In the current economic scenario, businesses today are being forced to operate in a manner where minimum resources are driving maximum. These economic climatic conditions leads traditional businesses to rethink their business models, strategies and operations. If you see most of the new startups are formed leveraging this change by creating businesses having business model which are able to deliver faster, deliver more value, peer to peer transactions, enabling better customer engagement and building trust within communities.
#Uber, #Airbnb, #Amazon are classic examples of these collaborative businesses which are driving the On Demand economy. So, what does this On Demand economy brings to an end user and businesses, it fulfills customer demands immediately and builds trust based communities. Businesses cannot expect today customers to wait for services/products which causes inconvenience to them.
Future of On Demand?
The On Demand Economy is booming because it is attracting everyday more than 22.4 million consumers annually and $57.6 billion in spending as per the Harvard business review reports. The largest category of on-demand spending is online marketplaces (e.g. Ebay, Etsy), with 16.3 million consumers each month spending almost $36 billion annually. Transportation (e.g. Uber, Lyft) comes in second with 7.3 million monthly consumers and $5.6 billion in annual spending, followed by food/grocery delivery (e.g. Instacart) at 5.5 million monthly consumers and $4.6 billion annual spending.”
These numbers are an eye opener for us to understand the shift of the economy and how businesses or professionals will operate in the future. Businesses will need to adapt the changing wave, changing mind-sets of the consumers and deliver a personalized and quicker service to its consumers. Businesses which are ready to pivot as per their customer’s needs and satisfaction will be able to survive and be a clear winner.
Consumer Readiness For an On Demand apps
Do you remember the last few purchases you made? Were they through an app or through a call or offline? For me, they were all through an app. Thanks to the smartphones to bring this multifaceted revolution. For businesses to fulfill their customer demand on an immediate basis they should leverage the following aspects of the On Demand economy:
- Technology Revolution with Smartphones
- Geo – location of customers and Drivers with instant data transmission
- A network Economy created by Google, Facebook, Amazon etc. which facilitates and gives access to a worldwide customer base.
- Venture Capital Economy – made it easy for companies to raise funds.
Let’s say you want to buy a medicine for your sick parent at home while sitting in office and if you are able to buy and get it delivered at home in next 30 minutes. In this way consumer is happier to buy from businesses who is able to give him this convenience.
How to build an Uber/Airbnb Clone?
First of all my advice to my fellow entrepreneurs who wants to build similar businesses like Uber for X or Airbnb for Y or wants to create an online marketplace or an On Demand solution for their products or services is to stop thinking tech and stop thinking that by just having an app will make your business successful. Yes, definitely tech will be a key role for you to establish speed in your business but it is not the only driver for your business success. Following are the key areas any entrepreneur or startup or businesses should look at before they venture into this Uber for X or AirBnB for Y model
- Understand the industry problem at length, Build a solution and solve it.
- Focus on removing friction that existed in transacting offline.
- Focus on Delivering speed.
- Technology alone is not the problem solver, it is an enabler
- Understand the customer and their mind sets.
If you are startup, entrepreneur or a business who wants to build an Uber for X or AirBnB for Y, we would love to hear you out and get you connected with the right product expert of our Uber like app. You can get in touch with us at sales@iviewlabs.com
