I was asked by the editorial team at LinkedIn to pen what I see coming for 2015 so I have put some thoughts together to look at ideas and trends that are likely to shape 2015.
Next year is likely to be a very big year for me too – with three big new initiatives that I am working on in the new year – no guesses that one is Channel Ten’s Shark Tank and another is the launch of my book Live what you Love… but there are other exciting announcements coming down the line.
2015 will bring great advancements in the way you interact with businesses, retailers and potentially government agencies. You will buy products and services in new ways.
- You are likely to be far more vocal and passionate about the things you do choose. Raw food, whole food and organic will no longer be considered niche. Businesses will look for alternative sources of protein so that you will be able to try new wholesome options.
- Retailers will embrace new ways to entice you as a customer into their ‘experiential concept stores’ – businesses are working out that retail is just as much about entertainment as brand experience – and you will love it. There will be a rise of personal shoppers, who curate on your behalf not just based on what you have told them your choices are, but also based on your previous purchasing and browsing activity.
- Location, location, location – beacons already exist in most smartphones (even older models of iPhone) and with new software updates you will start to amplify where you are. Ticket-less entry, payments, information and deals could all be triggered through this technology – you will be able to carry less.
- Local, local, local – you will want to connect to where you live and the community around you. You want to know how you can collaboratively consume and you want people close to you to be able to share things from kayaks to pets, accommodation to cars.
- Even on a personal level you will engage more and more with cloud services to manage your live – from finding tasks to be delivered to managing household budgets. More and more ‘home management’ services will be used online. These services will be agile, cost effective and scalable.
- Big data becomes “Smart data” – predictive analytics and context-driven applications. What this means is you will feel less like a number and more like an individual with your unique aspirations about products and services tailored to your needs.
- And you will have more opportunities to work remotely. Flexible work places will become pervasive.
The rise of technology has meant a change of role in the store. Push has become pull… Necessity has become choice… Mass-production has become custom, unique and personalised. Customers now drive retail and the traditional store… needs to adapt or die. Connected and curated – Long live the store! report. PWC – Australia.
Big tech companies like Google will be collecting so much data on you and even if you hit every privacy setting on every application they will still know more about you than you know about yourself. My suggestion is to confuse them occasionally by doing things really out of character.
2015 will be all about you. You will want to deal with companies that you trust and believe in. You will be surprised and delighted by the personal services that you will be able to buy relatively cheaply. However even with the seven trends, you will still not have enough hours in the day to do what you want. Time will become increasingly your most precious resource.