The old year is nearly done, and the new one is on the way. Now is the time to reflect and plan because 2016 will be different.
Although some things will stay the same, in 2014. we had two very expensive court cases that rocked our marketplace; it costed us a major supply Tonnex. In 2015 the court cases continued with Nextra vs Fletcher in the Federal Court what made almost everyone upset was that in both cases, most of us and the judges felt that these court cases could and should have been avoided. No doubt these court cases will continue in 2016. I just hope no one here gets caught up in one. As a person who has been caught up in one, I can tell you from experience even if you win, it is not worth it. I am sure it feels worse if you lose.
Still in 2016, we can expect much of the same as in 2015 but with the accelerator on. Some of the big changes will be:
The gradual change in the Internet from being a fun place where computer-savvy people meet to swap software and play games is changing rapidly into a huge commercial retail enterprise run by some of the largest organisations in the world. .
The rapid growth of mobiles is another challenge; almost everyone has a smartphone. It is replacing now the credit card
and probably soon our house and car keys. You will soon not be able to come into the house or get into the car without a smartphone.
Windows 10 is going to become the standard operating system. Already about 15% of our sites are running Windows 10. Now that the business approved version is out, I know a lot of people are intending to move in March.
Loyalty programs have taken off in 2015; the biggest one in our market space is TLC.
It's grown by over 20% this year. It works out to an average of about 10,000 loyalty members per shop. Interestingly the basket size in the TLC program has also grown by about 4% too, not only are more people using it but they are buying more with it.
And no matter what your thoughts are on cloud computing, and mine is far from favourable in retail, any business today should be using a cloud backup just in case. If you don't already, get yourself a free online storage account. The market leaders here are Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive, Box, and Dropbox.
Finally as the year draws to an end I’d like to thank all our readers for their loyalty through our hundreds of posts and their comments.
I wish a healthy, peaceful and prosperous New Year.
Regards
Bernard
Editor
To paraphase Charles Darwin
"It is not the strongest business that survives, but rather, that which is most adaptable to change."
