個案總覽

Consumer transactions will eventually go digital, but retailers and consumers alike need to learn how to make this work. Unlike most Millennials, most Boomers and Gen-Xers had to be coerced into switching to digital music. According to a recent consumer sentiment study on mobile usage, more coercion will be required before digital commerce reaches its potential. While more than 60 per cent of Americans have a smartphone, only 14 per cent surveyed prefer shopping online, and privacy concerns of customers limit the appeal of firms going digital. Such firms must make serious financial commitments, not to mention decisions about what platforms to bet the budget on. There is also a significant outlay of resources needed to train employees on how to use and maintain new systems and equipment. Much of the push to get retailers to invest in digital offerings has hinged on the value associated with compiling customer spending data, yet most retailers don’t know what to do with this data once it is collected. Businesses need to take advantage of the relatively slow adoption of digital transactions to first learn the new technology that they are deploying, and then use this expertise to serve their customers by helping them learn how to use their devices in new ways — while gaining more trust in their transactions rather than increased frustrations.