How to use digitalization to your advantage to win new customers
From time to time, major events accelerate the technological revolution in business. The Covid-19 pandemic was no different: the need for physical distancing, and even isolation, led many small Brazilian companies to digitalize — including restaurants and markets.
Some habits, such as ordering food at home, are becoming consolidated. And with that, the small and medium entrepreneurs grow on iFood. So that these businesses can adapt to new consumer behaviors, PayPal brings together five tips that can be put into practice now by those who want to emerge stronger from the pandemic.
Combine the digital experience with the physical one
Have you ever heard of phygital? It is the combination of online experiences and at the company's physical point of sale. Creating this integrated shopping experience allows the business to better meet consumers' expectations (such as buying online to try the restaurant's food and then going to the restaurant later).
Brazil is in the top 3 of countries where people use the internet on their cell phones the most, according to PayPal. Even so, only 6.9% of Brazilian retail is online, in many cases without offering this integrated shopping experience.
The question remains: how can you connect your physical and digital channels to better serve your customers? And the tip: check if your management software can integrate payments, inventory and order management and integrate with outsourced partners.
Protect your data
The digitalization of company channels brings some risks, such as attempts to scam to hack online accounts or credit and debit card fraud. To protect your customers' card data, for example, the iFood uses tokenization to anonymize them.
In Brazil, for every 100 online sales, 3.5 are fraud attempts, according to PayPal. Therefore, it is necessary to monitor your transactions and customer accounts to identify signs of fraud and avoid losses. And always advise consumers to have strong passwords and not share their data with anyone (here are some more tips for how to maintain security on the internet).
Accept different payment methods
For consumers to pay for purchases the way they like most, businesses need to prepare to accept all payment methods, such as bank slips, cards, Pix, installment payments and digital wallets.
Offering digital means of payment becomes increasingly relevant, especially if we take into account that Brazilians quickly adopt these new features. In a year of Pix, more than 112.6 million users made 1.18 billion transactions this way in the country. Looking ahead, other PayPal research shows that 93% of Brazilian men and women would agree to use a digital currency (which is already under study at the Central Bank).
Have trusted technology partners
While you take care of your business, technology partners take care of digitalization so that this online and offline integration works well. To do this, it is important to look, for example, at website management, marketing for maintenance and customer acquisition and back-office management, for example.
Use data to make decisions
One way to differentiate yourself from the competition is to use the data generated by your business to make well-informed decisions. Digitization helps you understand your customers’ preferences and think about better experiences for loyalty.
This information can also be used to make tailored offers for each customer profile and boost your marketing campaigns to improve sales performance.
