2020 in Review, 10 Predictions for 2021
First up, let me wish you a Very Happy New Year and a Splendid 2021! I am hopeful that despite an ‘unprecedented’ tough year, we all have been able to open new agendas in our lives and are now itching for pushing them farther this year. I sure did, with the launch of Outside In!
In this 15th edition of Outside In, I am going to keep it short and sweet. I know no one wants to read a long post on New Year’s Day. I will quickly review 2020 for Outside In and will attempt to note down 10 predictions – related to industry developments and consumer behaviours – for 2021 (and beyond). These 10 predictions are going to be just a simple list, with little explanation. :) Plan is to make a post out of each of these predictions in the editions to come in 2021. I hope that sounds as exciting to you as it is to me! Here goes…
2020 in Review
Outside In has launched on 3 Channels:
The Substack Newsletter: https://outsideinlens.substack.com/
The Instagram Handle: https://www.instagram.com/outsideinlens/
The Blog: https://outsideinlens.blogspot.com/
The Newsletter has released 15 posts this Year (including this one) and serves as the primary channel of my Content Creation. You can check out the 1st one ‘Saving Neverland’ here at: https://outsideinlens.substack.com/p/saving-neverland and read in descending order. Or, you can check out the last one ‘Indian Luxury Fashion’s Burberry Moment’ here at: https://outsideinlens.substack.com/p/indian-luxury-fashions-burberry-moment and read in ascending order
The Instagram handle is a newbie initiative, but I am anticipating it to serve as a medium for spontaneous visual posts as compared to scheduled verbose posts on Substack (or Blogspot)
The Blog aims to cover long pieces of Content (with no planned timelines) – similar to Industry Papers and Reports – which should ideally be blogs for easier readability and consumption. Apart from importing my old blog content, the Outside In blog had 2 releases this year –
Cannes Lions Live 2020 – Impressions That Clicked for Me: https://outsideinlens.blogspot.com/2020/07/cannes-lions-live-2020-impressions-that.html
How to Influence Digital Transformation and Win as an Organization: https://outsideinlens.blogspot.com/2020/05/how-to-influence-digital-transformation.html
Beyond the aegis – but within the spirit – of Outside In, I even delivered a guest lecture on ‘Supply Chains in E-commerce’ for the Welingkar MBA Class which helped me organize my data around the said Topic, for future reference and use. Know that I will try and cover key insights and observations in one of my posts in 2021, so as to not miss out on the good stuff
10 Predictions for 2021
Digital Enablers will accelerate the development and adoption of many Home Delivery Models (and India could be a global pioneer in this. After all, we are a Home Delivery Nation)
Dark Stores will become mainstream (and will not necessarily be advertised like in case of DMart) and strengthen Online Commerce
Mom and Pop Stores will struggle (Lots of anecdotal stories emerging from micro-markets like Kandivli and Matunga suburbs in Mumbai) and will need to redefine their role in consumer’s lives
Digital micro-entrepreneurs will emerge in a big way (Again, a lot of anecdotal stories are emerging about people who adapted to the pandemic and kick-started their own ‘digitally-enabled’ product and service businesses, like food kitchens, vocational classes, etc.)
Branded Entertainment will rise (E.g. Masaba Masaba)
D2C (Direct 2 Consumer) Brands will become popular – Fragmented unorganized retail market will become fragmented online D2C Plays (gauging from the success of Chinese local brands)
Community Design will be the New Marketing
Live Streaming will ebb and flow, unlike the runaway success in China
Luxury will come home, in portable formats
Curators will be the new Creators (i.e. Product Managers, Merchandisers, Influencers, Etc.)
More details on these Predictions, in the next posts to follow… Happy New Year 2021! Having shared these predictions, kindly take them lightly – in the spirit of the Marketoonist. :)
See you all soon! Cheers…