One thing Covid-19 has made clear to all of us is that the use of digi­tal tech­no­lo­gies is no longer just an option for compa­nies — digi­tal tools and busi­ness models have become central buil­ding blocks of future-proof compa­nies. Busi­ness models and custo­mer buying habits are chan­ging rapidly, and compa­nies usually fail to keep pace with this change and initiate the right digi­tal change proces­ses for long-term viability.

Follo­wing the Covid-19 expe­ri­ence, increased tech­no­logy orien­ta­tion and digi­tal normalcy have become the “New Reality,” leading to a kind of “forced digi­tiza­tion” across indus­tries and markets world­wide. The trend is not new. It was merely rein­forced by the global pande­mic. A drastic change in consu­mer and shop­ping beha­vior has occur­red: Eighty percent of custo­mers, accor­ding to rese­arch by Face­book, recently prefer online shop­ping with home deli­very and perceive this option as faster, chea­per and more conve­ni­ent than “tradi­tio­nal shop­ping”. Forty percent of custo­mers are willing to switch to new brands if their “old favo­ri­tes” are not available online. Fifty percent of consu­mers (and this includes both B2B and B2C custo­mers) plan to main­tain their chan­ging habits toward digi­tal busi­ness models and accept them as an inte­gral part of the “new reality.”