This article is an extract from our recent white paper ”IT Business in Times of Global Crisis: How to Hold Positions and Grow Sales”. You can download the full version here.
Whether we like it or not, coronavirus is here to stay among us for a while. As we've all adapted to living in quarantine conditions, we've formed many new habits and reevaluated our priorities. This simply couldn't help but affect our spending and consumption.
Since demand is a main driver of economic growth, changes in consumer behavior will lead to massive transformations of the business landscape. Many new businesses will arise to meet new demands, while others will disappear, no longer suitable to our new reality.
In this article, we've collected a list of the industries that are more likely to be in high demand in the months to come. We hope this will help early-stage founders or business owners find a good niche to act in.
1. MedTech - Quite obvious, right? Medtech software solutions are in demand more now than ever before. If you want to learn about how much technology has aided medicine during the first wave of the outbreak, you can explore our article Software in the Time of Plague: How Innovations Help Mitigate COVID-19 and Other Disease Outbreaks for all of the details.
But that's only half of the issue. According to Fidelity, medicine is among the most stable and profitable economy sectors during a crisis. Taking into an account that our recent economic difficulties are connected with a pandemic, we can expect many investors to rely on healthcare businesses to be a relatively safe bet for their funds in the future.
2. Cleaning and Degreasing - Have you noticed how sanitizers, face masks, and (sometimes) toilet paper have become very popular among buyers? Due to the coronavirus threat, we've become more concerned about how clean, even sterile, our environment is. Thus, we've created a huge market that is now calling for players.
3. Psychiatry - There are a lot of jokes on the internet about how we'll be fighting the final boss of 2020 in December, and, indeed, it has been a hard year. Months in isolation with increasingly troubling news can weaken anyone’s mental health. Many will seek psychiatric attention. Those who can offer it will win the day.
4. Online & Contactless Payment - Using paper money increases the risk of contact with a pathogen. Thus, people will prefer to move their transactions online to make them contactless. Solution providers facilitating this task will gain another competitive edge.
5. Lending - Unprecedented unemployment levels along with economic crisis will leave many people and small businesses without money. Microcredit and lending startups can benefit from the situation.
6. InsurTech - When people feel that their health and wellbeing are threatened, they may consider creating a “safety bag” in case of a bad scenario. InsurTech, one of the fastest-growing FinTech subsectors, will get an extra boost.
7. Security - Shifting to remote work has revealed a lot of vulnerabilities in companies' security systems. Striving to fix these issues as soon as possible, businesses will turn their attention to the latest cybersecurity solutions.
If you want to learn how to protect your remote team from major threats, read our article here.
8. Online retail - Online retail thrived during the quarantine, as it was the only way to shop for non-food goods. It has become a reliable consumer habit, so even now, when most shops are reopened, many people still prefer to shop on the internet.
9. Money management and savings - Less income and uncertainty about the future will make people tighten their belts. Different solutions that provide coupons, discounts, cashback, and promos will become a must-have.
10. eLearning - Remote learning was on the rise even before the lockdown, but when millions of students were forced online during the quarantine, it was inevitable that many of them would realize that they prefer this mode. They will stay loyal to eLearning software solutions even after schools and universities reopen.
11. VR-travelling, education, gaming - Traveling is something we miss badly. Since the real world remains inaccessible, more and more people will start exploring virtual ones. VR technology has made huge steps over the last few years. Fueled by rising interest, recent updates to the Unreal Engine, and new Sony and Microsoft consoles, this sector will grow faster than light.
12. Streaming & Cloud-Based Entertainment - What else could we do when locked at home besides watch TV? Many households have bought a Netflix or Amazon Prime subscription (or both), and they won’t give it up easily—at least not before they watch the next season of The Witcher... and Stranger Things... and Peaky Blinders.
As the only way to access new games without buying expensive equipment, cloud-based gaming has also been on the rise in recent years, and it's expected that more services will move there in the coming years.
13. AdTech - Online entertainment goes hand-in-hand with online advertising. With a massive increase in online viewers, ad networks can offer advertisers an enormous reach. While advertisers were rather cautious in their spending during the quarantine, they are now growing their marketing budgets. With more businesses digitalizing their services, adtech solutions will face an increase in demand. Preference will be given to transparent and fraud-free providers.
14. Gig economy marketplaces - With millions of people left unemployed and businesses seeking to cut down on spending, freelancing and different service platforms will become more popular. Since the international freelance market has already been conquered by Upwork, Freelancer, and Fiverr, local marketplaces will thrive. In the coming years, it will be much easier to find someone to take your dog for a walk or water your flowers, as people will be looking for any job for any money.
15. Children and pregnancy - Sociologists say that we should expect a new baby boom in the upcoming months, so services offering useful features and advice will be in demand. It’s also worth noting that many people adopted pets during the quarantine (and pets are also our children to some extent ), so there will also be a rise in pet-focused services.
16. Vending machines, drones, robotics – Vending machines are already very popular in some countries, and with quarantine restrictions, more regions will adopt this practice. Drones and robots will also become more widespread, especially in circumstances and activities where minimizing human-to-human contact is important.
17. SaaS – Services that help entrepreneurs create online businesses quickly and easily will be in demand as well.
Acting in a growing market doesn’t lead to success by default. You’ll face fierce competition and will still need to create a quality solution and provide a client-oriented service.
While good service is totally up to your team, we can help you with custom software development, user interface design, and quality assurance services. Feel free to contact us for details.
This shortlist is an extract from our recent white paper called ”IT Business in Times of Global Crisis: How to Hold Positions and Grow Sales”. In the full version, we’ve prepared a review of COVID-19 effect on the global economy, as well as proven tips on how to sell effectively when no one wants to buy. You can download it for free at this link. We hope you find it useful and inspiring.
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