In the Digital era, there are certain business concerns which are resolved. Digitalization hassolved many constraints for businesses and help eradicate certain limitations also. The pandemic has boosted the digitalization and make people understand the importance of taking things digital.
For businesses, nowadays location has not been of much concern. As per the data in June, 2020, 26% of people were working in the work premises, the other 42% were working remotely and remaining were not working. It shows that location is less of a challenge for both employees and employers.
The Four major concerns regarding location have been resolved due to digital transformation are;
1. Hiring
It is always difficult to select talent and make them ready to change the location. There are certain positions which are difficult to fill than others, the reasons can be lack of skilled
workforce or the workforce with specific skills is scattered and not available at certain areas/location.
Depending on nature of the business, the position you’re hiring for, and the industry you work in, you may be able to fix talent concerns through remote work and expand your
talent pool to include people in other areas. By making things digital, you may also be able to retain a current employee who’s thinking about moving somewhere else.
Due to a Digital business model, we have been able to retain top co-workers who moved out of state over the years. And due to the pandemic, we’ve started hiring who are out-of-state. We currently have employees in over nine states. For many businesses, due to the digitalization, worries like How it would be able to find talent here? Does it need to settle when hiring? Would a potential employee be ready to change the location? etc. are becoming less of an issue, thanks to the growth of remote work.
2. Restricted Market/Audience
When a person starts a business, he conducts market research to figure out who is your target audience.
When you start a business, you conduct market research to figure out who your target audience is. Generally, you need specifics about your customers, like their age, income, gender, and location. Even tough, your customers are limited to the people near your business’s location.
Thanks to the ongoing digital transformation, your target audience’s location might not be much of an issue anymore. Before the rise of online shopping, shipping products to consumers on the other side of the country was a bit more difficult. Now there are predictions that e-commerce sales should reach $4.5 trillion in 2021.
The second quarter in 2020 and due to the pandemic, it has been shown that 16% of all retail sales taking place online, a 44.5% increase from the same quarter the year before. Yes, the pandemic contributed to this sharp uptick. A UK study predicts that 95% of all retail sales will be conducted via e-commerce by 2040.
Thus, depending on your business, you might not need to limit your target audience to their location any longer.
3. Vendor limitations
There are times where businesses face limitations to using suppliers and services that are near your business’s headquarters/locations? Thanks to this digital transformation, this
location woe is no longer a challenge.
When it comes to choosing suppliers, you don’t necessarily have to limit yourself to your city, or even state. If possible, you might be able to choose vendors based on:
Prices
Quality products
Reliability
But before you select all your vendors out-of-state, consider time frames. Sure, you can receive goods from around the country and globe, but how long will it take to arrive? Talk
with vendors to learn about their shipment times. Also, you can negotiate with vendors in your area to see if they’ll consider working with you on prices if it’s a cost issue.
4. Warehousing worries
To select location of warehouse has always been difficult for businesses as it could impact your business. Also, in the case of renting or buying a store the difficulties are there. you
used to ask certain questions while selecting store location like:
How is the area where building is located?
Is there parking facility available for customers?
Does customer find it easy to reach/locate the store?
How close am I to my competitors?
Due to the digital transformation, location is no longer a concern for business and some businesses are forgoing the physical business location altogether. You might even decide to conduct business out of your home.
Add Value Consultants is a leading Management Consulting firm providing services in the areas of, Growth Acceleration, Strategic Consulting, Global Business Advisory, HR Consulting and Corporate Training.