Accenture report on Creating the Digital Customer

Accenture believes there are five approaches to attracting and, more importantly, keeping the digital customer:

1. Make it easier for consumers to enjoy digital technology by removing complexity (if companies work together, this is easily done)

2. Simplify the digital value chain by setting collective standards, thus ensuring compatibility of devices and equipment
3. Build alliances and work with partners to create joint market offerings that companies can cross-market and promote
4. Create bundled products and services to link products and services that work together and give customers that always hoped for “one-stop-shop” package
5. Find the right price (two-thirds of consumers surveyed said they were waiting for the price of digital products and services to come down, while the remaining third were unsure if digital was worth the cost).

The consultancy concludes that how quickly the digital market materializes depends on the speed at which consumers adopt digital products and services.

These digital opportunities create new possibilities for how consumers pursue a whole range of activities—communicating, reading, shopping, playing games, listening to music—enjoying life, which serve as the drivers for customers turning digital. Accenture’s report adds a note of caution in that “companies are going to have to change the way they do business to engage the early majority.”