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Business View Oceania - January/February 2017
5. More businesses for
sale
Baby Boomers started most of the
brick and mortar businesses that we
see. But there are a few components
that are shifting the business land-
scape. Technology is becoming easier
to use, items you once could only find at
specialty shops are now easily acces-
sible online and Baby Boomers are en-
tering retirement. These shifts, along
with the economic recovery in recent
years has made business sales more
prominent. As Baby Boomers seek to
retire in the next few years, you will
see many businesses being sold, tak-
en apart and reinvented by the Millen-
nials. In addition, many of these Baby
Boomers will try to get ahead of their
competitors by selling their business-
es next year, before the market be-
comes too competitive and business
buyouts decrease.
6. Products that track
nutrition
I work at an academic medical center
and get access to a lot of data in the
world of health and nutrition. I also at-
tended CES earlier this year and saw an
entire portion of the conference dedi-
cated to health and fitness wearables.
From the data I have access to and
through observation, Millennials, espe-
cially women, are concerned with their
health and nutrition more than any oth-
er past generation. With the addition of
technology like integrated health sys-
tems, Fitbits and virtual reality, tracking
nutrition and fitness levels is becoming
even easier as people expand the mar-
ket. In 2017, this trend will continue and
tfitness apps and software will grow the
health and fitness market.
7. E-commerce will
continue to rise
I started working with an entrepre-
neur who spent the last 10 years sell-
ing shears for hairstylists at conferenc-
es. He recently had a graphic designer
put together a website and started
to run social media ads. Within one
month of running Facebook ads, he
generated $140,000 in revenue, sold
out nearly his entire inventory and had
to hire four more staff members due to
the unexpected volume that his Face-
book campaign generated. Due to how
much easier it is for businesses to tar-
get and access their core audiences,
there is now an increased demand
for online e-commerce tools. Recent
studies have shown that 58 percent of
shoppers are willing to add additional
items to their virtual shopping carts to
meet free-shipping quotas. As technol-
ogy continues to expand in 2017, we
should see an increase in e-commerce
trends.
8. Businesses will focus
on connecting customers
rather than on selling to
them
People are tired of being sold, and
Millennials can tell they are being sold
from a mile away. This is an instant