COVID-19: 4 Steps to Recover Your Business Profits

As the situation around COVID-19 has unfolded, there has been ongoing, rapid and unprecedented changes to the current business environment.

This has led to businesses within numerous industries including travel, fitness, entertainment, beauty, hospitality and more to raise questions on how to best to continue forward and how to recover once the COVID-19 pandemic passes.

Recovering fast in an ever-evolving situation has its challenges, and requires a fast response and a high level of quality marketing, design and I.T support to adapt to the changes particularly to shifting customer behaviours and whilst supporting the needs of customers and your business.

For many businesses, this is an opportunity to get serious about implementing an e-commerce solution for your business. This business resource is designed to explain the business challenges and provide guidance in implementing an ecommerce solution in response to the current COVID-19 environment.

Contact Desketing to discuss improving your e-commerce website.

#1 Online Shopping Behaviour

Now more than ever, customers are looking online for solutions to their changing situation from working from home, finding ways to socialise and connect online, how to entertain themselves and also how to look after their health and wellbeing.

For businesses, this is a critical time to respond to the changing shopping behaviour from bulk-buying to online shopping and learn how to create an incredible online shopping experience for their customers.

The consequence of social distancing is that people will look to avoid in-store experiences and interactions not only now but also in the future as online shopping becomes part of their normal routine.

Businesses are able to take advantage of the changes to online behaviour by offering options that limit in-store/in person interactions such as contactless delivery, buy online and pickup in store option and subscription services.

Food delivery service Hello Fresh and Pizza chain Dominos have swiftly implemented contactless delivery in response to social distancing. Contactless delivery is an example of how businesses are offering value-added services to build consumer confidence in the delivery of their products.

Would you like to learn more about understanding online shopping behaviour? Get in contact with Desketing to learn about Google Analytics and how understanding online data could be used to drive more traffic to your website.

#2 Shift Your Focus Online

As businesses shift their focus to e-commerce, there are a few key factors to consider to be successful in this area. This includes focusing on developing a website that is mobile friendly, offers convenience, an easy user experience, payment and delivery, E-commerce support and demonstrates a clear value proposition.

Convenience & Easy User Experience

Websites that offer convenience and that are easy to navigate and require less clicks to make a payment will evidently also see a higher conversion rate of product sales.

When it comes to building a website, it’s also important to look at additional features such as customer reviews, cart abandonment, gift certificates, loyalty programs, multi-lingual platforms and customer database integration.

E-Commerce Payment & Support

The benefit of having an E-commerce platform is that customers can make purchases from your website at any time of the day at any place in the world, given that they have internet access.

For any business, limiting system downtime is particularly important and you need to have confidence in your E-commerce platform and your support team to help you get back online as quickly as possible when there are issues.

At Desketing, our team is experienced with both WordPress Woocommerce and Shopify Plus to help provide your business and customers with an easy online experience.

One of the benefits of having an E-commerce website developed and hosted by Desketing, is the high level of support through email, Zoom or on the phone.

#3 Tapping into new market opportunities

One of the biggest implications of COVID-19 is the shift in people’s buying choices. This is evident as retailers struggle to keep up with the demand for toilet paper, hand-sanitiser, face masks and pantry staples like pasta and flour.

The product categories that people are buying into are changing and savvy businesses with the capabilities to do so, are adapting to the changing market demands.

For example, distilleries like Lord Byron Distillery and Husk Distillery are filling in the gap and are now selling hand sanitizers alongside their bottles of gin and liqueurs.

Tapping into new market opportunities may be as simple and effective as selling your products online or digitising your services.

An increasing number of restaurants have looked at transforming their websites to implement the sale of takeaway services or DIY meals at home.

Hairdressers have the opportunity to tailor their services to offer 1 on 1 consultations and also offer the convenience of buying hair products or even a subscription for hair products online to the clients.

#4 Strike Now & Gain Market Share

During an economic downturn, you will have fewer competitors, particularly as many will be looking at holding off hiring new staff and significantly reducing their marketing.

As a business, this is an opportunity to tap into your current database or look at significantly increasing your customer database as a way to launch new products or services, share updates and keep your brand top of mind.

Shifting online shopping behaviour is making it easier for small businesses to get ahead of their competitors and also increase their brand awareness to their target audience.

One of the outcomes from the pandemic is that customers will be comfortable to buy online from your website due to both convenience and also as they adapt to the normalcy of buying online.

While more expensive items, such as houses and cars will require more customer contact through ZOOM meetings and one on one private consultations, customers will eventually become more adept and accepting of new technology to facilitate these transactions in an online environment.

Get ahead of your competitors, by taking advantage of improving your SEO, your website and your social media.