The coronavirus-COVID-19 outbreak has shaken the world and affected our lives and industries. Governments across the countries are working to keep their citizens safe while struggling with the economy.
Due to the coronavirus outbreak, social distancing became a new norm. As a result, brick and mortar shops are getting affected in terms of surviving. Many of them considered going online in order to remain in the competition.
Hence online sales have an increment of 50% as compared to the previous year. However, 36% of sellers predict that the sales will decline due to supply chain issues and shipping delays.
Apart from supply chain issues, many factors can affect e-stores. Hence, below are some tips to maintain the efficiency of your e-store during COVID-19.
Prepare the Action
With the action plan, you can outline the processes and systems that help you in preventing potential threats to the business. During such uncertain times, it would be good to plan the things before.
Your Action plan should consider areas like:
- Business functions
- Internal and external communications
- Overall plan
Business Functions
- Educate the employees about personal hygiene to prevent infection.
- Ensure the proper training and supplies of hand sanitizers and masks.
Internal Communication
- Prepare a proper communication plan for better communication in your team.
- Setup the proper channel for questioning and reporting for employees.
- Proper allocation of responsibilities during an outbreak is a must.
Overall Plan
- Overall Plan to protect your employees.
- Ensure the plan is in place.
- Keep track of your finances.
Ensure the other possible alternatives with your customers, suppliers, or other relevant parties involved. So that the business operates continuously.
Adopt a Multi-Channel Approach
According to Statista, around 1.92 billion people purchased goods and services online in 2019. In the very same year, retail sales surpass $3.5 trillion and the numbers are still stimulating.
So, grab this opportunity and introduce your brand to multiple channels to grow your customer base.
Below are some of the popular marketplace to boost your presence:
- Amazon: Amazon had over 2.44 billion visits(combined desktop and mobile), during September 2020. Which is more than February 2020, stating 2.01 billion visits.
- Social Media: Around 3.8 billion people are actively using social media, almost half the world!! You should take an opportunity to directly sell to your shoppers through social media platforms. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are in-demand social media platforms.
- Google Shopping: The first steps towards online shopping is searching on the search engines. Create the first stop for your precious shoppers by considering Google Shopping.
However, you have to work on the PPC model and place a bid on ads.
Keep the Communication Going
“Be a Leader, Not the Boss”
During tough times people look up to the leader. You must act like that towards your employees.
They look up to the upper management for support and guide them accordingly. Give them a facility to work from home, guide them about the changes in your business process.
“Coordination is the Key of business success”
Coordinate with your employees with an online conferencing app such as Zoom, Skype, and Slack for productive communication.
You should plan the meetings frequently to ensure the business process, cheering up your employees, general discussions, and ensure the productivity is continuous.
Identify Customer Habits
Identify your customer’s habit. You may ask why?
Though they are your customers, they are humans and human’s tendency is to act according to the situation.
The COVID – 19 and the sense of uncertainty has a drastic effect on customer habits. The customers purchase online due to fear of getting infected.
The change in the buying pattern like purchasing masks and essential items in bulk is one of them. Also termed as “Panic Buying”
But how can you identify?
Have a keen watch over industry updates, study market conditions, analyze the buying behavior of shoppers, get your hands on the right tools like marketing and analysis, and ask the question to your customers.
“Identify the needs and habits serve them with a personal touch”
Embrace the latest Trends
Above are some tips, which can lead you to identify the market condition and shoppers’ habits based on which you can adopt the latest trends.
Adopting the latest trends can let you win the market.
“Be a trendsetter, rather than a trend follower”
Below are the fascinating facts about e-store/e-commerce and customer behavior during COVID-19.
- In 2020, the time spent on social media is about to grow by 8.8% (as per assumption). Back in 2019, the time spent fell by 1.3%.
- The global retail sales are going to dip by 5.7% due to the pandemic.
- Online grocery continues to grow throughout the pandemic with $7.2 billion in June, a 9% increase over May.
- Gaming equipment sales were up by 338% in the last week of March.
- The food and beverages e-commerce is bound to grow by $22.4 billion in 2020. Back in 2019, it was $14.9 billion.
How can you adopt?
- If you are selling in-demand products, make sure to highlight them on your website homepage. If not, try to partner with companies who are selling them.
- Leverage the use of marketing tools or Machine learning to predict demands.
- Listen actively to the customer’s demand.
Manage your supply chain Issues
Probably the major hurdle for the e-store owners in this pandemic. This is due to the restriction imposed by the government on safety measures.
Here are some ways to take care of supply chain issues.
- Reach out to your supplier(Manufacturer): Be in touch with your supplier, for the regular production update, and availability of the stock.
- Alternative supplier: Though you have a good relation with your old supplier, it’s good to look for others. So that you can get the regular supply in case of disruption.
- Alternative logistics provider: After ensuring the supply chain, you should ensure the logistics so that your customer receives an on-time delivery.
- Track and build your inventory: Due to a shift in the buying pattern of shoppers and panic buying, people are stockpiling many essential items. Make sure to maintain and build the inventory to satisfy the supply.
Advertise your Brand
Promoting your business should be on your priority list during COVID-19 for boosting your presence online.
Below are some advertising strategies that you must focus on to advertise.
- Social Media Marketing
Above we have outlined the social media users, which is 3.8 million. Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and Twitter are some popular social media platforms.
Now you have the audience, you know the platforms, you just need to reach out to your audience.
How can you reach out? You have to regularly post valuable content on social media, target the right hashtags, and engage with your audience.
- Content Marketing
Content marketing can help you in boosting the rank of your site which includes blogs and articles. To do so you need to integrate the right number of keywords, fresh and valuable content.
Companies view content as an asset, according to 92% of marketers. Content marketing helps in increasing trustworthiness as you are not trying to sell anything.
This article is the best example of it, as we are not trying to sell anything but valuable content.
- Email Marketing
Email generates $38 for every $1 spent, which is an amazing 3800% ROI, this makes it one of the most effective options.
Just imagine how worthy a strategy it could be to reach out to your potential customers.
You can directly advertise your new products, some sort of offers, your website to your subscribers.
- Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing contributes around 15-30% sales to the company.
Find affiliates within your industry and request them to promote your product to reach out to a large audience.
- Paid Advertising
Want instant results?
Then paid advertising is your way to go.
Some of the popular and sales-driven strategies for paid advertising include PPC, social media ads, influencer marketing, ad retargeting, banner targeting.
Stay connected with your customers
Engage with your audience and let them know you are with them during the COVID-19 crises.
You can connect to them by creating a blog post or informative video mentioning the safety measures. And what steps you are taking to prevent the COVID-19 outbreak.
Also, consider sending them an email listing the measures taken by your brand to prevent the virus outbreak.
As this is a complicated period, your support and care mean a lot to your audience.
Enhance the experience of your customer
The customer always looks for smooth service which includes fulfilling orders and faster delivery along with safety.
To enhance the experience of your customer you should look out for the loopholes in your business and improvise the process.
Review of your customers: The best way to analyze is to read the review of your customers. Look for the suggestion or negative feedback from your customers to improve that area.
Survey your customer: You can do a survey of your customers during the outbreak and ask about their experience(Who have purchased from you during the COVID-19 outbreak) by sending emails. You should also ask for feedback regarding your service.
End words
In such a challenging time, it becomes essential to put extra effort into maintaining the efficiency of your store. Always try to create an action plan for the future. Try to understand your customer and reach out to them. Focus on building your brand by adopting (COVID-19)various strategies. Grow your store by advertising your brand to the news channels.
Let us know your experience with the above-mentioned strategies or feel free to reach us in case of any query.
