数字时代的消费者想要一切，小公司如何应对变化？

数字经济时代，消费者的需求在迅速变化。这对所有类型的公司而言都是一项挑战，而对小型公司来说，追赶潮流似乎成为了不可逾越的障碍。

在上周二于多伦多举办的《财富》全球论坛上，eBay的加拿大和拉美区总经理安德里亚·斯泰尔斯和宜信（CreditEase）的创始人唐宁对话《财富》杂志记者菲尔·瓦巴，探讨了各种规模的公司要如何努力适应不断变化的形势。

斯泰尔斯谈到电子商务业务时表示：“我们看到，全球各地有一些领先的公司改变了消费者对于运送时间、价格和选择的期待。其他公司也不得不迎头赶上。”

斯泰尔斯表示，随着亚马逊（Amazon）、沃尔玛（Walmart）和塔吉特（Target）等行业领跑者开创先例，小型企业在努力跟上脚步。她还说，利用已有的平台，建立合作关系，可以让这些小公司免于靠自己应对全部的变化。

唐宁建议论坛的参与者着眼于未来，而不要忙于效仿竞争者当前在做的事情。他表示：“一切只在于你能给消费者带来什么。（业务的）形态和形式，以及消费者的体验，都会随着时间发生改变。”

唐宁指出，他自己的公司试图“每五年”自我改造一次，在这个不断演变的数字世界，适应性才是生存和繁荣的关键。他表示：“我们必须立足于消费者未来的需求之上。”（财富中文网）

译者：严匡正

Customer demands are changing rapidly in the digital economy. That’s a challenge for all kinds of companies, but for small businesses, just keeping up can present a seemingly impossible hurdle.

Andrea Stairs, general manager of eBay Canada and Latin America, and Ning Tang, founder of CreditEase, talked to Fortune’s Phil Wahba about how companies of all sizes are attempting to adjust to the changing landscape at the Fortune Global Forum in Toronto on last Tuesday.

“We’re seeing that there are leaders around the world who are changing the expectation on shipping time and cost and selection,” Stairs said of the ecommerce business. “And then everyone else is having to catch up.”

As industry frontrunners like Amazon, Walmart, and Target, set precedent, Stairs said that small businesses struggle to keep pace. Using established platforms and forming partnerships helps those companies avoid having to address each of those changes themselves, she said.

Rather than get too caught up in what competitors are doing right now, Tang urged Forum attendees to keep looking to the future. “It’s all about what you can deliver to the consumer,” he said. ”The shape and form [of business] will have to change over time, along with the changing customer experience.”

Noting that his own company tries to reinvent itself “every five years,’ Tang said adaptability is the key to surviving—and thriving—in the constantly evolving digital world. “We have to be based on consumers’ future needs,” he says.