As time goes on, one of the more interesting trends that continues to happen with surprising regularity is how frequently new business models and ways of doing business are emerging through social media and online tools. In many cases, these trends are helping to reinvent how businesses sell and consumers buy all kinds of products. For that reason alone, new sites are worth paying attention to no matter what industry your business happens to be in.  The benefit of that for your small business is that watching these new models may also spark a new idea or method of selling that you can consider for your own business:

1. Woot – This online retailer takes the unique approach of only selling a single product each day. Around each daily product is a dedicated conversation stream, live commentary and a detailed description. By focusing on a single product, not only do they add a layer of conversation and description to the product, but they also give their users the perception that each daily deal is special and only available for a limited time. This focus allows them to add urgency to their site and convert browsers to buyers quickly. While you may not be able to convert your entire business to just selling one product at a time, this model may be the next evolution of the long-standing “deal of the day” model that many businesses have used at one time or another in the past.

1. Groupon – How much would you lower your standard prices if I could guarantee you 100 customers? Or how about 1,000? The premise behind Groupon is to offer customers “collective buying power” – which essentially means that you can offer a great deal and it will only kick in if a set number of consumers take you up on it. Go on the site and you will see deals sorted by region and many of them have been redeemed by thousands of people. What Groupon shows you is that sometimes you CAN actually count on volume to compensate for lowering your prices. The nicest thing about the site is that instead of trying to recreate this model on your own site, you can add a special offer for your business to Groupon.

1. Hotwire – By now most people are familiar with the new auction based pricing model that Priceline introduced into the travel industry. Letting consumers set the price for what they are willing to pay was a revolution in the travel industry at the time when Priceline was introduced. Hotwire used the slightly adapted model of offering exact prices, but not letting you know the details of what you booked until after you pay. If you have your own eretail site, this model can be a good way to get rid of excess inventory in a different and more fun way.

1. Blippy – If you don’t live your life in social media, the idea behind Blippy will likely confuse you. It is a social site that lets people automatically share the latest things they have purchased (and how much they paid for them) by linking the site to a single credit card. This level of transparency and sharing may seem crazy to many people, but the site represents a social experiment that points to an interesting opportunity for businesses whose customers may be used to sharing every small detail of their lives. It may be an outlier in this list of business models as they admittedly don’t have a revenue model for the site as yet – but the shift in what people are willing to share online is the real trend worth watching.

1. Dubli- This site offers some of the most creative pricing models you can find online – and models that have not yet been duplicated across many others sites. The first is what they call a “reverse auction” where products have a starting price and you use credits that you purchase on the site to reveal the current price. Each time a member of the site uses a credit to reveal the price, the price goes lower until someone decides to make the purchase. The second model is based on a “unique price auction” which means you need to have the lowest bid that no one else chooses to have in order to win

As 2009 draws to a close we look at Trendwatching’s 10 great macro trends.

Forget the recession: the societal changes that will dominate 2010 were set in motion way before we temporarily stared into the abyss. More »

Urban culture is the culture. Extreme urbanization, in 2010, 2011, 2012 and far beyond will lead to more sophisticated and demanding consumers around the world. More »

Whatever it is you’re selling or launching in 2010, it will be reviewed ‘en masse’, live, 24/7. More »

Closely tied to what constitutes status (which is becoming more fragmented), luxury will be whatever consumers want it to be over the next 12 months. More »

Online lifestyles are fueling and encouraging ‘real world’ meet-ups like there’s no tomorrow, shattering all cliches and predictions about a desk-bound, virtual, isolated future. More »

To really reach some meaningful sustainability goals in 2010, corporations and governments will have to forcefully make it ‘easy’ for consumers to be more green, by restricting the alternatives. More »

Tracking and alerting are the new search, and 2010 will see countless new INFOLUST services that will help consumers expand their web of control. More »

Next year, generosity as a trend will adapt to the zeitgeist, leading to more pragmatic and collaborative donation services for consumers. More »

With hundreds of millions of consumers now nurturing some sort of online profile, 2010 will be a good year to introduce some services to help them make the most of it (financially), from intention-based models to digital afterlife services. More »

2010 will be even more opinionated, risqué, outspoken, if not ‘raw’ than 2009; you can thank the anything-goes online world for that. Will your brand be as daring? More »

Off the site of: www.waterconservation.co.za

Here is a list of breaking futures for 2010. These are issues and events that we think will make the headlines over the next twelve months.

1. Yoyonomics

We are in a recession resembling a corrugated ‘U’. The global economy will yoyo up and down in a narrow band with positive and negative flags confusing the picture of whether a genuine recovery is taking place. Until America sorts out its total debt which now stands at $57 trillion (more than four times its GDP), a sustainable recovery cannot take place. Equally, American consumers will need to halve their household debt to income ratio from 121% to around 60% and this will take time. China’s economy at a quarter the size of the American economy, and with consumer expenditure as a much lower component, cannot yet do a solo rescue job for the world as a whole.

2. Brics and Blocs

A popular expression introduced by Goldman Sachs some years ago is ‘The BRIC Economies’. The phrase represented Brazil, Russia, India and China, the argument being that these were the growth economies of the future. Of the four, Russia is not doing well at the moment, but anyway we believe blocs are going to overtake brics – in particular the Asian trading bloc made up of China, India, Japan, the Asian tigers, Australia and New Zealand. This bloc will rival the European Union and North America one day. We are moving towards a three-legged world economy in which Africa will have to find its place.

3. The Universal

With the demise of the dollar, calls are growing for a universal currency. Keynes thought of the idea first and gold to a certain extent performs the role. But with the Chinese taking a huge hit on their holding of US Treasury Bills, the notion is gaining ground among prominent economists. Meanwhile gold could breach $2 000.

4. Main Street versus Wall Street

Never has there been so much ill feeling towards the financial sector in America. Ordinary Americans feel that not only was the crisis precipitated by the banks, but they are now the first to become greedy again. This social division could even lead to unrest, not just in America but worldwide as unemployment continues to grow.

5. Goldilocks loses again

Afghanistan is beginning to look like Vietnam, a series of compromises between sending in a sufficient number of troops to do the job and getting out altogether. The not-too-hot, not-too-cold approach which is how Goldilocks liked her porridge could lead to a stalemate.

6. Boom!

Religious rivalry will continue to produce sensational terrorist incidents which will make the headlines around the world. Borders are porous, terrorist groups are better organised and better equipped and could soon have access to weapons of mass destruction. We have not had another 9/11 incident since 9/11, but there must be one in the works somewhere. Only superb intelligence will stop it.

7. The Copenhagen

Opening In December 2009, new rules will be established to curb carbon emissions and slow down global warming. These rules will start to change the way we live and use energy. Expect a row between developed and developing countries around the sharing of the cost burden and access to new technologies.

8. Oil and Water

Irrespective of Copenhagen, oil is becoming a scarce commodity with only 90 years of cheap reserves left and peak production expected in the next five years. With any kind of recovery, oil will go straight through $200 a barrel. Since oil revenues are more than all other commodities combined, this could have a major inflationary impact. Water is also moving into the same category. Australia is having to surround itself with desalination plants to cope with rising needs. Desalinated water costs six times more than water from natural sources. South Africa could run into a problem similar to Eskom with water if it doesn’t carefully plan its future sources now.

9. iSol-ution

The next big thing after iPhones will be iSols: intelligent solar cell power sources that will free residential homes from Eskom (which will become a standby generator). Eskom will still power industry. The Americans have proved solar technology with units supplying the power needs of the largest hospitals in Baghdad. Just like cell phones free people from telegraph wires, solar units will free them from power lines.

10. Yellow and Blue

Brazil will win the 2010 Soccer World Cup and Kaka will be the hero (just as he was in the second half of the final against America in the Confederations Cup). Chelsea will win the Premier League in England because Manchester United no longer have Ronaldo.

11. The Hangover

South Africa must start planning now what to do with all the stadiums after the 2010 World Cup to avoid a gigantic hangover. Life could be tough as the country comes down to earth again.

12. Colony Collapse Disorder

The bees are still disappearing in America and China. They play a critical role in our ecological chain. Funny how something so small could signal the end of the world as we know it.

- Clem Sunter

…is better than you think

CTV.ca News Staff

Anyone who decides to give up electricity for an entire year to draw attention to climate change has to be a little crazy, right? So how crazy would someone have to be to give up electricity and elevators and toilet paper, along with a million other comforts we take for granted?

Not that crazy at all, Colin Beavan would tell you. The author, blogger and self-described “guilty liberal” says he did the experiment not as a way to save money or “stick it to the man,” but to answer some fundamental questions.

“The reason for going all the way was that it was a way of asking the question: what do we really need?” Beavan told Canada AM earlier this week from New York.

“We imagine we should be going up to our necks in credit card debt and working two jobs to get all this stuff. But what makes us happy? And what can we have that makes us happy that won’t harm the planet.” Continue Reading