IS THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION ACCELERATING THE RISE OF AMBIENT COMMERCE?
For 2020, Echangeur BNP Paribas Personal Finance announced the renewal of Commerce and Consumption. We’ve arrived!
The 9th edition of Commerce Reloaded 2020, the event dedicated to the impact of technological innovation on commerce, is marking the milestones of Ambient Commerce.
With the Covid-19 crisis, the heralded transformation is accelerating. This new form of Commerce borne by digital technology will play an even greater role in our lives. A new generation of stakeholders will establish themselves.
Having learned a great deal from a decisive year, on 17th September 2020 the experts at Echangeur shared the opportunities generated by recent generations, the health breakthrough, the offensive of ecosystems beyond GAFAM, new forms of mobility, retail dynamics, and more at a time when it’s about projecting yourself further.
This fully digital international event has brought together a number of professionals from the world of Commerce and stakeholders from the BNP Paribas Group.
The analyses shared at this event are featured in a 100-page report.
Watch below the key takeaways presented during the press conference below.
WHAT IS AMBIENT COMMERCE ?
SURF THE WAVE OF AMBIENT COMMERCE
Before the Covid-19 crisis had inevitably impacted the evolution of Commerce and Consumption, 2020 already represented a notable shift.
When Commerce becomes unquestionably ambient, frictionless and liberating, Consumption will reinvent itself by placing people and their empowerment at the core of the reactor.
This new wave suggests a rich and varied future harbouring countless possibilities, given the complexity of our environment and its many potential breaking points;
THE NEW PLAYERS OF AMBIENT COMMERCE
Beyond the giants of tech, GAFAM and BHATX*, which will be the obvious developers of it, are all the retail players, as well as the stakeholders in our everyday lives (cities, transport, health etc.) which will support this era of complete connectedness.
*GAFAM : Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft / *BHATX : Baîdu, Huawei, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi
A more demanding digital native generation, accustomed to the use of new, emerging technologies but pursuing them ethically.
Digital and inventive commerce in all channels and, a fortiori the point of sale, a place where the relationship is crystallised and the human remains central to the conversation.
Cities and transport increasingly connected with our new lifestyles, and led to reinvent our mobility and uses.
The new players of Care when health, its democratisation, as well as life expectancy and quality, are becoming major concerns.
Platforms connected directly to our daily lives, provided by the giants of tech and commerce, and encapsulated in the broad services ecosystems.
WELCOME AI GENERATION! – Our algorithmic lives
The Alpha generation, those born from 2010 onwards, who will have grown-up with the pandemic, will be made up of two billion individuals by 2025 (source: McCrindle institute). Their digital reference points will be 5G, voice assistants, Amazon Go and mixed reality. It is also a generation that will be born with an abundance of technological choice.
NEW RETAIL! – Human at the heart of digital commerce
The big winners of Covid-19 are local stores, short supply chains, the automation of points of sale, contactless technologies, drive-throughs, optimised queueing, serviced offerings and shopstreaming. From voice to streaming, these are the pre-requisites for implementing frictionless ambient commerce.
MOBILITY – The challenges of the smart city and new forms of mobility
More than half of the global population now live in cities, compared to 30% in 1950 and probably 68% in 2050 (according to the UN). This exponential urbanisation invites us to redefine how we manage flows right across the spectrum. While traditional or new players of all kinds are taking to the road of mobility, Tesla, or rather Teslism, embodies an automobile revolution at the heart of which software and the energy transition will play a more important role than bodywork and the engine.
CARE – Retailization of health
Big tech players as well as numerous start-ups have contributed to fighting Covid-19, clearly displaying their ambition in the domain of healthcare. In parallel with the advances of Amazon Care, Apple is offering its employees screenings and DNA analyses in “AC Wellness” clinics.
The aim? In the long term to provide personalised advice and treatments to the general public according to DNA and other data gathered by connected objects.
ECOSYSTEMIC – Industry of life
The life platforms advocated by the giants of technology (GAFAM, BATX) are exceeding our hopes and fears. They raise questions because they intrude on your personal lives, and impact the balance of all organisations. Their incursion into retail, the automotive industry, the smart home and health is becoming finer and finer. Other major retail players, like Walmart, Suning or Rakuten, are expanding their offer by investing in health of the smart home…
SCENARIOS – Who will be the big winner?
Regarding the digital transformation, Echangeur has delivered recently 4 scenarios for the future of consumption and retail during the next decade.
Life Control is the most influential scenario of this sixth technological wave while the 3 remaining scenarios are short term of long term regarding our changing world.
While GAFAM have reached record valuations during the crisis and large businesses and brands have overshadowed smaller businesses made more fragile by it, this poses the question of the survival of the fittest and its influence on our consumption. Civil society is in turmoil and is acting increasingly in favour of public interest and having a positive impact. Its actions are emancipating themselves from the established powers and growth at any cost. The question remains as to whether or not it will be evolution of our society that will take precedence over the growth of oligopolies generated by ambient commerce… or the contrary
TOMORROW? The 7th wave
Space conquest will then re-open a range of possibilities. The old world will crack under the assault of a more radical approach. And human beings will attempt to conquer this world beyond the Earth’s atmosphere. The visionaries of the private world like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson have grasped this well.
At the dawn of this new decade, a new generation of individuals and exchanges are emerging. A new world is being prepared with its codes, organisations, technologies and dreams. With hyper-acceleration comes radical change. It will be like… breaking the sound barrier. Whether it’s about organising the movements of connected cars, monitoring climate change variables or guiding a delivery to a home, the New Space will be one of the essential keys of our future.
However, shouldn’t we attempt to do the impossible when our future is in the stars?
Cécile Gauffriau
Director of l’Echangeur
