The U.S. GDP dropped 5% due to the pandemic shutdown and global restrictions and it is projected that the total global economic loss could be up to $2.7 trillion. The world was woefully unprepared for such pandemic and the fundamentals of geopolitical relations, work environments, and industry growth may forever change. While some industries such as travel and tourism were essentially put on hold, some industries such as e-commerce thrived in the current conditions.
Healthcare systems in certain countries crumbled under the pressure of rising cases and struggled to provide proper care in a timely manner. We saw that most governments did not have a way of simply reducing human-to-human interactions in our daily lives and thus simply shut down the entire economy while scrambling to meet the most basic needs of their citizens.
As the world starts to recover and reflect on what it has just been and still is going through, entrepreneurs are starting to debate areas where we need more innovation power or velocity. Here are the three sectors where technological advancement is desperately needed.
Aged Care
The death toll has now surpassed 350,000. Of the fatal cases, 74% of them were 65 or older. While there has been some significant progress made in life science and health management, aged care hasn’t received particularly a lot of attention until now. As life expectancy grows, the focus starts shifting to how to improve the quality of life in the later years of life. The elderly population is more subjective to chronic pain and diminishing mental capacity. Many aged care facilities will have trained aged care nurses to help their residents not only manage the pain but lead more active lives to strengthen their bodily and mental functions.
Technologies to help prevent/manage pain, strengthen joints and muscles, balance medications, and stimulate their brains to improve their memories are in high demand. But, in light of the devastating effect of the pandemic on this vulnerable population, how aged care is delivered including the patient-carer interactions to reduce infections is a gap that is up for grabs for any innovator eager to create a sustainable solution. Beyond the value of human life, improper provision of aged care has gross economic consequences. Dementia, for instance, is tagged with the economic costs of $14.67 billion.
Contactless Payments
Contactless payments have been on the rise in many countries in Europe and Australia. They have experienced much slower growth in the U.S. Contactless payments became a tool leveraged by the governments, in countries where they are more widely adopted, during COVID-19 shutdowns. Reducing any hand-to-germ contact was a high priority and contactless payments provided such advantage in addition to the convenience factor. Many local and national governments enforced or strongly encouraged stores to implement contactless payments while staying in business to provide basic necessities to the people. This resulted in a sharp increase of 40% in contactless payments in 2020.
The world will want to further pandemic-proof our infrastructures after recovery. Implementing contactless payments across all traditional transactions may require the innovators, entrepreneurs, politicians, and companies to collaborate and deliver. Will this accelerate the transition to a cashless society? Time will tell.
Last Mile Delivery
When in-person transactions became so severely restricted, last mile delivery gained renewed attention as many merchants and vendored relied on supply chain operations and couriers to continue to sell their goods. Consumers relied even more on online shopping as many local stores ran out of supplies and the fear of going outside worsened. In 2019, around 14% of all retail purchases globally occurred online. This number is expected to skyrocket by the end of 2020.
The challenge is that there are still quirks and kinks that need to be figured out in last mile delivery. The dependence on warehouses, supply chain logistics, fleets, and couriers still creates bottlenecks in many places. 36% of Americans have experienced not receiving the package they had ordered. The ease of returns is also a problematic area especially when post office hours are restricted. There have been some experiments with robots to address many of these challenges but the renewed interest and bolstered power of last mile delivery will hopefully propel more breakthroughs in this sector.
