The Internet of Things (IoT) market is projected to grow in value from USD483.28 billion in 2022 to a remarkable USD2,270.42 billion by 2028 according to recent analysis. This eye-catching value expansion is driven by a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 29.4% over the next seven years, as rapid growth in smart city technologies, smart vehicles, and connected device usage helps supercharge industry expansion.
Globally, the number of connected devices is expected to more than double over the coming decade, from 13.14 billion in 2022 to over 27 billion by 2029. This seismic shift is underpinned by accelerating rollout of 5G networks and 5G Internet capabilities, providing a high-speed framework to enable a wide range of IoT use cases.
Industry association GSMA predicts that 5G technologies will unlock more than USD960 billion in additional GDP value-add for the global economy by 2030, equivalent to 0.7% of global GDP forecast. Adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) solutions will further propel this growth, providing automated, scalable solutions that help optimize both IoT and 5G integration and technology growth.
This huge economic boost is further complemented by the adoption and expansion of adjacent, emerging digitally-driven economies, including traditional e-commerce and evolving mobile commerce (m-commerce) opportunities. Analysis by Morgan Stanley reveals that e-commerce now accounts for 22% of total retail sales, with the global e-commerce market expected to nearly double from USD3.3 trillion today to USD5.4 trillion by 2026, driven by marketplace expansion, improved logistics, and expanding mobile device ownership. The focused m-commerce market alone is expected to grow from USD267.84 billion in 2021 to USD1.9 trillion by 2030 according to research by Polaris Market Research.
Companies need to implement the right technologies to thrive in this evolving and expanding tech-driven marketplace, ensuring the right foundations to deliver the services and solutions that customers want and expect.
Standing out from the crowd in a crowded marketplace
Effective and scalable customer engagement solutions are increasingly vital in this high-growth landscape, as enterprises not only seek to capture a greater share of an expanding market, but attempt to stand out in a crowded and often noisy marketplace. One study by Gallup showed that increased customer engagement led to 66% higher sales growth, 25% increase in customer loyalty, and 10% increase in net profit.
Enterprises now have a wide range of channels with which they can reach out to customers, from social media platforms through to direct mail. In recent years, SMS marketing has been a particularly effective channel for this customer engagement, providing an ‘owned’ and engaging channel which communication service providers (CSPs) and enterprises across a wide range of industries can utilize. Opening rates are reported as being far above that of email marketing, with some companies reporting >90% opening rate, compared to an email standard of approximately 20%.
A recent study of SMS customer engagement revealed that 85% of smartphone users preferred mobile messages to emails or calls, meaning SMS engagement not only reaches more customers, it does so through a preferred medium. In fact, 90% of individuals open a text within just three minutes, far faster and more engaging than even the most ambitious email opening rates.
SMS marketing outreach can be used across a number of promotion use cases, from customer updates through to time-sensitive offers and promotional engagement. As a customer service channel, SMS offers rapid, responsive communication on product updates, billing, and automated feedback. With SMS accounting for ~70% of retail website visits, that provides a powerful channel to further direct sales and upgrading enquiries.
SMS also provides a lucrative promotional platform, and an important incentive for early onboarding and engagement. SMS marketing can encourage existing users to upgrade or purchase new products and services, while also providing a simple on-boarding ramp for new customers. This is a particularly effective opportunity given the relatively high open rates for SMS.
Integrating AI capabilities with SMS marketing offers an even more effective, adaptive, scalable solution, and one which could be particularly useful in the landscape of rapid 5G, IoT, and e-commerce growth. It can not only enable enterprises to deal with the sheer volume of communications and data events with smart, automated responses through AI chatbots, but provides a path to increasingly personalized marketing channel opportunities that are expected by today’s digitally-savvy consumer.
Signaling an effective solution from Neural Technologies
Neural Technologies offers a portfolio of solutions to help enterprises operate in this rapidly evolving connected ecosystem, helping enable seamless data integration that builds into a more effective data-driven business.
Our sophisticated Signaling Stack can be rapidly deployed, requires no specialized hardware, and boasts a low system footprint. This can be utilized to provide a powerful and effective SMS gateway solution which is perfectly positioned to leverage the compelling SMS marketing channel for improved customer engagement.
SMS Gateway enabled by our Signaling solution provides a central hub for SMS services, including aggregator services, smart services, and seamless integration with web APIs. It ensures operational reliability and cost optimization, with integrated spam filter and real-time status reporting. It provides independence for the service provider, with robust data security, maintaining ownership of SMS services that users can trust. That means a secure, safe, trusted solution, that helps build powerful customer engagement for this rapidly evolving technology landscape.
