The Digital Illusion

Calvia is not the only town hall to embrace some form of digital plan for businesses, and while there is no harm in doing so, one does have to wonder a bit about the thinking. In Calvia's case, much of its retail is tourism-oriented. Many shops aren't open because of the lack of tourists, but if they were, what real difference would an online presence make?

While worthy, the various digital exercises that have been emanating from administrations can have the appearance of needing to be able to show that something is being done. The pandemic has unquestionably elevated the importance of digital, but it is one thing to shove a website up and hope for the best; quite another is to appreciate how digital should be a means for business change, product or service adjustment, repositioning and, hopefully, advantage.

I fully accept that small shops in Calvia or anywhere else in Majorca aren't exactly of a category that the consultants would say require a digital transformation, but these exercises are nevertheless symptomatic of a hoping-for-the-best selling of what exists in physical form, be this in a shop or wherever and indeed whatever.

Let's wish Calvia well. There's no reason not to, but let's also be aware that there can be a digital illusion of development that is less than what would be hoped for.