and services in the market. These businesses are generally small-scale partnership firms or companies that work fast to emerge as a successful business.
Technology plays a vital role in these emerging business models. From development of new products to the promotion of new services, everything is connected to technology in one way or the other. It’s important to note here that the trends in technology change very quickly. If you want to keep your business or startup alive you have to keep up with the changing technology.
There are several trends in technology that will get more advanced in the coming years and some of these trends will definitely help in the growth of the startups.
From Mobile-Friendly to Mobile-Centric
In the last couple of years, the impact of smartphones is immense in the startup world. People have become more tech savvy and smartphones have become an important part of everyday life. No matter what kind of product or services you provide, the mobile integration has become very important. There are few points to keep in mind while hiring web designers in order to improve your visibility in the mobile world.
Mobile Search
First of all, make sure that your website is responsive. The development process is still in progress and most of the startups don’t understand the importance of mobile-friendly websites. No one will stick to your website if it’s hard to read or take a lot of time to load on a mobile phone.
Mobile Payments
There are a lot of payment gateways that offer mobile payment system. Allow your customers to pay via mobile phones. This will create trust between you and the client. Plus, this will make maintaining your books a lot easier.
Mobile Apps
If you are running a service, like a pantry or a ride-sharing service, mobile apps will rule the business world. As people are getting more mobile friendly, having a mobile app for your business will definitely boost it up.
A 3D Printed World
The world of 3D printing is still emerging. A lot of different companies are trying to figure out the use of 3D printers in different areas. A number of companies have done incredibly innovative things with 3D printing, like houses and food. The world is changing and in 2017 even your food startup can have a great advantage from this technology.
At the present moment, you can create artwork, decorative pieces, tools, toys, dolls etc. with 3D printing. If your startup is related to any of these niches make sure to explore the world of 3D printing to grow your business.
Social Media’s Impact
The technology used by social media platforms was simple and straight forward in the beginning. However, it’s getting complex more every day, allowing you to promote your startup from the very first day on different social media platforms and gain customers for the products or services. You can integrate the ecommerce platform right into the websites like Instagram and Facebook and accept payments through their gateways.
Social media is becoming an absolute necessity for small businesses. In no way will it be possible for any startup to stay in the business without social media presence. Make sure to create accounts on different platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, LinkedIn and Google Plus. Update them regularly according to the platforms best practices and make full use of them. Add buy now options, include promotional offers, and whatever else you can think of.
People are getting more socially active over the internet. The trend is changing and the reviews on the social media play a vital role as well. Make sure you ask your customers to leave a review for your business. If you have a food or hotel industry startup, make sure you are connected to apps like Yelp or Zomato.
Customer Service AI and Chatbots
Facebook has recently allowed developers to create bots that can interact with customers and increase the visibility as well as make it easy to connect. These bots can reply to the user with standardized replies and help the user in completing purchases.
Similar bots and artificial intelligence have entered the startup world in 2017. If you can keep up with this technology, it will get much easier to find new customers and increase sales. There are several products like Google Home and Amazon’s Alexa that are coming in the market and can connect to different services that support these products. You can also look for the inclusion of your services in already established AI platforms.
A Virtual Reality Experience
This is a new trend that emerges with great potential in 2017. The future of VR technology is very bright and it can help almost every startup to provide an amazing experience for its customers. If your startup related to gaming, filmmaking, advertising or even food, hotel or travel industry, the VR technology can be a good option to choose. With more VR devices coming in the market, the need of VR-based apps will increase.
It will be better if you change the present format of your business in such a way that it grows with the VR technology. Make a walk through videos, explain your services, create games and promotional videos that are VR compatible and make full use of the new emerging technology.
Read more about tech trends on TechCo
