Trends for 2005

According to an article posted by Small Business Trends, it's looking like it could be a great year for small business :)

A few trends for 2005, according to Watts Wacker, the renowned futurist are:

Accelerated Online Sales: We are going to see an increase in the increase of buying online. Online shopping and technology has moved beyond the early adopters and the mainstream. It is now so well established it is drawing in the laggards. Watts drew an analogy from hearing a cell phone ringing during a church service. He said don't assume it is just a rude person. It is probably someone in his 70's who just purchased a cell phone for the first time who doesn't yet realize what the rest of us have known for some time about cell phone etiquette

Return of Loyalty: After years of saying "loyalty is dead" and "consumers are fickle," there are signs that when people find something that works, they stay with it. Expect to see the real power not only of service (i.e., how you provide something) but experience (i.e., how I feel about the result). This bodes well for the small business market -- and Watts suggests small businesses think about customer loyalty strategies. He points to the example of the high-end Dorothy Lane grocery stores, and how they stopped advertising. They took their ad money and developed a loyalty award program: the top 10 shoppers get an all-expenses-paid trip to Hawaii.

So how can we apply this knowledge to home based business? In the first trend, with the increase of online shopping, everyone needs to make sure the visitors to their site will have a pleasant and memorable visit. Easy site navigation, easy to read, a convenient shopping cart are just a few of the things that are necessary for every online retail store.

For the second trend, Customer Loyalty... how can you ensure that your customers will return for more? By delivering more than the customer is expecting, following up with customers, prompt shipping, top notch customer service are all keys to loyalty.

Here's an article that may be useful in helping you build your own Customer Loyalty Plan.

We'll be discussing this in further depth in an upcoming chat, so stay tuned!!

~ Dianne ~