What’s the Key to On-Demand Success? It’s All About How You’re Using Technology

Instant gratification.

This is what the on-demand economy is all about. It’s what’s bringing great success to the many startups that are disrupting the tried-and-true value chains. Come up with a new way to fill a niche and you might have the next big thing, whether you’re providing instant laundry pickup and delivery, in-home beauty service within the hour, or a new method of providing shipping services.

To me, the on-demand economy is about effectively integrating the offline world with an online service. In my experience, the startups that best succeed understand the importance of performance marketing, making the most of media buys, user acquisition, and business intelligence. And it’s all highly driven by technology. These tools can also help start-ups appropriately conceptualize each segment of their business, from supply side to consumer-facing. Everything needs to be fleshed out, as each element can affect the overall brand. Any model a company puts together—whether targeting delivery, supply, or cost—needs to be fully understood and leveraged upon in order to enable your customers and suppliers to transact with ease. The use of up-to-date and appropriate technology with efficacy will ensure the success of your model:

• Are you tracking your app-usage data? It may offer insight into new revenue streams or geographic trends.
• Do you have a digital engagement strategy? If you want to understand your users, you’ll need to cover all the bases.

Then think of the services provided to the end-customer.

• How are you augmenting the setup of your real-time fulfillment of goods and services via the use of customer support?
• Are you segmenting such tasks as content creation, curation, and moderation to get more consistent results?

Balancing humans with technology is one thing, but properly maximizing that technology to get it right in the era of instant gratification is another. It’s a vital component to the building of a scalable business in an on-demand economy.

Ren Kainth
Director of Sales, Europe