Do you know the main digital trends for 2021?

ilipa Caldeira, Nuno Moreira and Pedro Batalha, three experienced professionals in the Marketing area, at FullSix, leading communication agency in the market, presented the six main trends that we should be aware of in 2021 to succeed in the digital world, in a webinar of Nova SBE Executive Education.

These trends are based on market research and the evolution of demand in Portugal and the rest of the world. They are as follows:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Date
• Voice
• Social media
• Cashlesseconomy
• Reality extended to virtual

The future of digitalisation sounds almost like something out of a science fiction film, but these trends are already based on established products with the prospect of exponential growth.

"Digital is going to affect not only the purchase, but also the experience. That experience is the consumer journey and, if we focus before the purchase, in the discovery part, we see that the channels that consumers are using to go looking for new brands, new services and products, are digital channels," said Filipa Caldeira, adding that in the second phase, when they look for more information about the products, the same process happens."These trends are important because they convert into the customer's needs for hyper-personalisation and authenticity."

According to experts, these categories complement each other. Artificial Intelligence is increasingly part of our daily lives, and especially our journey as consumers. It is everywhere: from the apps on our mobile phones, to autonomous cars, to domestic robots. AI is increasingly contributing to greater customer comfort.

Data science has been gaining increasing momentum."It is expected that in 2025, the amount of data generated per day will reach 463 exabytes, worldwide," explained Pedro Batalha. And through the study of data science it is possible to customise services and products to the needs and characteristics of the consumer, who is increasingly demanding when it comes to authenticity and proximity.

Although it has not achieved great expression in Portugal, the market of devices that allow "hands-free", such as digital voice assistants, is gaining weight and may even be the future of e-commerce. In the same way, social networks have adapted to the sale of products, both in " onlineshops" on Instagram, and in the sale of Facebook lives and other platforms. The influencers ' market is increasingly representative, as is the emergence of new social networks, such as the Clubhouse or podcast platforms, customised according to users' tastes.

COVID has also accelerated the process of phasing out physical cash due to pressing hygiene needs and the expansion of the digital market. In Asia, a cashless payment system is already being tested using AI, where a machine can perform the transaction based on customers' facial recognition. This system is still being refined, as critics fear that identity forgery crimes will increase, as well as possible privacy issues. But while this is a technology that still seems to be far from being massively adapted, wearables, on the other hand, are already commercialised, showing a trend of increasing demand:"we are seeing a fusion between wearables, technology and cashless. They are already creating tokens to make contactless payments", said Nuno Moreira.

When it comes to extended reality, the universe of virtual and augmented reality, you'd be surprised how much technology is available to help the consumer in the buying process: are you familiar with virtual try-ons? Well, from now on, you don't even have to go to the shop to find out if a piece of clothing suits you.

Are you curious to know more about the future of the digital world? All these concepts will be deepened in the next edition of the programme Doing Digitalresulting from the partnership between Nova SBE Executive Education and FullSix, scheduled to start in May.