Maybe your eyes glaze over the moment you hear about blockchain technology. But if you’re a small business owner you might want to smarten up. Blockchain technology is rapidly transforming hundreds of industries, including the small business sector. The more you understand about how blockchain technology will impact your market, the more you can adjust your brand-building efforts to take it’s impact into account. If you’re a small business owner wanting to prepare for the future, there are four facts about blockchain you ought to understand.

Blockchain-Based Marketplaces

Blockchain technology will disrupt the traditional marketplace retail sector. Blockchain technology allows merchants to share inventory from other blockchain-enabled merchants. This transformation is already happening with companies like BeVite (bevite.co). If you’re a small business owner hoping to compete in the blockchain-enabled retail landscape, it’s imperative you start understanding decentralised marketplaces.

1. Blockchain Lending

 Blockchain-enabled lending will disrupt today’s small business loan sector. Instead of depending on traditional banks and credit unions for funds for your small business, you’ll soon have the option of P2P (peer-to-peer) decentralised loans. Blockchain startups like Fintrux (fintrux.com) are already developing P2P lending tools to assist small companies just like yours with on-demand, unsecured loans.

2. Small Business Accounting

 Small business accounting will also be influenced by blockchain technology. Instead of processing all your business transactions via traditional accounting software, soon your data will be authenticated via blockchain technology. Even how you pay your taxes (summitto.com) will be impacted as more levels of government offer cryptocurrency payments and blockchain-based digital-identity authentication (onekosmos.com).

3. Small Business Reviews

If your small business is already influenced by online reviews on sites like Yelp, you need to understand that blockchain technology will change how online reviews are verified. Instead of random strangers on the Internet commenting on your business and influencing how others think about your company, business reviews in the future will be authenticated via blockchain technology. It will document how you serve your customers and their level of satisfaction with your performance, helping you build a solid reputation as an excellent company to do business with.

4. Inventory Acquisition

 How you acquire inventory for your small business will also be influenced by blockchain technology. If you’re currently purchasing merchandise from wholesalers around the globe, in the future your transactions will be tracked via this technology. From the moment you place an order with a wholesaler, each step of your transaction and shipment will be authenticated via decentralised data. Not only will you be able to verify the identity of offshore suppliers (and the conditions of their processing plants/warehouses), you’ll be able to track the logistics of your shipments via blockchain-enabled data processing.

Thanks to blockchain technology, this is the future that awaits small business owners like you. The sooner you get your head around the transformation coming to your business, the sooner you can develop a strategy to maximise the momentum blockchain can bring to your company. It isn’t something to be feared – it can have an incredibly positive impact on your small business if you prepare for the future of retail.