How SMAC is Changing the World?

By Chandran R, August 30, 2016

When was the last time you did shopping just like that without checking any bonanza offer or money-saving deal or huge coupon discount? Don’t remember, right! You are not the only one; but, people in 90s used to do shopping like that. Yep! Reason: SMAC [Social, Mobile, Analytics, and Cloud] did not exist in those days.

Grab best deals every time you shop is the shopping motto of today’s civilization!

On this planet, civilizations developed and spread themselves by pursuing trading activity. Anywhere in the world, from customer point of view, shopping is considered as one of the favorite pass-time plus important activity.

Across geographies, until early 90s, quite often people used to do shopping for products (more or less) in the following manner:

90s buying process:

  1. Someone offers a pamphlet about an exhibition discount sale that is going to happen within next few days
  2. View, check, and examine items with own eyes [aesthetic] and hands [touch & feel] to check whether this is the right item to buy
  3. If it is OK, then the buyer checks whether the item price is within his budget
  4. If everything is OK, then he buys the item

The 90s buyer used to buy items only if all the above conditions are satisfied.

Enter new millennium… aka 2k – millennial decade, where this world saw the rise of the usage of technology and watched millennial ruling the world with the help of technology. In this scenario, shopping has moved from pass-time activity to a leisure-bound, convenient-laced, and anytime activity.  The rise of digital technologies like social, mobile, analytics, and cloud [SMAC] have contributed a lot for this change.

Millennials buying process – just have a look at how today’s people are shopping nowadays:

  1. At first, the process starts with the buyer receiving a message from one of his friends/ relatives/ corporate/ shopping chain/ other known people through social media channels about an offer (maybe an offer that is going to get expired within next 2 hours!).
  2. If the message interests the buyer to do shopping, then he clicks on the sent link in his mobile at his own convenience and comfort.
  3. Starts browsing what are all the items available for sale that fall under the bonanza offer; leisurely checks discounts offered, check brands, etc.
  4. After selecting a few items, then the buyer compares the item price offered by the e-commerce site against the other sites.
  5. If the price is OK and affordable, then the user checks for the reviews about that particular item written by the previous buyers.
  6. Now, if there are more positive reviews, and if the buyer is interested in buying the item, then he buys it from that e-commerce site which offers him the best deal for that item with a huge discount.
Smac-03

If  you look at the above process, you can easily understand that the buying and selling process has more number of steps compared with the 90s buying process. However, because of social media [‘S’ in SMAC], today’s buying process is indirectly gives more ‘stress’ on quality factor from manufacturer point, quick selling opportunity to the seller by understanding the buyers’ psychology using analytics [‘A’ in SMAC], provide globally manufactured products for sale through an cloud-based e-commerce site [‘C’ in SMAC],  and provide more comfort and product options [based on various parameters like price, brand, etc.] to choose from to the buyer who uses his mobile [‘M’ in SMAC] to do shopping. Besides, the buyers are also provided with a big opportunity to air their views on the working condition of the product [after-sales] in popular review sites, and for journalists, a colossal chance to analyze every claim made by the seller in a very leisurely way and write elaborate and detailed product reviews to increase the footfalls to their website.

The ‘easy-to-communicate factor’ that has been brought by the social media into the lives of the buyers has brought a terrific change the way buyers look at today’s products and the culture of ‘open communication’. If the product does not perform as per expectations, buyers of this SMAC decade don’t hesitate to tell everyone about it; the buyers of 90s never used to do like this. But the SMAC decade millennial never hesitate to open communicate and they do it in style – just open a social media channel in their platform sitting in a comfortable place, check for right words to be used in the review using dictionary app in their mobile, consult with their dearest and nearest ones and take their opinion regarding their review, and then leisurely post it.

SMAC changed the business models of the industries and their respective product selling formats radically. Besides, the sales have improved considerably and the quality factor of product/service has increased exponentially.

This is how SMAC is acting ‘deadly’ as a ‘disruptive force’ across all businesses – from retail to financial and from automobile to energy companies – and is changing the world to make it ‘better’.

Author Profile
Chandran R

Having professional experience spanning over 33 years, Mr. Chandran (fondly called as Chandy) plays the key role of BCT’s CIO (Chief Information Officer) and CDO, ( Chief Delivery Officer) working towards streamlining, strengthening and formulating processes and strategies on using technologies for information availability and accessibility. Mr. Chandy has spent 17+ years in building Enterprise Applications Services Practice across organizations. Mr. Chandy is a regular speaker in Chennai NASSCOM Chapter and NASSCOM Engineering Summits on Cloud Computing, ERP Implementations and the changing role of IT department. He is also a Panel member for CIO Magazine, Chennai CII chapter.

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Chandran R

Having professional experience spanning over 33 years, Mr. Chandran (fondly called as Chandy) plays the key role of BCT’s CIO (Chief Information Officer) and CDO, ( Chief Delivery Officer) working towards streamlining, strengthening and formulating processes and strategies on using technologies for information availability and accessibility. Mr. Chandy has spent 17+ years in building Enterprise Applications Services Practice across organizations. Mr. Chandy is a regular speaker in Chennai NASSCOM Chapter and NASSCOM Engineering Summits on Cloud Computing, ERP Implementations and the changing role of IT department. He is also a Panel member for CIO Magazine, Chennai CII chapter.

One Reply to “How SMAC is Changing the World?”

  • Sir,
    Insightful. Also, SMAC has significantly contributed in cultivating the impulsive buying behaviour among the population. Flagship marketing concept FLASH SALE on many e-tailers and its associated manufacturer are taking majority of pie on this. Thanks.

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