While we live in a world where businesses are rapidly digitizing their processes, 91 percent of sales still occur in the physical store or place of business. Online purchases have only accounted for 9 percent of total sales in Q4 of 2017, according to the U.S. Census Bureau News.
On the other hand, consumer behavior shows that most people research products or services prior to making a physical meeting with an enterprise. It’s time for businesses to embrace digital convergence to remain competitive in the industry. Making company information such as a website, online payment options, support, video demonstrations, etc., accessible from any device is imperative in the buying process.
What is Digital Convergence?
Digital convergence is the ability to view the same multimedia content from different types of devices. The convergence of four industries, information technologies, telecommunications, consumer electronics and entertainment, into one conglomerate.
Reading emails on a TV and streaming a movie simultaneously while connected to the internet is just one example of digital convergence. In the past, each device would operate independently, having only one purpose. Recent innovations have made it possible to access a variety of different media content through just one device. The result saves time and simplifies everyday tasks.
Why is it Important?
A cellphone is the ultimate convergence device. It has endless capabilities and is convenient enough to take with us everywhere.
As of 2015, the amount of mobile-only internet users surpassed desktop internet users. Since then, companies that do not have mobile-friendly websites or business processes have been negatively affected in the following ways:
- Visitors spend less time browsing the company website
- Visitors are less likely to perform a desired action
- Visitors are more likely to return to the search engine and view a competing site.
Increased Scrutiny Over Privacy and Security
With increased data usage comes an increased need for stricter privacy and security measures that protect both enterprise and consumer data. These measures may include multi-factor authentication and hefty encryption techniques to prevent private information from being compromised.
Digital convergence is making it easier for business to reach their customers, but are the adequate security measures in place to avoid a breach?
As your personal trusted advisor, LightEdge acts as an extension of your IT team, giving you access to leverage our depth of expertise in business technology solutions to meet your evolving IT needs. It’s our job to stay ahead of emerging technology trends to help keep our customers informed and protected. To learn more about LightEdge’s vigorous compliance measures, visit our website. To stay on the forefront of our up-to-date IT trend alerts and predictions, follow our blog at https://www.lightedge.com/blog/.
