As an SME owner, you need to do everything you can to stay ahead of your competition. Every slight advantage you can gain over your competitors could prove crucial, resulting in extra sales that can help keep your business afloat.
One way that your business can get the edge over its competitors is through investing in growing industries and technologies. Staying ahead of the curve is vital for your success, and it’ll leave all of your competitors playing catch-up. Here are 3 industries and technologies to look at.
Contactless Card Payments
Starting simple. If your business has a physical premises where customers come to purchase your products then you seriously need to consider contactless card payments. The cost associated with upgrading to contactless is relatively limited and it has a large benefit for your customers.
Not only can you process transactions more effectively, getting people through the till quicker, customers love the convenience, too. So it makes them more likely to stop in your store. This is especially true if you don’t currently have card terminals at all. If a customer has to go out of their way to get cash to shop with you, they’re much less likely to purchase. Don’t lose them to a competitor.
SEO
Contrastingly, if you’re an e-commerce business, then you need to attract people to your site. SEO (or search engine optimisation as it’s known) is perfect for this.
SEO companies often work freelance for you. Their job is to make your business rank more highly on Google when people search for things in your area. For example, if people are looking for flowers and Leeds and you’re a florist based in the area, they’ll ensure that you rank highly when people are Googling associated phrases.
The more highly you rank, the higher the level of traffic you receive and the more traffic you receive, the higher the chance is that you’ll make a sale. It’s that simple.
VoIP
The final way that you can invest in technology to improve your business is VoIP services (voice over internet protocol). These services mean that rather than using the phone in a traditional sense, all of your calls are made over the internet. This can reduce your phone bill by as much as 40% while also making it more flexible and reliable.
Essentially VoIP services can grow and contract alongside your business so you’re never paying for services you don’t use. Investing can actually cut your costs.
So, check out these great new technologies and ensure your business has an advantage over its competitors.