Top Business Trends for 2022 To Grow Your Business

In 2021, we saw a rise in startup investment with 33+ companies joining the unicorn club in India itself. Many entrepreneurs leveraged new business trends in 2021 to grow or start their business.

In this article, we will cover what are potential new business opportunities and trends in 2022. New-age business leaders can use these trends to build and grow businesses.

Business Overview 2022

As the impact of COVID in our life continues, 2022 will also bring a lot of changes in our lifestyle and needs. We foresee multiple new trends and opportunities to create new businesses or products. 

Some may see these years as challenging. But, an opportunist will see this as a golden period, where innovation and acceptance of new solutions are at a peak. So, this is the best period to start something new and speed up your business.

If you are an opportunist, then this article will help you with the top trends to start a business or expand an existing business. 

This will give you a space or theme to brainstorm on and to build new ideas.

Here are Top Business Trends for 2022

Blockchain Applications

We are surely witnessing the roller coaster ride of cryptocurrencies. That shall continue and cryptocurrency should keep pushing to become a key asset. 

However, Cryptocurrency was just the start and entry into the world of blockchain. The market size of blockchain in 2020 was 3 billion and it is estimated to reach 39 billion by 2025. We are going through a period where many blockchain applications will become mainstream. It will give rise to what tech folks are calling Web 3.0, the decentralised internet and applications. 

Blockchain enables decentralised processes and systems. It sets up secure network systems without any authority. It’s already playing a huge role in areas like smart contracts, identity management, NFTs and more.

Contracts have become self-executing and self-enforcing. There are applications that manage all areas of an agreement. Also, there is a huge boost in the creator economy and marketplace with royalty tracking, NFT, and more. 

A few examples of blockchain applications are BurstIQ that helps transfer sensitive medical records. Also, Propy, an online marketplace that makes title issuance instantaneous.

One of the biggest blockchain platforms Ether has 100+ apps built including Civic for identity verification and makerspace for NFTs. 

Blockchain technology and web 3.0 will be transforming many of the current processes and solutions. 

As an entrepreneur, you can contemplate a few key processes or products and brainstorm on how blockchain can evolve or disrupt it. 

Rise of AI in Consumer and Business Space

AI is becoming mainstream and there are many use cases currently being powered by AI. For both types of businesses i.e. B2B and B2C, there are multiple AI interactions.

We would see AI applications and technology further moving forward in the adoption curve. AI solutions will become more accessible, affordable, and easy to use for businesses. 

AI tools will drive process intelligence and automated process monitoring. Capgemini’s Simion predicts that AI solutions will detect IT problems and self-correct them, reducing malfunctions and issues. 

Customer service and sales tasks and interactions will also be streamlined. More people will interact with AI in companies to get their work done. 

The fast-growing space of conversation AI will witness further growth and it’s predicted that 95% of customer interaction by 2025 will become AI-enabled. 

AI will also play a huge role in cyber security. It will be automated and risk-free. It’s predicted that the use of AI and ML in cybersecurity will reach USD 38.2 billion by 2026. 

As a business owner, explore solutions or processes that can evolve or automate with AI. 

The Era of D2C Brands

Digital lifestyle has brought in a huge change in user preferences and product distribution. It has dropped the huge barrier to entering into traditional industries like FMCG. 

Thus, giving rise to a new generation of brands that sell directly to consumers. We have new-age coffee brands like Sleepy Owl, electronics brands like Boat and Noise, and skincare brands like Wow. 

Recently, with a new round of funding Licious became India’s first D2C unicorn. In 2022 we would see a lot more D2C brands joining the unicorn club. 

All these brands have the potential to take market share of old and established brands in the industry, 

As per the Inc42 report, the Indian D2C market is expected to triple from $33.1 billion in 2020 and touch $100 billion by 2025.

One of the biggest reasons for the rise of D2C brands is an increase in online shoppers. This created a high volume and affordable channel for new consumer business. 

Also, buying pattern has changed, where earlier purchases used to be for a complete family. Now, each individual in the family purchases their own brands and products. 

Yourstory and Flipkart have launched initiatives to enable and build D2C brands in India by supporting new brands and providing them with the right infrastructure and expertise. Your Story plans to empower 500-1000 D2C brands while Flipkart plans to partner with 100 D2C brands. 

“Through Yourstory’s ‘Brand Of India initiative, we will work closely with key leaders and ecosystem stakeholders to help discover, enable, and build D2C startups in India, while powering the rise of next 500-1000 D3C brands from India” said Shradha Sharma, Founder and CEO, Yourstory

In 2022, many more D2C brands will launch across various categories. We will also witness the new D2C brands giving competition to traditional brands and a few of them joining the unicorn club. 

No-Code Platform

“The future of coding is no coding at all” – Chris Wanstrath, CEO at GitHub

No-code platforms are the next trend in the software industry. Using this, common engineering practices can be implemented by non-engineers or with a smaller team. 

It’s enabling small and medium-sized businesses to use enterprise-grade solutions and empower their business and processes. 

The worldwide low-code development technologies market is projected to total $13.8 billion in 2021.

Because of the rapid acceleration in the growth of digital businesses, tech teams are expected to increase delivery speed. Thus, creating an opportuning for automated or pre-built solutions for repeated processes or applications. 

As per Redhat, no-code platforms have the potential to reduce the development time by 90%. Another reason there is huge potential in a no-code platform is that developers are the second-largest area for businesses to address potential skill gaps after data science. 

As per Gartner, the market size for a no-code platform could potentially reach 65 billion US dollars by 2027 in the US only. This is a hot market and business trend to explore in 2022.

Social Commerce

Social commerce is selling products directly on social media. It uses platforms like Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp as channels to sell. 

The entire consumer journey takes place on social media – discovery, engagement, and purchase. Social media platforms are becoming like digital shopping malls. 

Social commerce is an $89.4 billion market right now. It’s projected to grow to $604.5 billion in the next seven years.

Meta is building tools to promote social commerce and sales on Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. WhatsApp payments will further increase social commerce transactions. 

Meta has also invested in Jio. Jiomart is designing a seamless process for users to order from local stores using WhatsApp. 

There are other ventures also that are building this space. Meesho, India’s largest marketplace for resellers, helps these resellers to sell products on WhatsApp and Facebook. Snapchat comes equipped with AI technology that makes filters look realistic. Brands can create filters for their products and add a product link.

Social commerce will be a growing business trend in 2022. As an entrepreneur, you can plan social commerce as your primary channel or new channel. You can also explore problems within the social commerce space and build solutions to solve those problems. 

Sustainable Living

According to research in the US, 93% of participants are concerned about the environment. 77% of participants want to learn more about sustainable lifestyles.

The top concerns of users are plastic pollution, biodiversity loss, and climate change. 

People are exploring ways to practice green living. Green living means making lifestyle choices that minimise activities that have a negative impact on the environment and benefit the wellness of our planet. 

According to a report by The New Climate Economy, we could save $26 trillion by 2030 if we live sustainably.

It means reducing wastes, promoting energy-efficient housing, creating eco-labels and guiding your decisions using those eco-labels. 

So, a lot of new companies are starting in the space of sustainable living. We have energy-efficient or eco-friendly automobiles, bulbs, utensils, clothing, and more. 

China has an ambitious plan for supporting renewable energy. The goal is to produce one-fifth of the country’s electricity from non-fossil fuel sources. According to the International Energy Agency, 40% of the world’s growth in solar and wind energy in the next five years will come from China.

As an entrepreneur, discover solutions with high consumption of energy or wastage of natural resources. Design techniques to reduce it and build new solutions or services.

Financial Wellness  

Financial wellness refers to a person’s overall financial health and the absence of money-related stress.

One trend is that people are eager to gain financial knowledge and achieve financial wellness. This trend will further accelerate in 2022. 

There are new-age digital influencers on Tik Tok, Instagram, or YouTube who are spreading knowledge on financial planning and investment techniques. 

As per a report, these Wall Street influencers are making more money than bankers. 

Also, there are new solutions or apps that have revolutionised investments and enabled financial wellness.

In India, apps like Zerodha have made it so easy to invest in shares and funds. It’s just like buying something from Amazon. Cred is building business by rewarding users for paying credit card bills on time and maintaining healthy credit scores. 

An app like Nerd wallet is helping users manage money better and achieve their financial goals with the right financial planning. 

You can innovate more solutions or content ideas that make financial understanding and wellness simpler. 

The above trends are a few top spaces to explore in 2022. If you think there are any other business trends that will explode in 2022 into multiple opportunities and ideas then do comment below.

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