Technology: an irony
Recall those days and the hype around the of consumption of plastics bottles v/s the papers cups at schools, colleges, offices, cinemas and so on! Environmental enthusiasts permeated the notion of eradicating the use of paper cups every time you wished to quench your thirst. Refilling your plastic or glass bottles were preferable alternatives. At least the late Gen Y’s and the Gen Z’s can relate to this, back in the days when they were younger or growing old! There would be protests around schools or cafeterias promoting the ideology of ‘saving paper’, ‘saving trees’ and rather ‘planting tress’. Similarly posters ( all in vibrant colours, origami pasted here and there) would be spotted around schools or class rooms stating the same message. ‘Stop the use of paper cups’, ‘stop printing study material’, ‘save paper’, ‘save trees’, ‘save the Amazon rainforest and their communities’ ‘save the planet’ and ‘save the human race’ were the mottos that left an imprint on every child’s mind. (The budding entrepreneurs of clean tech startups, biotech based startups, deep technology enthusiasts and artists). So coming back: So okay we got rid of paper cups and essentially printouts that were ultimately substituted by emails and student-teacher portals/ dashboards. E-books replaced printed books, handouts were replaced by pdf files, notes were collected and articulated on tablets or laptops aged on cloud. In fact the student- parent- teacher meeting portfolios (the time we proudly presented our fav pieces of work to our parents ) too were transferred online. We were going digital! What about the outer real world, they were catching up faster than schools around the world. So probably around that time supercomputers were in full gear with technological advancements revolutionising the world everyday. Changing the technical landscape of the workspace as they adapted to new tech, CRM, SAP, Oracle and many more databases and portals to keep records intact and maintain connections with their immediate stakeholders (suppliers, employees). Hmmm so increasing use of energy to power these software! A thought to ponder upon, isn’t it? Plastic pollution was in headlines, as it covered oceans around the world with plastic residue due to it’s non degradable nature. So then glass bottled (claimed the cleanest way to store drinking water) were adopted for storing water and water consumption. Fines and penalties were introduced for those who polluted beaches with plastic waste! Firms were encouraged to use paper based packaging (what? Weren’t we saving paper actually) The premises of using recycled paper or reusing old plastic or cloth bags gained relevance! Furthermore innovations took centre stage such as creating plastics in lab that were biodegradable! And again schools were swamped with posters of eliminating plastic use and follow the 3Rs (Reuse, Refuse and Recycle- those days! And the segregation of wastes so they could be treated separately). Remember the school trips to the beach that encouraged us to clean the beach wearing gloves! Food packaging too become regulated as governments realised the impact of consumerism on the environment. Burning of waste and although more Herculean amounts of e-waste emitted dangerous greenhouse gasses. Individuals who dealt with e-waste contracted fatal skin infections or diseases. Harmful chemicals from the e-waste flowed into rivers that ultimately led to spread of diseases such as cancer, or the burning of the e-waste led to respiratory diseases amongst people who lived near these sites or landfill sites. Manufacturing factories around the world were condemned for causing pollution such as emission of green house gasses, from their production activities. Not only air pollution but polluting nearby water ways, endangering marine life and nearby inhabitants ( leading to rise in cases of cancer) . All these activities led to unintended consequences such as an increase natural disasters around the world as well as loss of biodiversity. Multiple summits and protocols were organised around the world to manage the environmental crisis such a Kyoto Protocol, MDGs now SDGs and now COP26, to reduce the negative impacts of man made products and processes. Technology was deemed as the sole solution to these problems, as harnessing it could reduce the amount of pollution created during process, that is absolutely true to a great extent. Today we live in the world where e-vehicles are in demand and promoted by the governments around the world as well. The venture of creating smart cities attracted government budget allocations around the world. In order to reduce the instances of pollution, ensure efficient use of resources such as electricity, waste management, traffic signals (via sensors, IoT, AI/ML, deep learning and much more), functioning of smart homes. Gen Z’s and Gen Alpha’s are highly active in driving protests against governments to urge them to save the environment! Here is the irony! Today notice the use of social media, cloud computing, SAAS products or the establishment of data centres and the accelerating power of computing power- don’t these too led to excessive use of energy on the planet! An astounding fact that cannot be ignored: data centres consume 90 billion kilowatt hours of electricity annually, that is similar to the output of 34 coal powered power plants. Whhhaaatt? Though they try to use renewable sources such as solar power to power data centres as an alternative, this figure above brings to light the bitter truth. So there has been news about how blockchain is bad for the environment (a possible solution: Ethereum’s evolvement from proof of work to proof of stake) or now carbon neutral NFTs are being explored! So as Quantum computing will start to manifest in reality, it too would suck humongous amounts of power that probably renewable sources of energy may not be able to accommodate! And then the metaverse in the making! Wow that is a lot of energy consumption! So would the world start to rely on coal again due to it’s efficiency for energy generation or new inventions will take place???? According to Intel metaverse will consume 1000 times more power v/s todays collective computer capacity. A stat suggests the
Social Commerce: Buying together!
We have been conversant with the engaging worlds of e-commerce and social media…however imagine if they co-exist with each other? Imagine if brands or SME’s or MSME’s or micro entrepreneurs could use these two weapons to get the best of both worlds. Social commerce is the name, harnessing social media as a medium to sell products. Social commerce eradicates the hassle of shopping via a brands website. This is usually a lengthy process, your consumer journey starts with pressing ‘buy’ on an ad appearing on social media, then you would be directed to the brands website, where you add the desired product to the cart and then complete the payment method, finally purchasing the products. That’s usually the process you would follow when you would form a basis of buying products based on the personalised adverts you see on your social handles. Social media followed by e-commerce or D2C sales via their website. (Social commerce! D2C brands need to give this a think!) So let’s revise the mechanism of social media and e-commerce in the shopping journey….in the past?…. Social media has been celebrated as an asset to connect with friends and loved ones. Social media companies later discovered a method to monetise their platforms, by selling ad space to third party companies handing over access to analytical data (likes, shares, comments, reviews) on consumer behaviour. This strategy fostered brands to leverage this data to create personalised ads for social media users, with the aim to influence them to buy their desired products. However at the end they were directed to their brand website, followed by the never-ending lengthy process. In fact brands would use social media to spur conversations with customers to seek their views and recommendations about their products or act upon any customer grievances. All the more they would even connect with their fellow competitors resulting in hilarious chats for the public to relish and share, which ultimately resulted in publicity for both the brands! Coming back to social commerce! Social commerce allows social media users to cherish their social media activities whilst also shop products at the same time. Thus streamlining the shopping process and attracting the customer attention span (which is relatively extremely short!) Social commerce saves a significant amount of time for the shopper and increases the scope of transaction and monetisation for the brand. Using the most apt and convenient platform with adequate calls to action or glamours influencers are just the winning success formula. Social commerce has been dominant and prevalent in the Far East like China, Korea and so forth. China, utilising its lionised superapp WeChat sold products and services that were approximately worth $250 billion. Surely a validation of its success in the Asian markets. However it has been penetrating into Western markets like USA, accelerated by Coivd 19 and the worldwide lockdowns . Facebook via Facebook Shops, Instagram via Instagram shops, Tik Tok Shopping, Pinterest all are platforms renowned to propagate social commerce, as sellers use these platforms to successfully sell their products. Be it cute iPhone covers to vibrant beauty products, home decor, grocery or radical apparels and so forth. One can enjoy the offerings of social media and concurrently purchase products. Social commerce takes advantage of impulse buying as consumers surf through social media. Today is the age of instant gratification that is reasonably common amongst the Gen Y and Z, therefore greater chances of monetisation for the brand. Buyers can make informed decisions based on accessible data such as likes, shares, recommendations and reviews of previous shoppers or their friends recommendations. Other aspects of social commerce include the creation of a community of buyers. SME’s, MSME’s or new smaller entrepreneurs can benefit from social commerce as they get access to a colossal target audience at remarkably low costs/ low cost of customer acquisition and avoid the complexities of selling via e-commerce or retail stores, thus streamlining the whole process for themselves. Entrepreneurs can make use of catalogues and other inherent social media tools on their respective platform and videos to build trust amongst potential customers or leverage resellers to create leads. They get access to accelerating leads, create brand awareness, cement longer customer relationships, brand loyalty and trust! They can virtually connect with their clients as well via chat bots or AI chat bots that answer the FAQ’s. SME’s and MSMEs have been presented with the golden opportunity to use these platforms to join the organised sector and survive the pandemic. They play a major role in the thriving economy and global trade. As brands get access to massive amounts of data about each customer, brands can customise or personalise or curate products for their clients. Social commerce in developing countries provides low income and price sensitive customers access to reasonably priced and quality products. In India social commerce has the sovereignty to empower 40 million SME’s and small entrepreneurs (Bain and company, 2020). It has been spreading like fire in Tier 2 and 3 cities. Small business in India are deriving 35% of sales via social commerce.The customers feel part of a community. In fact the concept of resellers ( stimulated by Meesho) is gaining prevalence in countries like India where they can sell products of different merchants via their social media handles to family, friends and wider networks, earning up to 5000 to 10,000 rupees a month. Encouraging women to become first time entrepreneurs and earners of the family. The concept of resellers helps brands to strengthen the trust factor and credibility of their products. In addition get access to a wider audience. Group buying has emerged as a solution for individuals belonging to the low income strata so they can purchase items in bulk at low prices. Selling of products can take place during livestream events (famously called live commerce) common in Asia. Buyers can purchase products in real time as they appear in the video and connect with the KOL (Key opinion leaders) or influencers. Around 60% of Chinese are ready
