Micro-SaaS combines two very important trends and components of the present and future. SaaS (software as a service) enables businesses to deliver apps and services over the internet to customers on demand. The “micro” portion underscores the fact that it’s operated or owned by a small team or often just a single individual.
Apart from its size, the distinguishing features of micro-SaaS companies are a narrow focus, low cost, little or no external investment, and a modest (though dedicated) userbase.
This article highlights the emerging trends of micro-SaaS business ideas and trends. Hopefully, these insights will enable you to prepare and take advantage of the future of SaaS.
Remote work and e-learning
Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past 18 months, you’re probably well aware of the global health pandemic. While digital technology had already made it possible for a remote workforce and learning to be feasible, COVID-19 pushed it to the point of no return.
According to Forbes, pre-COVID-19, about 5% of the full-time employees worked remotely. Due to the pandemic, the figure rose to about 20-30%.
The rise of e-learning and remote work provides ample opportunities for enterprising entrepreneurs to provide micro-SaaS solutions.
Automation and AI integration
Just because micro-SaaS is modest and limited in focus, that doesn’t mean it wouldn’t benefit from analytics, automation, and personalization. This is important because 74% of customers feel frustrated when websites lack personalization, and most of the customization with digital products is driven by AI. In addition, most users also expect some form of business intelligence and analytical feedback.
AI has ushered in a world of new products and services that micro-SaaS entrepreneurs can take advantage of to innovate and offer unique services. Aside from personalization, these areas include chatbots and digital assistants, recommendation systems, voice recognition applications, and so on.
Fortunately, most cloud-computing platforms provide some artificial-intelligence-as-a-service (AIaaS) features that businesses can integrate into their applications. These ready-made tools help micro-saas companies easily get a leg up on AI implementation. Moreover, these off-the-shelf services usually come with lower entry costs for other companies to use.
API connections and integrations
API stands for application program interface, and it’s commonly used for integrating software into other digital products seamlessly. Most micro-SaaS business ideas typically involve narrow use cases. Therefore, more often than not, they need to interact and communicate with other services or servers to gain access to data. A prime example would be integrating payment systems like PayPal and customizing features around this feature for niche clients.
Since APIs allow you to link up with other products, it’s a powerful tool to turn your micro-SaaS business into an omnichannel solution.
API integrations will continue to shape the future of the SaaS market for the foreseeable future.
Low-code capabilities
Software development and automation tools are constantly in demand in our digital economy. Micro-SaaS companies can provide solutions that reduce—or even eliminate—the need to dabble in coding.
They can do this by providing solutions that enable users to create applications or workflows using a graphical user interface instead of hand-coded computer programming. Micro-SaaS companies can seize on this visual approach to carve out a profitable niche to help customers optimize processes and accelerate automation processes with a minimum cost investment.
Vertical SaaS products
Because it doesn’t cover a broad product category, micro-SaaS can drill down to find a niche in a specific industry to focus on.
So, instead of spreading themselves thin, micro-SaaS businesses can hone in on underserved areas in vertical industries. This allows them to drill down and target clients interconnected with a specific industry niche, allowing micro-SaaS companies to provide industry-specific options and refine highly sought-after features.
The unique selling proposition for vertical SaaS is that consumers are increasingly ditching one-size-fits-all solutions. As a result, micro-SaaS companies have ample opportunity to provide consumers with adequate, satisfying solutions.
Focusing on vertical SaaS will enable micro-SaaS companies to take up a valuable share of the markets they decide to align themselves with.
White label solutions
They say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. White label solutions take this concept a little bit further. This involves [re]branding a product or service and subsequently selling or marketing it under your brand name.
White label solutions involve software-based businesses selling a product, platform, or service to another company so they can customize it and sell it as their own brand. Hence, it takes the heavy work out of spending time, money, and resources developing a solution from scratch.
But be careful: It’s critical that you make sure you aren’t violating any copyright infringement laws in the process.
Micro-SaaS niche markets have a potential for quick growth
Micro-SaaS companies typically focus on just one service. The advantage of this narrow focus is that it makes them easier to manage and more cost-effective in terms of overhead expenses. Instead of complicated features, they attempt to do one thing very well and offer a subscription-based model that is cost-effective.
VeryCreatives is a digital product agency that is on a mission to help businesses and innovators bring their ideas to life.
Contact us today to discuss how we can assist in your launching a minimum viable product and further tech partnerships.
