10 Best Small Business Trends in 2022
Reading Time: 6 minutesTo ensure your business stays relevant with its solutions, you keep up with the best small business trends shaped by technological advancements and consumer behavioral changes.
In 2020, the pandemic produced winners and losers in the business world, with large and small companies either profiting or bowing out due to cash flow problems.
It would help if you learned about small business trends to avoid being part of the businesses that couldn’t survive the pandemic or those still struggling to get back to flourishing pre-pandemic days.
We have compiled a list of business trends likely to yield rewards for owners in 2022.
10 Best Small Business Trends
- e-Commerce
- Digital solutions
- Content creation
- Social media
- Personal protective equipment
- Delivery services
- Pets care
- Home Improvement
- Outdoor living products
- Gaming
1. e-Commerce
The pandemic forced many businesses to adopt e-commerce.
Many brick-and-mortar stores are closing shops and moving online to serve customers.
Online sales saw a huge boost and escalated globally to levels never before seen.
The usage of mobile devices generally drives E-commerce growth. In 2021, smartphones accounted for almost 70 percent of all retail website visits worldwide.
Furthermore, 75% of users prefer mobile-friendly sites, while mobile shopping accounts for 63% of all e-commerce sales.
E-commerce is one of the biggest business trends for 2022, not only for small businesses but also for larger companies, even global corporations.
Investing in the right eCommerce platform can help them manage their stores more efficiently. A headless eCommerce platform can be one of the best options to provide customers with excellent and secure shopping experiences.
Some of the popular e-commerce businesses are;
Food shopping
Many grocery stores have ramped up or started to offer online shopping with home delivery or timed store collection options.
Clothing
Online clothes retailers, from top designers to budget clothing suppliers, have all profited from the upsurge in internet sales.
Leisure
The growth in sports and leisure equipment sales, from kayaks to caravans, has exploded.
The reasoning mainly concerns people looking for ways to have outdoor fun without needing to be around many other people.
Online platforms that offer items that support these consumer demands receive many orders.
Creating a company that provides solutions to the leisure demands of customers could be a win for you.
Crafts and Hobbies
More at-home time has driven many people to discover new craft hobbies such as painting, crocheting, or furniture restoration.
If you’re just a small company or even a one-person band, you can still benefit from the e-Commerce trend.
By piggybacking from big markets, you can get your products in front of a global audience. You can even get them to take care of all the warehousing logistics and delivery. The key here is finding the right products.
To manage your e-commerce business, Akaunting offers a range of Inventory and e-Commerce apps to keep you ahead of the game, including WooCommerce, Shopify, OpenCart, and more.
2. Digital Solutions
Digital solutions have been needed to bridge the gap in many areas. They are a big player in the small business trends for 2022.
Micro SaaS
Micro SaaS has become a popular small business model in recent years. One of the main benefits is that it allows entrepreneurs to build and operate profitable businesses with minimal resources and overhead costs.
This is possible thanks to the availability of affordable software development tools and cloud computing services, which have made creating and launching a micro SaaS product easier than ever. As a result, many small businesses are now exploring micro SaaS ideas to enter the software market.
Teleworking
This changed the typical working day, with workers working from their homes and fewer from offices.
There is a steep rise in videoconferencing, time management applications, and other software to facilitate teleworking.
Having remote employees can save your business a significant amount of money, and it is a trend that will continue to grow.
Online Education
Homeschooling has grown over the past few years as schools go online to keep the educational system running.
During the pandemic, not only did school children need to have ways to study, but adults with time on their hands or who had lost their jobs wanted to retrain, and e-Courses were the best solution.
Online education will only grow with innovative inventions like the metaverse, which allows users to create a virtual world for almost anything that can be accessed and felt offline.
Telemedicine
Global telemedicine market value is increasing substantially, with remote patient monitoring gaining traction among medical professionals.
Telemedicine is also a system many patients like due to its convenience for diagnosis and treatment.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and clinics used videoconferencing for appointments to discuss diagnosis and treatment options with patients for non-critical cases.
According to the Department of Health and Human Services, medical visits via telehealth grew from 840,000 in 2019 to 52.7 million in 2020.
Social activities
With many clubs and associations trying to find ways to give their members some form of service despite not meeting in person, many groups or organizations are going online.
Museums and art galleries offer online tours; even theatre shows sometimes stream directly into audiences’ homes.
Fitness
Although social distancing is gradually being relaxed in many countries, gyms and exercise classes have moved online and digitalized their solutions.
People have discovered new ways to keep fit by looking for solutions online. Yoga, HIIT, Pilates, Zumba, and many more, are online.
3. Content Creation
Creating quality content across all sectors is a fast-growing business trend.
Because people spend most of their time on social media, creating informative and rare hack content will likely get customers.
Social media content can take various forms, including images and videos. You can also create informative digital posters with a poster maker and share them on social media.
Businesses are likely to invest in providing quality content to keep their customers engaged.
Another trend in content creation is short-form video content which is massively promoted by video-sharing social media platforms like TikTok, Youtube, Instagram, etc.
4. Social media
Home confinement in 2020 led many people to use social media as means of staying in touch with friends and family. It also offered a great way to find support from groups of like-minded people.
Social media will continue to be a growth market regardless of the pandemic.
Although it’s unlikely you’ll be setting up your own profitable social media platform, you could use ‘Social’ to help grow your business in other ways.
It’s a perfect way to tap into great marketing opportunities to target the ideal audience.
5. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
The PPE market has been a significant business trend, growing exponentially over the past two years.
With wearing masks becoming mandatory in many areas, including schools, offices, shops, restaurants, banks, and so on, demand is at an all-time high.
It’s reasonable to expect this trend to drop off when the world relaxes self-distancing measures over time.
However, PPEs, such as sanitizers, sunscreens, hearing protective devices, etc., will likely remain for a while.
6. Delivery Services
Online purchasing has increased the need for home delivery services.
As our desire to maintain the convenience of home shopping outlives Covid-19, it seems fair to assume that delivery service requirements will also stay high.
It isn’t just the big boys who’ve found profit from increased delivery demand.
Local retailers may want to expand in this area and would be happier to work with smaller enterprises.
7. Pets Care
Loneliness was a critical psychosocial area affecting many people during the lockdown. This, and increased time at home, provoked a boom in the pet industry.
Everyone wants a fur baby to love, and prices for pet needs have soared.
Along with this, the pet care market, including greater demand for all the equipment, food, and toys, also sparked additional sales.
If going into dog breeding isn’t your thing, alternatives such as selling raw dog food, pet clothing, toys, and other pet-related items might be.
Holistic pet care and pet gadgets are growing markets that could be worth a punt.
8. Home Improvement
Home improvement has been in high demand for those lucky enough not to feel the economic pinch.
New kitchens and bathrooms have been of particular interest. It is reasonable to assume this could be due to an increased desire to keep things clean and sanitized.
If you’re a builder, plumber, or electrician, odds are you’re faring OK.
Items such as taps and toilet flushes that don’t require the user to touch them are increasingly popular, and advertising these could be a way of doing even better.
9. Outdoor Living Products
Just as the demand for leisure equipment has been driven up, so is the need for outdoor products such as garden furniture, sheds, and pools.
With more people choosing to stay at home, they want to make the most of their outdoor space, giving them the holiday feeling even though they never actually leave their property.
Finding a way into this market could yield a lot of gains for your business.
10. Gaming
New gaming apps, platforms, events, and gears have become increasingly popular as people have tried to find ways to keep themselves entertained while stuck at home.
It’s not only the leading players but smaller businesses that have found ways to profit from this industry.
Even without Covid-19, gaming is still on a steep upward curve.
Final thoughts on the Best Small Business Trends
We’ve outlined some of the best small business trends helping entrepreneurs survive and flourish in recent times.
These trends are set to continue in 2022 and beyond. If you’re exploring new business options, you could try following one or more of these small business trends.
Akaunting is always looking for ways to make your life easier. Using its free accounting software, you can also access a variety of apps, helping you keep control of all your business requirements as you grow and prosper.
