Five major trends set to shape start-ups in 2013

Australian consumers are predicted to spend around $12 billion on gifts this Christmas, hopefully allowing businesses to end what has, for many, been a tricky 2012 on a high note.

A recent Dun & Bradstreet report says that conditions will be patchy again next year for small firms, with rising profit levels and a stuttering jobs market.

But what of the wider trends that will impact Australian start-ups next year and beyond? How is the business world changing and how can new entrepreneurs take advantage?

We had a look at what the soothsayers are predicting to compile the five mega trends set to influence enterprises in 2013.

To view each trend, click on the tabs below:

1. Emerging markets are selling to each other

We all know that Asia, and China in particular, is the world’s emerging economic powerhouse. The IMF predicts that the purchasing power of emerging markets will exceed that of advanced markets for the first time next year – $US44.1 trillion ($A41.7tr) versus $US42.7 trillion.

But this doesn’t just mean that there are increasing numbers of newly wealthy consumers waiting to snap up products and services from countries such as Australia.

A growing trend next year will be businesses in emerging countries selling to each other – Turkey to Brazil, for example, or India to China.

In order to compete with these new rivals, Australian start-ups are going to need to invest, innovate and raise their game.

“We are very exposed to international markets in Australia and there is no way you can fight against that, you have to embrace it,” says Dr Stefan Hajkowicz of the CSIRO.

“We have to think about what niches we should target, where can we win and where can’t we win; that’s the question Australian companies have to target.”

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